LESBIAN, GAY,

BI, TRANSGENDER PRIDE GUIDE

SECTION B

To be out and safe in high school

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

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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 call our 'faggot-mobile' outside the school,” 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,

"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 Columbus parade 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 Awareness Week in early May.

Nearly 40 students, grades 9-12, have lunch together weekly at the prestigious school. Sophomore Dan Wells said that his nuclear family's Christian upbringing made him feel "condemned and ready to crawl in a hole and die." But through the Gay Straight Alliance's extended family; "Now I know others I can turn to. It's not as hard to live now."

Studies that have looked at issues surrounding today's youth, such as a 1995 one done in Vermont and Massachusetts, have 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.

"It's a great step for an inner-city school system," says Jeff Bixby, a teacher and cofounder of the Cincinnati chapter of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educators Network.

was really neat.

"

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

If the Indigo Girls, the lesbian duo barred from three high schools in early May, were shunned from Walnut Hills High, alliance members say school officials would have faced an immediate challenge.

Along with peer support comes safety, as was seen last year when the alliance marched together as a group in the school's homecoming parade. They also marched in last year's Columbus Pride Parade.

"People at the Columbus parade went wild when they learned we were a high school group," one student said. "It was really neat."

The alliance raises its own funds for projects, such as trip to the upcoming June 28 Pride parade in Columbus. They have helped spawn similar groups at two other area schools; Sycamore (Township) High, and Fairfield School in adjacent Butler County.

The first gay-straight alliance inspired by the one at Walnut was a spin-off at Cincinnati's School for the Creative and Performing Arts, which had the second highest ranking on the test that Walnut topped.

"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

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 "drop-ins” gather weekly after school for meetings.

Walnut's Gay-Straight Alliance may have been the first, but the arts school's group is breaking new ground by allowing younger teens to participate.

This year, students from grades 7 and 8 are allowed to attend CORE meetings at the arts school.

At Walnut, 7th and 8th graders need special permission to attend gay-straight alliance meetings, advisor Betsy Shank said.

That works out just fine for 14-year-old Alec, one of the younger students that occasionally attends alliance meetings.

"If I have a problem,” Alec said, "I could attend. There's still a lot of prejudice and homophobia at Walnut, but the school is more open now. And I have made friends through the alliance I can talk to individually."

Non-gay friends of gay Walnut students see their mutual struggle in society, but often "they feel impotent," Shank said. "With a group, they feel they can do something."

Last Christmas, the group adopted a large family affected by AIDS because it could have been their last holiday together. They later raised $1,200 in a raffle for a local AIDS charity that serves PWAs and their families year-round.

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

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 discrimination not unlike that at Walnut. When junior Ryvka Barnard approached Bush about starting the Alliance, she says she was moved to take action.

"Maybe we can at least inform people that gay students have real struggles," she told Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Mark Curnutte for a three-page segment on gay and lesbian youth issues that was published February 12.

High school students in southern Ohio want to be a part of nationwide movements, Pogue said. "It's the issues that move themracism, feminism, classism."

Finneytown's Bush added, “For our generation in the late '60s, race and civil rights were the issues. But for this group, it's gender-identity issues.”

"Participating in Pride month is part of the political picture for the kids," Pogue said. "There's a lot to learn because this is about the Steve Chabots [conservative Republican U.S. House District 1 representative], the people behind Issue 3, the Jesse Helmses. These guys want to change the way the world looks at people-at domestic partners, children, young people choosing sexuality, freedom of choice. I'm proud to be a part of CORE. This encapsulates so much of what we need to work on in this culture-and the kids know that.”