“Diversity really means becoming complete as human beings — all of us. We learn from each other. If you’re missing on that stage, we learn less. We all need to be on that stage.”
- Juan Felipe Herrera (21st United States Poet Laureate, from 2015-2017)
“Hopefully, one day, we won’t have to have labels.”
- Izzy Hammell, high school student
Iowa Safe Schools – the largest LGBTQ+ youth-serving organization in the Midwest – has compiled some sobering statistics. Among them, according to its website, is the fact that “LGBTQ+ youth are 8.5 times more likely than their heterosexual peers to attempt suicide due to rejection at home and at school.”
Additionally, the website has noted that “42% of LGBTQ+ youth say the community in which they live is not accepting of LGBTQ+ people. 92% of LGBTQ+ youth say they hear negative messages about LGBTQ+ — the top sources are school, the internet, and their peers.”
Izzy Hammell, a freshman at Kee High School in Lansing, Iowa, decided this year to do something to address the problem. “People aren’t the kindest to LGBTQ+ students,” Hammell said. Hammell — an LGBTQ+ student who will be referred to with the pronoun “they” in this article, according to their preference — recently started the first-ever Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) at Kee High School. While GSAs are also sometimes referred to as Gender/Sexuality Alliances, “the root of every GSA group is to create a safe and inclusive space for every student” (iowasafeschools.org).
At Kee High, group members are referring to their new organization as The Inclusivity Club. “It pretty much is a GSA,” Hammell said. “But not a lot of people know what that is.”
Iowa has been among the first states to work on changing that. “In Fall 2016, Iowa Safe Schools launched (the) GSA Network program, with the mission of empowering students to create safe spaces in Iowa schools through youth activism and community support,” the Iowa Safe Schools website has noted. “It is designed to provide resources and support to LGBTQ and allied students in Iowa, as well as educators and GSA advisors. The Network connects GSAs across the state, and assists students interested in starting a GSA get their group off the ground.”
Hammell said they started thinking about forming a GSA over the summer. “I attended an LGBTQ+ camp in Minnesota in August,” they said. “I just felt so accepted and so included, and I thought it would be great to have a space for LGBTQ+ students in our school — where they could feel the same way I felt at camp.”
Getting it going
Once Hammell had the idea for the group, the first thing they had to do was talk to their high school principal about it – about the procedures and policy involved, and about setting up meeting times that wouldn’t conflict with other student activities. The principal, Dr. Sarah Updegraff was receptive to the idea.
“I believe that any group that assists our students in feeling more welcome and accepted is definitely a plus for EACS (Eastern Allmakee Community Schools),” Updegraff said. “Our other non-curricular clubs at this time are Kee Club and Environmental Club. There is a specific board policy around non-curricular clubs and seeing our students work through that process and understanding the work behind a club has been fun to watch.”
Next, per board policy for non-curricular clubs, they had to find a faculty advisor.
Enter Ian Zahren, the 7-12 vocal music teacher at Kee who also runs the Kee Innovation Lab — an elective class where students identify areas of need in their community and work collaboratively with each other and local businesses to enhance and better their community and school.
“Izzy approached me about starting an Inclusivity Club with a mission of educating students and faculty about LGBTQ+ issues,” he said. “As the faculty advisor, I am there to support the students by offering a space that is welcoming and inclusive. The students do the work. I am there to answer questions, when needed, and assist students in researching and exploring opportunities for growth, educational attainment and advocacy within their school and community.”
Zahren described his involvement with the club as being “simply put, a joy … I am just there to facilitate and help focus (Izzy’s) passionate, intrinsically motivated and inquisitive self. Izzy has grit. (They are) passionate and driven to be a change-maker in the world. It’s inspiring to see someone so young and inspirational. (Izzy) is truly working to enhance equity in the world.”
The Inclusivity Club held its first meeting in early November, and it meets on the first and last Wednesdays of the month. “That way I have time to plan things out,” Hammell said. The club has met four times – fitting meetings into students’ busy schedules that include activities like athletics, speech, choir — and homework. (For their part, Hammell also is involved in Cross-Country, Track, Spring Play, Vocal, and Speech.)
Hammell got the word out about the club by putting up posters and talking to kids they knew, who were LGBTQ+. “We have quite a few LGBTQ+ students in my school,” they said. “More than I thought we did.”
Hammell noted that, while “there’s such a stigma about supporting LGBTQ+ people,” the club does currently include members who are straight allies. New members are always welcome. “It’s ok to miss meetings, and you don’t have to go to meetings to be in the club. Members could volunteer at fundraisers,” they added, noting that while the club hasn’t held one yet, plans for some are in the works. “I’d like to have a hot chocolate stand. In town, or in the school cafeteria — like a lemonade stand, but with hot chocolate.”
Step-by-step
Among the projects they’re hoping to have the club initiate, Hammell said, is “to get more books in the (school) library with more diverse authors and more diverse points of view. I’m hoping that our group can buy these books.”
