Wed., October 13th, 2010

Hello everyone :D

Last week's meeting:

* We discussed Ally Week and what it is [It's this week!! Oct.18-22]
* Those that wanted to signed the Ally-pledge forms :)
If you haven't already signed up but now wish to do so, tell Evan, Naomi, or me
* Last week, I sent out an article on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101012/ap_on_re_us/us_gays_in_military
To summarize, the government is going to have 60 days to appeal the law - otherwise, it's done for :D WOOT :)
* We discussed Prop 8 in CA and what a huge issue this is becoming. I mean, Prop 8 is unconstitutional and discriminatory!! >.< The GLBT / Alphabet community is making progress to obtain its rightful rights and have gay marriage legalized in the whole country :)
* We did the gender stereotypes activity and held a small discussion
* Evan read the trans-gender article out loud
* There was a somewhat heated discussion about the question "what would we do if someone said they don't like gays?"
* Evan asked everyone to check out the site http://www.thinkb4youspeak.com/ and REALLY think before you speak!!


- A

~~~

Upcoming Events:

* Mo., 10/18/10 thru Fr., 10/22/10 - Ally Week [http://www.allyweek.org/]

Location of Future Meetings... as of right now :)

Hi everyone!! :)

This is a little late, but hopefully you'll still get the message. Our meeting tomorrow will be in Ms. Goyette's room. That's room B322. It's in that connecting hallway between the two parts of the B-wing :)

Hope to see you all there!! :D

Oh, and one more thing... I was at work, planning to send out this email when I came across this article --
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101012/ap_on_re_us/us_gays_in_military

Let's hope for the best~!! ^__^

If you want to receive emails from the group that summarize what happens during the meetings, and other info you might want to know, message me on Facebook :D

Wed., October 6th, 2010

(1)

Hello!!

Technically, we have a WHS GSA email, but the site wouldn't met me get on... so I'm just emailing you guys from my own email. I'm gonna try to get that fixed, but I'll be emailing you guys from this address until further notice...

Sorry for the long email. This one's all about introductions and such, so try to get through it!! :)

During the meeting on Wednesday [10/6/10], we did the usual introductions, and I was happy to see many underclassmen :) Naomi, our co-president, explained what a GSA is and what events our club hosted during the school year.

Naomi read a small part of an article called "A Long Way to Go" and some statistics. You can read the full article by following the link below or downloading the attached copy :)
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/blog/news_features_releases/2010/09/long-way-to-go.html

After that, we held a small discussion that branched off into other topics like...

* "that's so gay" and other negative associations with the Alphabet* community
* gay/lesbian/bisexual famous people
* teachers that spoke up against homophobic comments in class
* when students should have GSA's available - Middle School vs. High School??

* NOTE: Alphabet = GLBTQIAAPO = gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gendered/sexual, questioning, intersex, asexual, ambisexual, pansexual, other... and etc :)

Speaking of "that's so gay," here's a cool site:
http://www.thinkb4youspeak.com/
Check out the "How To's" [on the right] and word counters [left] on the main page!! :D

Finally, we played the "Cross the Line" Game :) If you missed it, be sad. Be very, very sad. Mkay, not THAT sad... but I think it's a pretty important game that actually makes you stop and think. It also helps certain individuals see that they're not alone and can confide in the group. Our GSA is a SAFE ZONE, and this game is just one example of that.

And then the meeting ended, and we said our goodbyes...

~

Now onto some technicalities...

* Our GSA Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=10268632455

* Our GSA email is currently inaccessible, so I would email any of our officers if you need to get in touch or have any concerns. We can also be messaged through Facebook :)

Co-President #1: Naomi Z.
Co-President #2: Evan H.
Vice-President / Secretary: Anna D. [me!!]

* The next meeting will be on Wednesday, October 13th in Ms. Goyette's / Mrs. P's room. I'll get back to you with more info.

* If for some reason you're not getting these emails, I usually post these notes up onto a blog -- http://whsgsa.blogspot.com/

BTW, let's not forget to thank Naomi for the brownies ^__^

If you got this far, thanks :P If you didn't, I'm sorry xD
Please reply to let me know you got this email!!
Feel free to respond with any questions!!

- Anna D

