Day of Silence, Mark II or However Many of Things With This Title I've Blogged Before Plus One

The GSA meeting yesterday was a huge success. I managed to sign up people for table duty and create both a video and an announcement promoting the Day, and we still had time left to eat all the cookies people brought. I love being so engaged and productive, even though the GSA tends to be largely a social club, at least we can be corralled into doing things when it's necessary. 

It just hit me this morning that this is really happening. I'm really doing something. I'm really putting myself out there and people are going to see and I'm ready to face them. It feels good. I'm so excited. A week from today, something that I made happen is going to happen.

That said, if you're reading this, Monday and Tuesday of next week at lunch are the sign-ups, and on Friday everyone participating is going to meet in the MPR to get their palmcards and duct tape for the day. It remains to be seen how many people it's going to be- I'm hoping it's at least fifteen- but it's still happening, and I made it happen.

I made this happen. I'm allowed to be proud. 

Let's Have a Holi-gay Party!

The regional GSA meeting was super fun! There were a lot of groups there, fifteen or twenty, and a lot of them were newer, but they all had really cool representatives. There were a lot of great ideas thrown around, too- like having the titular holigay party or having a bake sale with rainbow cupcakes, etc. 

One thing that struck me is how lucky I am to be in such an accepting school. One of the groups who came to the meeting, from Lake Lure Classical Academy, have had a very vocal uproar against "the gay club" and all clubs have been suspended while the board "[seeks] legal counsel on club protocol'.(1) It is illegal, as far as I know, to specifically ban a GSA from meeting, so we'll see how that pans out for them. I just hope hatred doesn't come out on top.

One thing that the GSA is doing is assembling a list of MOGAI authors and books to put up on the English Honor Society's bulletin board, so that's awesome. A few that'll likely get up there are This Book Is Gay by James Dawson, an author who recently came out as transgender (2), and one of my personal favorites, Honor Girl, by Maggie Thrash, which is a memoir. We also have our own bulletin board, but what's going on that in the near future is as yet unclear to me. Still, it's something to think about, and I hope we get a wider sphere of acceptance from the school.

1) http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article45081705.html

2) http://www.autostraddle.com/award-winning-best-selling-ya-author-james-dawson-comes-out-as-a-trans-woman-313744/

New GSA Opportunities

This week has been pretty quiet again- things seem to cycle like that, with a prep week and then a big thing, and then another prep week for a big thing, etc. Next week's big thing is the regional GSA meeting at Time Out Youth, a safe space and help center for MOGAI youth. Last week's school GSA meeting had a lot of people, and I've approached some of them personally and made a post to the group page in order to invite them to go. Some people are busy, of course, but a few students and faculty and I are already sure we're going. 

The meeting's focus is a kind of 'show and tell' about what we're doing to further the GSA's mission in our community, so I'll talk about my project and the Day of Silence and the safe space kit and all of that. It'll be fun to see how many people are there, and maybe I can pick up some ideas for the project from what they're doing as well. Plus, of course, they're providing dinner, so that's always a plus.

If anyone who's reading this is interested in coming, just to see what it's like, join the Schoology group with the code on posters throughout the school, and here's the info for the regional meeting: 

    Where: Time Out Youth Center (2320 North Davidson Street, Charlotte, NC 28205)

    When: Wednesday, November 18 from 6:30 - 8:30pm

    Who: Gay-Straight Alliance club members and faculty advisors from Charlotte and the surrounding region

I hope I see a lot of people from LNC there!