Schools see growth in GLBT support groups

By Grace Pastoor and Grace Pastoor of St. Louis Park Senior High School

Homophobia hurts, which Helen Sarka knows first-hand. One day, Helen’s mother came to pick her up from school and her girlfriend gave her a goodbye kiss.

“These girls were, like, ‘Oh my god, ew! You’s lesbians! Ugh. You’re going to hell, dykes!’ and they didn’t stop yelling ‘till I got in the car,” Helen said.

The next year Helen went to St. Louis Park Senior High School, where there was not only a Gay-Straight Alliance, but a confidental support group just for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students.

“I would probably feel better about kissing a girl in school now because it seems like it’s kind of the opposite of Ramsey,” Helen said. “At SLP someone who makes a point of expressing homophobic views is the one being looked at funny.”

At St. Louis Park High, it isn’t uncommon to see same-sex couples holding hands or kissing in the halls or the cafeteria. Overall, gay and straight students mix without conflict and there are students wearing gay pride buttons on their bags or backpacks. “People were a lot more accepting (at) Park,” Helen said.

Jeremy Riehle, a social worker at St. Louis Park Senior High, started working in schools in 1985 when Gay-Straight and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender support groups “were in infancy,” he said. Riehle is the Gay-Straight Alliance advisor at St. Louis Park High.

When he was in high school, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues were almost never talked about. “I went to high school in the ’60s,” Riehle said. “We didn’t talk about it openly. That’s just the way the world was.”

Jeremy believes that if he had done the same as Helen and kissed a member of the same sex in school the reaction would have been “utter, complete shock and distain, probably rejection from friends and violence,” he said.

“Gay-Straight Alliances and groups have evolved with the culture at large,” Riehle said. “There is progress.”

“At the start the groups were very tentative in direction but an incredible affirmation for the students brave enough to be out in any form,” Riehle said.

The amount of support groups and other resources for gay and transgender youth in schools really has shown a lot of growth since Jeremy was in school.

Kevin Jennings, the founder of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, and a straight student who wanted to educate people about homophobia, formed the first Gay-Straight Alliance in 1988. In 2001, there were 1,000 Gay-Straight Alliances, in 2004 there were 2,000 and by 2008, about 4,000 Gay-Straight Alliances were registered with the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network.

“Culture is changing ever so slowly, but change is usually very slow. I do think society in general is becoming more enlightened and tolerant,” Riehle said. “I hope we have been a part of this change and have helped. We will keep advocating for the rights of all groups, most certainly the GLBT community.”