~~~

Upcoming Events:

* Mo., 10/11/10 - National Coming Out Day!! [http://www.hrc.org/ncod/]
* Mo., 10/18/10 thru Fr., 10/22/10 - Ally Week [http://www.allyweek.org/]

Sun., April 4th, 2010

Sorry that these haven't been updated as much as they should have been >_< I'll get on these :/ I promise :)

Wed., March 31st, 2010

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- We finished decorating the tri-board. Thanks to everyone who helped.
- Some of us went around distributing and taking up posters
- The faculty letter was sent out [need to do this again a few days before the DoS]
- Neat idea from a teacher that Evan ran into: could we somehow separate the participants of the DoS during lunch  have a few tables set apart for them? Nice visual effect.
- There IS a TV ad in the lobby now :)
- Sign-ups begin tomorrow !!
- We need about 125 more speaking cards – and to laminate them. Molly – please look into cost of laminating? Thanks :)

Normal Day:
Lunch 1: Evan, Anna, Naomi, David T.
Lunch 2: Jake
Lunch 3: David Z.

5-Day:
Lunch 1: Jake, David Z., Anna
Lunch 2: Evan
Lunch 3: Naomi

That's the list of people who would be making sure that the sign-ups happen. Someone from 1st lunch should visit Ms. Vorkink and get the tri-board, handouts, and sign-up-sheets from her. Those who are in 3rd lunch, could you please prop it off at her classroom after lunch? :) Thanks.

When people are signing up...
- make sure they write down their name, grade, and homeroom teacher [WITH ROOM NUMBER!!!! -- even though we forgot to put that on the sign up sheet >.<]
- hand them a DoS handout
- explain to them that the speaking cards will be delivered to their homeroom prior to actual event [in homerooms, the week of the event]
- remind them that in order to participate, they have to do it for the entire day [not just during class!!] and if they mess up, just start over again. PLEASE tell them to take this seriously.

Wed., March 24th, 2010

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- We’re going to see if we can somehow get the news out about our Day of Silence event. Jake will try contacting the Metrowest and town newspaper. And the Lobby-O
- Here’s the schedule as of right now:
• Monday, March 29th – make / decorate the board for the DoS [David, could you buy the tri-board over the weekend?]
• Wednesday, March 31st – GSA meeting, we’ll be working on finish up the board and posting up flyers
• Thursday, April 1st – start sign-ups for the DoS
• Week of Monday, April 5th – Friday, April 9th – get people to sign up during all lunches
• Monday, April 12th – start handing out the cards at
• Wednesday, April 14th – organize most of the names by homeroom number and distribute laminated speaking cards to teachers by Friday morning.
- Ms. V wrote faculty letter and we prepared flyers to get signed
- We agreed to announce about this event in our classes and to have DoS in the announcements. We’ll also have the TV ad in the lobby.

Jobs:
- Jake – local press releases?
- David Z. – buy the tri-board over the weekend

Normal Day:
Lunch 1: Evan, Anna, Naomi, David T.
Lunch 2: Jake
Lunch 3: David Z.

5-Day:
Lunch 1: Jake, David Z., Anna
Lunch 2: Evan
Lunch 3: Naomi

There are 23 days till the DoS!!

Wed., March 10, 2010

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GSA Movie Night: [TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!]
- Friday, March 19th, 2010
- 2:00-4:00 in the Auditorium
- “Straightlaced: How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up”
- Refreshments and discussion after the film
- Thanks, Evan, for coming in later during the week and helping me finish the banner :)

FOOD!!!
Guys, PLEASE remember to bring what you promised?? :] Thanks.

