Gay-straight network for schools will be formed
BY SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
Friday, March 28, 2008
The alliances will
be created during
a youth summit
Saturday.
Local support organizations
are launching a regional gay-straight alliance network for
area high schools with a youth
leadership summit Saturday.
Oklahomans for Equality,
Youth Services of Tulsa and
the Mental Health Association
in Tulsa will present the day of
workshops for teenagers, parents, teachers and school administrators at the Youth Services building.
The idea for a network of
gay-straight alliances came
from evaluating a 2005 needs
assessment of the Tulsa lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community.
More than half of the respondents said youth services
was a top-five need.
Organizers are hoping that
about 50 people will attend the
summit. Registration is open
through Saturday morning.
The workshops are intended to help high school students maintain stability and
continuity in their gay-straight
alliances, said Mana Tahaie,
deputy director of Oklahomans for Equality.
"It's really, really important
to us that young people have a
safe place in their schools,"
she said.
The regional network will
hold meetings for leaders of
gay-straight alliances to share
ideas and insights.
Smaller alliances can receive advice about keeping
their programs active and successful, said Julie Trainum, a
coordinator for Youth Services.
"Then it's not such a struggle each year to start it over
again," she said.
The summit will include a
keynote speech by state Rep.
Al McAffrey, the first openly
gay member of the Oklahoma
Legislature, and a performance by singer/songwriter
Eric Himan.
At lunchtime, a drama
troupe will present a short
play about what it is like to be
gay in school. Scripts will be
available for students to re-
create the production at their
own campuses.
"It's very powerful and really shows what that experience
is," Trainum said.
The summit will include different tracks for adults and
students, as well as divisions
based on the level of resources needed for creating or
maintaining an alliance.
Tahaie said the adult workshops will be open to any of
the attendees, but the others
will be for students only.
"One of our biggest objectives is to make this really
youth-led and youth-driven,"
she said.
At the end of the day, the
students will elect an advisory
panel of four to 10 student
leaders who will oversee the
network during the next
school year.
The panel will assist efforts
to maintain alliances in the
face of leadership changes
each semester, said Nate
Black, youth outreach services coordinator for the Mental
Health Association.
It is important for the alliances to persist because lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students are at a
particular risk for isolation
and bullying, he said.
"These kids internalize it,"
Black said, "because they
don't have identifiable people
they can turn to for support."
Shannon Muchmore 581-8378
shannon.muchmore@tulsaworld.com
YOUTH SUMMIT
What: Diversity Youth
Leadership Network
Summit
When: 9 a.m. to 4:15
p.m. Saturday
Where: Youth Services
of Tulsa Youth Activity
Center, 311 S. Madison
Ave.
For more: 582-0061
or www.tulsaworld.com/dyln
