“So what is GSA, anyway?”

Excellent question, comrade. GSA stands for Gay-Straight Alliance. GSA’s can be found in many high schools and colleges across the nation. According to The Gay-Straight Alliance Network, the national organization of these clubs, an alliance works toward three main goals. They are:

1. Creating safe environments in schools for students to support each other and learn about homophobia and other oppressions.
2. Educating the school community about homophobia, gender identity, and sexual orientation issues.
3. Fighting discrimination, harassment, and violence in schools.

Oppression of people identified by a minority sexual orientation is pervasive and prevalent, existing all across the world and in the hallways of North (if we had a penny every time we heard “faggot” used as an insult, we soooo wouldn’t be selling tshirts). It’s not harmless, either. Gay teens are two to three times more likely to commit suicide, and queer folk are the frequent objects of hate crimes and state-sanctioned chastisement. Now that we’ve established the existence of this discrimination, we need to end it. We think it’s really important to stress that it is the Gay-STRAIGHT Alliance—straight people have interests in a supportive, accepting society, too, and have great influence in creating an open and safe environment.