- Pepsi (2 bottles) - Lauren
- Mountain Dew (bottle) – Natalie
- Apple Juice (bottle) – David Z.
- Lays (lightly salted, 2 bags) – Anna
- Cheetos / other chips (bag or 2) – Anna
- Cookies – Evan
- Brownies – Evan

And we have enough utensils for this event, thanks to Jake :) If anyone wants to contribute something else, though, please do? I would find Evan, Naomi, Jake, or me [Anna] before you do though. Thanks again ^__^

Upcoming Events:
- 3/19/10 [Fri.] – GSA Movie Night – “Straightlaced” – THIS WEEK!!
- 4/16/10 [Fri.] – Day of Silence
- 5/8/10 [Sat.] – Boston YouthPride [possible event?]
- June – Breaking Stereotypes Week [possible event? With MCC?]
- June-ish – GLSEN Conference [possible event?]
- A “Bake Sale” ^__^ [possible event?]

Wed. March 3rd, 2010

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- Evan read an article about the eleven gay historical figured who deserve the “Milk” treatment. In other words, they deserve a movie to be made about them and their life!! :) I’ll post the eleven names here, and attach a link at the bottom. Read about them if you’re interested or you missed the presentation during the meeting.
1. Montgomery Cliff
2. Diaghilev
3. Walt Whitman
4. Bayard Rustin *
5. Harry Hay
6. Gad Beck
7. Robert Mapplethorpe
8. Leslie Cheung
9. Federico Garcia Lorca
10. Sylvester
11. Larry Kramer
* There’s a documentary made about Bayard Rustin, but he still deserves a movie :)

- The Supreme Court is now allowing gay marriage in Washington DC [the 6th state / region!!]
- We discussed the term “Genderf***,” which is basically someone who “messes” with gender and doesn’t conform to the boundaries set by society.
- We mentioned why the phrase “it’s just a phase” is often believed to be the true image of the gay-community – because some people decide to act “gay till graduation,” or until the time when they go back home.
Random stat: approximately 10% of the world is GLBTQO
- Movie Night is now officially on Friday 3/19/10
- IDEA: bring in a GLBTQO survey and distribute it. This way, we could find out about the overall school feeling on GLBTQO things. Questions would be something like…
• Do you say “that’s so gay?”
• How would you react if someone close to you came out?
- Next meeting: everyone, please bring everyone you can and materials for making posters / banner for movie night.

LINKS:
1. The 11 Historical Figures Worthy of the “Milk” Teratment: [http://www.afterelton.com/movies/2008/2/themilktreatment?page=0%2C0]

Upcoming Events:
- 3/19/10 [Fri.] – GSA Movie Night – “Straightlaced” – NEXT WEEK!!
- 4/16/10 [Fri.] – Day of Silence
- 5/8/10 [Sat.] – Boston YouthPride [possible event?]
- June – Breaking Stereotypes Week [possible event? With MCC?]
- June-ish – GLSEN Conference [possible event?]
- A “Bake Sale” ^__^ [possible event?]

Wed., February 24th, 2010

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So I dunno if anyone took notes during the meeting, so if someone did, I'll just update this later :)

Not much of a meeting today, I heard? I wasn't there because I was taking a test [mandatory if I didn't want to end up with an F as my average, like the rest of the class] but I checked in afterwards... :) With the whole announcements thing, people got confused and weren't sure if they were supposed to show up or not...

So we [well, the members that showed up] were missing a lot of members and just discussed stuff the entire meeting :) That's a little unfortunate because I would have liked to be there, even if I didn't participate!! I think our GSA needs a few more meetings like that -- with JUST DISCUSSION ^___^

I wonder if anyone took notes today at all?? O_o Ahh well >.> I'll do an extra-good job next time :D

For those of you who stopped by, thanks for coming!! For those of you who didn't... well, I can hardly point fingers, can I? Plus, it was confusing how they announced that there were no after-school activities when there actually was a GSA meeting!! :P Anyways... come next time!! :)

Oh, and our LAST meeting was canceled because of the "SNOW DAY" -__- Grr. We knew the night before that it was going to be an early-release because of the couple of predicted feet of snow, or something... that never actually happened. So we missed school and a GSA meeting for no reason. That was upsetting... >.<

I hope you guys all enjoyed your vacations :D

~

Evan: 3/3/10
Movie-Night planning and posters: 3/10/10, 3/17/10
Jake: 3/24/10 [Are you still going to present, Jake? Or did you lead that discussion today, 2/24/10, about your topic?]

