Gay-Straight Alliance Unites Students In Fight for Equality

The first meeting of the Gay-Straight Alliance club (GSA) had more than 30 students in attendance, and club organizers who were optimistic about the future of their group.

"The club is for all students who believe in human rights and want to make a difference, starting right here at RCC," said GSA President Laura Duran.

The GSA, an affiliate of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, plans to organize a series of campus events, projects, and a club trip to the Northeast LGBT conference in April.

The club aims to reach out to motivated students who support equality, tolerance, and respect and are eager to learn more about the issues affecting members of the gay, lesbian, and transgender community.

"I attended an all-boys Catholic high school, where being out was not an option and homosexuality was frowned upon," said freshman Damon Quattrocchi. "After years of feeling ‘suppressed,' I joined the GSA to be able to express pride in who I am and to help raise awareness about homosexuality."

Duran said she was inspired to take action after listening to a speech delivered by Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, at the National Equality March in Washington D.C. in October 2008.

Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally beaten and left to die in October 1998 near Laramie, Wyoming. It is believed he was targeted because he was gay.

Judy Shepard called on March participants to go back to their local communities and join the effort to help fight hate and discrimination and promote equality and tolerance from the ground up.

"I joined GSA to find kids my age who were willing to make a difference with homosexual stereotypes," sophomore Elliot Lerman said. "I want to take them head on with the group and try to destroy them."

One of the club's major events will be a reading by club members of The Laramie Project, a play by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project. The play is the result of many interviews with Laramie residents about their reaction to Shepard's murder.

Plans are also being made to run a campus-wide survey on students' attitudes towards the LGBT community and on issues such as hate, discrimination, and equality.

Also planned for the semester is club participation in the National Day of Silence on April 16.

During the event students take a temporary vow of silence to raise awareness to the name-calling, bullying, and harassment of LGBT students in schools.

The GSA meets twice a week to accommodate as many students as possible. Meetings are scheduled on Tuesday from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in room 2100, and on Wednesday from 2 p.m.to 3 p.m. in room 2211.

More information on the GSA can be found online at www.facebook.com/rccgsa or by contacting Laura Duran at lduran@sunyrockland.edu.