GSA dedicates week to support awareness (4/05)

Apr. 28, 2005

The Gay Straight Alliance sponsored Rainbow Week, which was dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender acceptance, during the week of April 11.

This was the first time Lowell had a full week of events, social studies teacher and GSA sponsor Barbara Blinick said. Prior to this the school only participated in the Day Of Silence, a one-day observation. This was the first year that I felt the whole school knew it was occurring, Blinick said.

Monday started the week off with an awareness day, in which various GSA members took on the roles of famous gays. Students were able ask them questions and hear a brief autobiography of their involvement in the gay community.

On Monday the GSA made Day Of Silence pins and cards available for students planning to participate on Wednesday to explain their silence to peers and teachers. The cards stated: Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

On Tuesday, GSA featured senior Zoe Clark and St. Ignatius junior Sarah Gogin in a presentation discussing the topic of growing up with gay and lesbian parents.

On Wednesday, students participated in the Day Of Silence. Founded in 1996, Day Of Silence is a student-led day of action where those who support making anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender bias unacceptable in schools take a day-long vow of silence to recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment in effect, the silencing experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their allies, according to the official website (www.dayofsilence.org).

On the Day Of Silence, students sported pins and Gay? Fine by me T-shirts, Blinick said. She estimated that 50 to 100 students participated in the silence.

Guest speaker Sylvia Guerrero, the mother of Gwen Araujo, a transgender teen who was murdered on Oct. 3, 2002, spoke on Thursday at an assembly.

"It's too bad it takes a murder to get recognition for a group of people."
LUIS MASHEK
peer resource teacher

Guerrero told of the horrors that her child endured, but most of all she stressed that instead of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to do something positive. Guerrero said that her most important message was acceptance.

The four men accused of murdering Araujo are awaiting their second trial on May 9, Guerrero said.

I believe that God chose Gwen to be a martyr and teach the world about love, respect and humanity, Guerrero said.

At age 14, Gwen, formerly Eddie, told her mother that she was uncomfortable in her body and felt feminine, Guerrero said. She added that Araujo planned on having a sex change, which she fully supported.

I teach my kids to be real and to love themselves, Guerrero said. I dont label my children.

Guerrero added that when many transgender people come out to their parents, they are thrown out like garbage.

In contrast, I never closed my door, she said.

Peer Resource teacher Luis Mashek said he thought the assembly went well because it made students aware that the prejudice still exists.

Its too bad it takes a murder to get recognition for a group of people, he said. Blinick said that the speaker did a really good job communicating her story.

The two main goals of Rainbow Week were educating people on issues of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and to continue to work on making Lowell a safer and more productive environment for LGBT students, Blinick said.

Rainbow Week ended with a movie, But Im A Cheerleader. In the film, the main characters family suspects that she is gay and sends her to True Directions, a homosexuality rehabilitation camp. Blinick said that the Gay Straight Alliance previewed a number of different movies and chose this because it was fun.

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