Upcoming Events:
- 3/19/10 [Fri.] – tentative date for the Movie Night – “Straightlaced”
- 4/16/10 [Fri.] – Day of Silence
- 5/8/10 [Sat.] – Boston YouthPride [possible event?]
- June – Breaking Stereotypes Week [possible event? With MCC?]
- June-ish – GLSEN Conference [possible event?]
- A “Bake Sale” ^__^ [possible event?]

Wed., February 3rd, 2010

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- Here’s an interesting question: Are gay-couples allowed at Prom? We should look into that ^__^
- Maybe Sue can get her daughter to come in sometime?? If so, that would be terrific!! ^__^
- Remember those articles form Change.Org that Jake told us about? Part 3 is out!! See Link #3 below.
- Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell update -- the Pentagon says only generals and officials with higher positions can discharge anyone who’s gay.
- Next week: Evan will talk about the 11 people from history who deserve the Harvey milk treatment [basically, they should have a movie made]
- Sue came in and talked about her and her daughter’s experience after coming out. If you want the whole story / interview, message me on Facebook [she'd rather not have her story all over the internet]. I’ll get back to you with that :)

Links:
Part 1: http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/the_view_from_inside_love_won_out
Part 2: http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/ex-gay_ministries_finding_the_root_of_your_homosexual_condition
Part 3: http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/testimony_from_real_live_ex-gays

Evan: 2/10/10
Jake: 2/24/10 [mention 2 people?]

Upcoming Events:
- 3/19/10 [Fri.] – tentative date for the Movie Night – “Straightlaced”
- 4/16/10 [Fri.] – Day of Silence
- 5/8/10 [Sat.] – Boston YouthPride [possible event?]
- June – Breaking Stereotypes Week [possible event? With MCC?]
- June-ish – GLSEN Conference [possible event?]
- A “Bake Sale” ^__^ [possible event?]

Wed., January 27th, 2010

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- Jake mentioned an interesting piece of news: a 70-year-old man from New York had gotten a sex-change :P
- We need to come up with some kind of fundraising event, just in case we ever need money. And fast.
- Last year, there was an idea for a “Breaking Stereotypes” week. We could maybe do that in June with MCC [Multi Cultural Council] ??
- Guys, please remember we’ll have Sue coming in next meeting [Wed., February 3rd]. Again, she’s the woman whose daughter came out to her 10 years ago and wants to get involved with the GLBTQO Community
- We thought up some questions to ask her. Those are attached.
- Ms. Vorkink said she would try to approve the Movie Night Event this Friday :)
- Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been law for a while. In Obama’s speech on Wednesday, he proposed to repeal this!! :D
- We did an activity: GLBT History Quiz :)
- Also, Jake brought up a few interesting articles on Change.org: The articles are the postings of an openly gay man who, in an interest to understand the opposition, attended an ex-gay event. It is split into 3 parts, 2 of which have already been released. [Thank you, Jake, for the links!! ^__^ <3]
•Part 1: http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/the_view_from_inside_love_won_out
•Part 2: http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/ex-gay_ministries_finding_the_root_of_your_homosexual_condition

Evan: 2/10/10
Jake: 2/24/10 [mention 2 people?]

Questions [I’ll print these out]:
• What was your initial reaction when your daughter came out to you?
• Did you ever suspect that your daughter might be lesbian? Was there moments when you saw it coming?
• How much has living in a liberal state sped up the acceptance process?
• If your son had come out as gay, instead of your daughter, how would your reaction been different?
• You might have incorrectly heard before that the child’s upbringing is often blamed for their being gay. Essentially, bad parenting is the source of the child’s gayness. Did you ever feel guilty that your daughter was lesbian? Have you ever blamed yourself?
• Does your daughter have a girlfriend or partner at the moment? Is it ever awkward at family gatherings? Does she fit in, and is she accepted by the other family members?
• Questions about the support group you started up: What kind of support do you provide? Have you tried reaching out to other parents? How?
• In perspective, has your daughter been happier ever since she came out, or was she happier before?
• After your daughter came out to you, how did your views on homosexuality change?

