Gay-Straight Alliance leadership summit to focus on inclusiveness

Colorado’s second annual Gay-Straight Alliance Leadership Summit, hosted by One Colorado and the Colorado GSA Network, will work to empower LGBTQ and allied students, educate school faculty, and strengthen GSAs throughout the state, organizers say. It takes place Saturday, Oct. 6 at the Auraria Campus in Denver.

“The theme at this year’s gathering is around intersections,” said Jace Woodrum, deputy director of One Colorado. “Getting LGBTQ youth and their allies to begin thinking about the intersection of race and gender identity, ethnicity and sexual orientation, and how those interplay.”

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network reported in 2009 that more than half of transgender students had been physically assaulted, compared to a third of LGBT students overall.  As a result, almost one in six transgender students were forced to leave school due to harassment and bullying.

GLSEN also found in 2009 that LGBT youth of color face additional hurdles. More than half of African- American, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander and multicultural students were harassed for their race and ethnicity in addition to being bullied for their sexual orientation or sexual identity.

“We’re really looking forward to creating some additional consciousness in the young people,” said Woodrum. “Particularly around how they can take the skills we discuss at the summit and bring them back so that their GSAs are in fact more inclusive, so that LGBTQ people of color feel more included, so that transgender kids feel more included in GSAs.”

The Colorado GSA Network was established in August of 2011 as a program of One Colorado to provide students and teachers with the tools and resources necessary to create safe schools for LGBTQ youth and their allies throughout Colorado. After its creation, One Colorado saw a 60 percent jump in GSAs throughout the state, totaling 152 by the end of the 2012 school year.

“The incredible increase in the number of GSAs really has been exciting,” Woodrum said. “We’re seeing LGBTQ young people feeling safer to come out at younger and younger ages. People are feeling more included and safer to be who they are.”

But Woodrum reiterated that despite the progress being made, there are still many students in Colorado who are vulnerable to bullying and harassment. A 2009 National Climate Survey reported that 87 percent of LGBT students in Colorado were verbally harassed because of sexual orientation, and 73 percent were harassed because of gender identity or expression. In addition, nearly a third of Colorado LGBT students were physically assaulted in school.

The results of such statics are unsettling. Nationwide, 30 percent of LGBT students miss at least one day of school a month because they are too frightened to attend class. The grade point average of LGBT students who were harassed is almost half a grade lower than for students harassed less often.

“That’s one of the reasons GSAs are so integral to school culture,” Woodrum said. “Because they provide a safe space for LGBTQ young people to be themselves and to create a community with other LGBTQ youth and allies.”

The upcoming Leadership Summit will feature workshops that educate participants on how to prevent bullying in schools, how to report it when it happens, and what to do when a student witnesses someone being harassed.  In addition, LGBTQ and allied students will learn how to start and develop a GSA while making them more engaged with the rest of the school community.

The first Leadership Summit drew more than 250 people “from Montrose to Grand Junction to Carbondale up from Colorado Springs down from Fort Collins,” Woodrum said. “It was just a really incredible statewide presence, and we’re hoping to do that again in October.”

Woodrum added that more inclusiveness in GSAs will bring more students together to help establish a school-wide understanding of LGBTQ issues and concerns, facilitating change statewide. “I think that’s what’s most exciting, and what we hope to continue to do in the coming years.”

The Leadership Summit is a free event. One Colorado will provide travel and housing stipends for those who attend. Participants must register on the Colorado GSA Network website here