Hammell’s desire to bring more diversity into school libraries is meeting up with recently renewed efforts on the parts of conservatives in the U.S. to do exactly the opposite. In a report aired on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” on December 6, 2021 (“There’s new pressure to ban books at schools”), host Rachel Martin noted that, while “attempts to ban books in schools are as old as books themselves … there’s new momentum on book bans now that’s driven by conservative activists targeting local school boards.”
In the report, Nomin Ujiyediin of member station KCUR in Kansas City noted that “books about LGBTQ issues and race have spurred more conservative activism against school boards in recent months … The American Library Association says the number of attempts to ban school library books was 67% higher in September 2021 than in September 2020.”
In North Kansas City, two memoirs written by LGBTQ+ authors were pulled from school libraries after a local conservative group complained at a school board meeting. “The group says its goal is to empower parents to assert control over school boards,” Ujiyediin reported. “The district ended up putting those books back on shelves after students protested.”
Hammell also is interested in connecting and meeting with other GSAs in the region. “It would be cool to have something like a GSA Council meeting, with (members) from all over getting together and talking to each other,” they said. “It’s nice to be able to know that you can talk to someone. To have someone tell us, ‘It’s okay to feel this way. It’s normal to feel this way. There are other people who feel this way, and you can feel comfortable talking here.”
Impact of GSAs in schools
According to an article published in 2013-14 at VISTAS Online (The American Counseling Association’s digital collection of peer-reviewed articles authored by counselors, for counselors) titled “Gay–Straight Alliances Impact on School Climate and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender Student Well-Being,” by Elizabeth Deming, Katie Soule, Nicole Poulsen, and Tony Walker, the most important impact of GSAs in schools is “the immediate social support network available to LGBT students.”
“While adolescence may be a time of profound loneliness, Lee (2002) suggested that GSAs provide a safe space for students to develop positive relationships,” the article noted. “GSA members reported being able to connect with classmates dealing with similar issues, such as coming out, forming relationships, identifying supportive staff, and developing coping strategies. Being part of the group reportedly helped students feel less lonely and isolated as they were free to express themselves honestly. This openness translated to more genuine relationships outside of the GSA with heterosexual peers and teachers, as students reported they no longer felt they were withholding part of their identity from everyone around them (Lee, 2002).”
The article additionally noted that, “regardless of whether or not students are members of a GSA, they may benefit from the presence of a GSA in their school. In fact, some studies have found that the on-campus presence of a GSA is even more predictive of positive outcomes than membership in a GSA with regards to levels of bullying and student wellbeing (Toomey et al., 2011; Walls et al., 2010). This is likely due to positive differences in the overall school environment (Walls et al., 2010). Students who attended schools with a GSA reportedly felt safer, were less likely to hear homophobic remarks, experienced less bullying and harassment, reported that school personnel were more likely to intervene against bullying, and identified supportive adults who were made visible by the group (GLSEN, 2011; Goodenow et al., 2006; Lee, 2002; Szalacha, 2003). Possibly as a result, students with a GSA located on campus felt more connected to their school and had more interest in their coursework (Lee, 2002).”
In fact, a study published in 2014 by University of British Columbia researchers reported that “Canadian schools with explicit anti-homophobia interventions such as gay-straight alliances (GSAs) may reduce the odds of suicidal thoughts and attempts among both sexual minority and straight students” (reporter’s emphasis).
The study concluded that “LGBTQ youth and heterosexual students in schools with anti-homophobia policies and GSAs had lower odds of discrimination, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, primarily when both strategies were enacted, or when the polices and GSAs had been in place for three years or more.”
Moving forward
“We are hard-wired for connection, and to be seen,” Inclusivity Club Advisor Zahren said. “Having a group like The Inclusivity Club, I believe, gives students validation in who they are and affirms that public spaces are intended to be inclusive spaces. A group like this creates a safe space for students who may feel underrepresented to collectively share their ideas and thoughts about the world and their place in it.”
For all the research observing the positive effects of GSAs and anti-homophobia policies in schools, the reasons behind Hammell’s desire to form a GSA at Kee High, and the particular ideas they have about what that club may decide to do, are not based on research.
“These are things I’ve noticed,” Hammell said. “And I thought, ‘If I don’t start this, who will?’” They’re aware that some of the work involved is going to be a challenge. “I want to build bridges and not walls; but sometimes it’s really hard. A lot of it’s going to be an uphill battle,” they said.
Hammell’s parents (Nick and Melissa Hammel, of Lansing, Iowa) are a source of unwavering support, Hammell said. And with the additional support of their school and of colleagues across the country and around the world – other GSAs, LGBTQ+ resource centers, advisors and allies – they will never have to feel that they are fighting the battle alone.
[…] also invited the members of Kee High School’s newly formed Gay Straight Alliance (GSA), also known as the Inclusivity Club to join us. The root of every GSA group is to create a […]