Upcoming Events:
* 2/3/10 [Wed.] – Sue comes in to talk [NEXT WEEK!!]
- 3/19/10 [Fri.] – tentative date for the Movie Night – “Straightlaced”
- 4/16/10 [Fri.] – Day of Silence
- 5/8/10 [Sat.] – Boston YouthPride [possible event?]
- June – Breaking Stereotypes Week [possible event? With MCC?]
- June-ish – GLSEN Conference [possible event?]
- A “Bake Sale” ^__^ [possible event?]

Wed., January 20th, 2010

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- Here’s something for the Glee fans: Kurt is getting a boyfriend!! ^__~
- Naomi met with some GLSEN [Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network] members and brought back a poster and some news: there’s a GLSEN annual conference sometime in the summer [June-ish?]. We should see if we could possibly find some way to go!! :) All GSA’s are invited and there will be all kinds of workshops and activities to do.
- Here’s some news you probably won’t like, however: Scott Brown won the election, and he’s now a senator O_o [the shocking thing? Massachusetts had not elected a Republican Senator in 38 years!! Wow.] That’s bad news for us because he opposes gay-marriage
- Note: We need to have more school-wide events to just make sure the school knows we’re here and are actually an active group.
- I know we’ve been planning this since last year, so we should actually go to YouthPride this year!! It’s going to be around May/June-ish and we need to get all the basic info on it before we can even think about going [ie. Contact info, date, time, exact location?]. Jake, if you have time, could you look this up?? Thanks :P
- Remember we were planning a movie night for the movie “Straightlaced??” The tentative date for now is on Friday, March 19th, 2010.
- Ms.Vorkink gave us the news that Sue [the guest speaker] will most likely be coming in 2 weeks from now: on Wednesday, February 3rd :) That’s awesome!! We need to plan out what we’re going to ask her though.
- Please don’t forget that the Day of Silence this year is on Friday, April 16th, 2010 [the week before vacation]. Instead of just using the cards as we did in the previous years, we might add a little color with rainbow ribbons?? ^__^ We’ll get around to planning / and preparing for that in the next few meetings.
- If we were to have a “bake sale” again, we could hand out flyers and other info, besides serving the food. Or we could join a few other clubs and have a bigger bake sale. Anyone interested? :)
- I asked the group for advice about a friend of mine. Thanks to all who made suggestions. They were great, and I really appreciate it!!!!!!!
- We also had a few other topics come up:
• The definition of “genderqueer.” Basically, the person doesn’t identify as male or female despite their biological gender. They prefer it when they’re referred to with pronouns such as “they” [singular], “their,” “ze” [used instead of he or she], or “hir” [in place of her or his]…
• Q: How come people are so concerned about being around GLBTQO people / so against them? A [here’s what the gist of it was about]: We as humans don’t react to change that well, so some people believe that life, and the idea of family, will change. In their opinion, the family structure will fall apart if gender boundaries begin to disappear.
• Jake made up an interesting term: “Extrapolated denial” [while discussing the question above]. As he explained it, it’s exactly what some people are doing: they’re in denial that this problem has anything to do with them. Those people say it’s not their problem and blame another [who in this case, happens to be GLBTQO]
• The [stupid] common belief that someone can “become gay.” Evan put that into words nicely, “Why would we want to subject ourselves to discrimination?” :)
- This was a good meeting, lots of stuff discussed.

EVAN / NAOMI – we should probably make Facebook Events soon for all the events in the near-future? :) I’d make them, but I think you guys should be the ones to at least approve them or something.

