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GAY, BI

BI, TRANSGENDER PRIDE GUIDE

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To be out and safe in high school

Teen groups help members deal with homophobia, in and out of school

MTHIL

GAY REI

Jana Douglas and Melissa Hill staff the Walnut Hills Gay Straight Alliance's booth at the Lifefest in Burnet Woods Park.

by John Zeh

Cincinnati-An intensive college-prep program at Walnut Hills High School attracts some of the smartest and most diverse students in the Queen City. They ranked the best in the city on Ohio's 12th grade proficiency test, with 79% of Walnut students passing all sections of the test.

But despite its high levels of academic achievement, examples of anti-gay hostility plagued the east side school.

"We get

harassed when I park what kids

"Kids, not adults, are making the difference."

Bixby added that nationwide, gay-straight alliances are catching on, especially in suburban and rural areas. GLSEN logs alliances like the one at Walnut Hills in over 25 states, with several others in Ohio.

Besides offering peer support, the groups also help the kids become politically active. Contemporary realities of life, both in school

"People at the

call our 'faggot-mobile' outside the school," Columbus parade

says Dave Epplenhill, a parent adviser to Walnut's Gay Straight Alliance, thought to be the first such student group in Ohio. "There's a lot of homophobia there."

Before the project began in November,

went wild when they learned we were a

1996, students agree that expressions of antihigh school group. It

gay bigotry were rampant. But the alliance's existence has helped curb hateful or misguided remarks.

"Now, in almost every class, some one will speak up and counter a bad comment," said Jana Douglas, a sophomore who helped staff the group's booth at the Cincinnati AIDS Consortium's Lifefest, held during Ohio AIDS Awaren

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and out, have resulted in challenges for the student groups to transcend serving as mere support groups.

Dan Wells and Victoria Girard of the Walnut Hills Gay Straight Alliance. Below, the Alliance marches in their school's homecoming parade.

arts school. “A climate where homophobia is the norm warranted it."

New arts school principal Jeff Brokamp was "iffy" about the need for the "CORE" gay-straight alliance at first. He initially required permission slips, although no other group must use them, Pogue said. He even consulted the school board's legal counsel.

"But when he attended a meeting, the kids reamed him, and he's been supportive ever since," Pogue said. "It's a non-issue now. He's glad CORE exists."

The word-of-mouth group of about ten core students and additional "droping gather weekly after school for meetings. Walnut Gay-Straight Alliance may have been the first, but the arts school * group is w ground by allowing younger

If the Indigo Girls, the lesbian duo barred breaking teens to

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a paradox," says Leslie Bush, a teacher for 28 years at suburban Finneytown High School. "We live in a very conservative religious community, but I think in many ways our students are very liberal.”

At Finneytown, Bush said, they refer to the group only as the "Alliance," because "parents would be upset" if gay or straight were included in the title. Some parents complained about Alliance posters urging students to come out" to meetings.

"People 30 and above take really negative stands Bush said. "Youth, being naturally rebellious, don't understand why people say and do what they do."

Finneytown students face anti-gay dis crimination not unlike that at Walnut, When junior Ryvka Barnard approached Bush about starting the Alliance the lays she was 8 moved to take action.

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found that gay teens are four times more likely that non-gay teens to attempt suicide. They are also at higher risk to be threatened or injured with a weapon at school, use harmful substances, and miss school due to fear for their safety, the study showed.

But the study also showed that teens are less likely to take risks when they feel support about their sexual orientation from peers and family which is exactly why gaystraight alliances serve such an important purpose.

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a great step for an inner-city school says Jeff Bixby, a teacher and coCincinnati chapter of Gay, Straight Educators Network.

together as a grow in the school ing parade. They also marched Columbus Pride Parade.

"People at the Columbus parade wen when they barhed we were a high group," one student said. "It was really The alliance raises its own fun such as trip to the upcoming Pride y have h spawn similar gro vo other schools; Sycamor Aip) High, Fairfield School in The first gay-stre the one at Walnut Cincinnati's School Performing Arts, which had the second highest ranking on the test that Walnut topped

Butler Cou nce inspired

"Students who attend the Cincinnati Youth Group and non-gay friends heard about the Walnut group and saw no reason why we shouldn't have one here," said adviser Elissa Pogue, a student assistance counselor at the

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later raised $1,200 m AIDS charity that serves families year-round.

The start-up of such pioneering groups in conservative southern Ohio is something of

"Maybe we can at least inform pe gay students have real strugg Oncinnati Enquirerreporter

for a three page segment on gay youth issues that was published February 12. High school students in southern Ohio ant to be a part of nationwide movements, gue said. "It's the issues that move them ism, feminism, classism." Finneytown's Bush added, "For our genthe late '60s, race and civil rights this group, it's genride mouth is part of

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