Anglin: GSAs save lives

If my opponents in this election have not attended a GSA meeting, I strongly recommend they attend one before commenting on Jason Kenney’s policy to empower teachers to out gay students. You have to meet these students, both gay and straight, to appreciate their contribution to our communities. Their contribution is immeasurable!

Where GSAs are formed, GSAs do one thing extremely well. GSA student clubs save lives!

The data collected from the establishment of students’ GSAs results in a cognizable reduction in school bullying, and teenage suicide rates. A by-product of GSAs is a reduction of bullying and suicides rates as a whole, and not just bullying and suicides affecting gay students. I cannot emphasize this point more emphatically — there is a direct correlation between GSAs and a reduction in teenage suicide rates.

Among the many attributes of a well functioning GSA, both gay and straight students discuss individual experiences dealing with stress and fear. While some people may marginalize these young adults, their issues are real! Of the many subjects discussed at GSAs meetings, gay students struggling to communicate with their parents find support and suggestions on how to open lines of communication with their parents.

Parents with a reasonable or unreasonable fear that their son or daughter may be gay don’t need teachers breaking their trust with a student. They need family counseling to help them communicate with a teenager.

What Jason Kenney is proposing is incredibly ignorant of the purpose, function and results produced by GSAs. Empowering a teacher to out a gay student, without the consent of the student, is more than dangerous. It can be deadly!

Joe Anglin

by rdnewsNOW staff

Anglin: GSAs save lives

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