Upcoming Events:
- 2/3/10 [Wed.] – Sue comes in to talk
- 3/19/10 [Fri.] – tentative date for the Movie Night – “Straightlaced”
- 4/16/10 [Fri.] – Day of Silence
- June – Boston YouthPride [possible event?]
- June-ish – GLSEN Conference [possible event?]
- A “Bake Sale” ^__^ [possible event?]

--> This means we need to make posters, flyers, and packets of information. We need to get the word out ASAP just so everyone actually KNOWS there’s some kind of upcoming event and will know about it weeks before-hand.

Wed., January 13, 2010

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- We took pictures for the yearbook. This was our last chance for a picture, so if you didn’t show up at the meeting, sorry, but you won’t be in the picture :(
- News: New Jersey’s state senate has rejected the same-sex-marriage bill last Thursday. And, as the site says, it’s “unlikely the state will have a gay marriage law in the very near future” >_< [See link (1) below for more info]
- More news: Since Monday, the trial for the Prop 8 challenge has been taking place in California. There’s a pretty big chance this will go to the Supreme Court, so let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best results!! ^__^ [See link (2) for more info]
- Here’s an idea: we’d like to have another Movie Night soon, and we’ll be showing “Straightlaced” – we all thought it was a good idea :)
- Oooh, this part’s exciting!! We might be possibly having a guest speaker soon!! Her name is Sue [I won’t post up the last name for her privacy] and she has a grow-up daughter who’s a lesbian. She came out 12 years ago, and Sue would like to come in and talk to us about that. She’d love to get involved and help us out, which is amazing. We should probably come up with some questions for her. We should look forward to that sometime in the near future, if everything works out ^__^
- Then, we sort of discussed the movie “Straightlaced” but we got off track a little. But here’s the gist of what we talked about:
• How we could connect the movie back to our own lives and experiences (a little)
• The cheerleader’s story of how the others stayed away from her because she is lesbian– that was just sad. It doesn’t seem like much of this happens in WHS, though, don’t you think?
• Definition of “Metro-sexual” – a heterosexual male that has a strong concern for his appearance or a way of life that displays attributes stereotypically associated with homosexual men [see link (3) for more info]
- After that, we started talking about certain schools debating what to do about trans students. Let’s put it this way: if you’re trans-gendered, what changing room or bathroom would YOU go into? It’s hard, so unisex bathrooms might possibly be added in schools.

Additional information:
1. http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2010/01/new-jersey-state-senate-rejects-gay-marriage-measure/
2. http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2010/01/prop-8-trial-offers-lessons-in-history-as-day-2-of-testimony-unfolds/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrosexual

We WILL be having GSA next week on Wednesday.
Hope to see you there :D

Wed., January 6th, 2010

PLEASE NOTE:
~*this might be updated before Sunday*~

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- Happy New Year, everybody!! :) Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate them :]
- Evan’s back!! Woot :D
- We got a new member it seems? That’s great :) Keep on spreading the word, everyone ^__^
- Late on Wednesday night, December 23rd, 2009, the Pakistani Supreme Court ordered that their government officially acknowledges a third gender, which includes transgendered people, transvestites, and basically anyone who doesn’t define themselves as male or female. The Chief Justice also stated that any discrimination against these people of the 3rd gender would be considered a hate-crime and illegal. Actions would be taken and punishments dealt out to those discriminating against 3rd gender community in Pakistan. [More info: http://www.sdakinship.net/sdakinship/de/newsnotes2009/pakistanthirdgender.html]
- In Uganda, there was the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in place that said homosexual acts were punishable by death. There’s a proposed amendment to that bill, which removes the death penalty and shortens the period of imprisonment. The people will be imprisoned until they’re “fixed.” [More info: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10795 although the information isn’t recent] **
- We watched and finished the movie “Straightlaced”

Next meeting:
- Discussion about the movie
- Someone will be coming in to take a picture for the yearbook
- We need to put a few items up on our bulletin board
- Please, PLEASE show up on time

** Please correct me if I got anything wrong? Thanks.