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Wednesday, April 16, 2003

By Alisha Hipwell

Brandon Arnold got tired of hearing fellow students put things down with expressions like "That's so gay" as they walked the halls of North Allegheny Senior High School.

He suspected that similar expressions targeting other minority groups wouldn't be taken so lightly.

"If you were to say 'That's so Jewish' or 'That's so black,' there probably would be more backlash," said the 16-year-old junior.

So he decided to do something about it.

Arnold recently organized the Gay-Straight Alliance, an after-school club aimed at promoting safe and tolerant school environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students. The group is a first at North Allegheny.

"There is still a lot of tolerance and knowledge that isn't there with the general community," said Arnold, of Franklin Park.

Some might be inclined to tell Arnold to get a thicker skin, but a 2001 National School Climate Survey by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a group that works to end anti-gay bias in schools, found that hostility toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students goes well beyond just offensive expressions.

According to the survey, four out of five of those students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school and 30 percent report missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety.

The first gay-straight alliances were formed by students in Massachusetts private schools in 1989. Eliza Byard, deputy executive director of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, said her organization now provides resources and support to 1,600 student-run clubs.

In addition to North Allegheny, other schools in the Pittsburgh area that have gay-straight alliances are Allderdice High School, Bethel Park High School, The Ellis School, Mt. Lebanon High School, North Hills High School, Pittsburgh School for Creative and Performing Arts, Schenley High School, Sewickley Academy and Shadyside Academy, according to Robb Hinds of the Pittsburgh chapter of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

Arnold happens to be gay, but as the name implies, gay-straight alliances include both gay and straight students. In fact, the alliances don't ask their members' sexual orientation because they consider it beside the point.

"If you care about making schools safe for all students, then gay-straight alliances are a way to do that," Byard said.

The Equal Access Act requires public secondary schools to grant equal access to student groups who wish to meet for religious, political or philosophical purposes if the schools allow other noncurriculum-related student groups to meet on school premises during noninstructional time.

Still, efforts to organize Gay-Straight Alliance groups have met with resistance in some school districts.

The American Civil Liberties Union recently filed lawsuits against schools in Kentucky and Texas to challenge efforts there to block students who sought to form gay-straight alliances in their high schools.

North Allegheny Senior High School Principal Lawrence Butterini said he had not heard any reaction to the gay-straight alliance formed by Arnold.

"The nice thing about a big population of students with different interests and backgrounds is that you usually have a very tolerant student body," he said.

Arnold said some students in his homeroom reacted with disdain to an announcement about the Gay-Straight Alliance, with at least one person calling it "deplorable."

"Their reaction was proof to me that a club like this is needed at North Allegheny," he said.

Seventeen of the school's 1,300 students showed up for the group's first meeting.

But Arnold said he was "thrilled" with the turnout, given how difficult he believes it can be to speak out about gay issues.

Junior Liz Perego said she came to the meeting because, "To live in a society where people just want to be themselves and they can't because of intolerance -- it's upsetting."

Perego said she has heard students called "fag" in class and that teachers sometimes do nothing about it.

The North Allegheny group's first major project was organizing participation in last week's Day of Silence, a youth-run event that started in 1996 to promote respect for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. Participants do not speak and hand out cards to the curious explaining why they are silent. Thousands of students, at schools nationwide and in the Pittsburgh area, participate in the event. Arnold said 38 students participated at North Allegheny.

His future goals for the Gay-Straight Alliance aren't lofty, but they're succinct.

He would like to organize a training session to educate teachers about how to promote tolerance in the classroom. And he wants to find someone to continue the group after he graduates next year.

"If we got a reduction in what I call gay slander ... I would consider that success," he said.

Alisha Hipwell is a freelance writer.