September 26th, 1:41 PM. As I sat on the turf, I watched the clubs march by. After a few, I saw what I was looking for: The Gay/Straight Alliance. I turned on my phone to start recording, and waited.
“The Gay/Straight Alliance!”
I held my breath. And then…
Cheers?
…
The past few years have been rough for the LGBTQ+ community to say the least. With increasing political tensions in the US, the fight for gay rights has been thrust into the broader culture war. This has brought an onslaught of extremist rhetoric particularly attacking the trans community, with the term “grooming” often being thrown around without meaning.
This has had real, measurable consequences on the LGBTQ+ community.
In terms of politics, the American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking 530 anti-LGBTQ bills as of September 2024, with 44 passed.
In terms of violence, the percentage of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation and/or gender identity jumped from 19.3% in 2022 to 22.2% in 2023, and the number of these types of hate crimes increased roughly 8.6% according to the FBI.
In terms of individuals, the nonbinary teenager Nex Benedict tragically committed suicide after suffering months of bullying and getting into a fight at Owasso High School in Oklahoma during February of this year.
In terms of this being a legitimate and terrifying situation, it is one.
Juxtaposing this hatred is the (mostly) pure joy of Homecoming week. Quirky dress-up days, cheesy poster board proposals, DJs that play music way too loud in the cafeteria, what’s not to love? Just make sure you’re not alone by the Saturday dance, otherwise you’ll end up pitying yourself every time a couple walks down the hall holding hands.
At Lockport, one of the major Homecoming events is the all-school assembly, where all four classes awkwardly shuffle onto the football field bleachers and watch helplessly as Lockport staff rig the games in favor of the losing class (I’m telling you, [insert second place] should’ve won!!)
Before the games begin, however, it’s always tradition for the fall sports and activities to walk in a parade on the running track. Alongside the larger activities such as football, marching band and drama club are the more niche but still notable clubs, such as the speech team, SEAC and, of course, the GSA.
For as long as I’ve been at this school, the GSA has always been booed when announced at the parade. It’s expected at this point. But I was pleasantly surprised when, instead of unanimous jeers, there was cheering. Now, to be fair, the crowd didn’t go nuts over them, especially in comparison to groups like boys poms. Hell, in this very article’s photo you can pick out numerous indifferent faces in the crowd. But compared to years prior this is completely different.
Now that Homecoming is well behind us, it’s a good time to reflect on the progress that’s been made so far. To get down to the root of past years’ booing and this year’s surprising shift, I sat down with 3-year GSA co-sponsor Ms. Hope for some insight.
First off, what is GSA? Well, it’s an acronym, of course: Gay-Straight Alliance. But Ms. Hope describes it as “a safe space for people within the community.” In other words, it’s a very casual hangout group. She says that it even serves a role for people who aren’t in the club, as it shows there is an active community here. To be clear, the GSA is not an advocacy group. It is purely, as described, a safe space. Ms. Hope made it clear that bringing up LGBTQ+ issues is not discouraged, but it’s just not a major part of the club’s current culture.
But the GSA, like many clubs, is most visible during the Homecoming parade. Asking Ms. Hope about the GSA’s reactions to the Homecoming crowd over time, I was surprised to learn that the “historic booing” was not as historic as I initially thought; “Three years ago, when I walked with the parade, we didn’t hear [booing], it was cheering.” But of course, it didn’t last; “Two years ago, we did hear booing and I was really taken aback – I wasn’t prepared for that and that wasn’t the aura that I had being here at Lockport.”
This could have easily been something the Lockport administration ignored, but instead they took a surprisingly active role almost immediately after this incident. The East Campus principal at the time, Dr. Greenan, soon met with the GSA at their next meeting and heard out the affected students. “He did extensive listening, he was very empathetic towards the students and talked about how not only were they trying to continue to lean on those pillars of character that we do at Lockport, but that they would be talking with more administration about ‘clearly there’s some other areas we need to touch on if there are people who think [booing] is something that is acceptable, which is not.’”
The following year, Dr. Greenan and Dr. Green met with the GSA co-sponsors before Homecoming to discuss preventative actions to stop another round of booing. While actions were indeed taken, such as auditorium meetings emphasizing the pillars of character, the outcome was the same: more booing.
“It was defeating, and it was sad, and frustrating, and angering.”
However, at the following GSA meeting, instead of showing rightful anger or frustration, members instead showed strength, maturity and empathy; “I’m not lying when I tell you that all of them were, ‘They just don’t know. They just don’t get it. This is probably things they’ve heard at home so they’ve grown up having these feelings and so they don’t know how to process it and they’re scared.’” The unwavering resilience of the LGBTQ+ community was on full display here, and the patience and understanding coming from the members is quite laudable.
Another meeting between the co-sponsors and the principals ensued shortly after the parade. It was clear that fundamental cultural changes needed to be made at Lockport if this was to be prevented.
This manifested in a multitude of ways:
Wednesdays were designated as “underground” pride days, with many teachers wearing rainbow and ally attire to show support. According to Ms. Hope, it showed LGBTQ+ students “these people are behind you no matter what.”
Day of Silence was transformed into Day of No Silence. As Ms. Hope put it, “silence can be deadly.”
Teachers were encouraged, but not forced, to put up pride memorabilia in their rooms and wear pride pins on their lanyards.
While on paper, these approaches seem out there and loud, they are actually quite subtle in practice, and that was by design. “Someone that’s scared or confused or even angry at that population isn’t gonna come around just by us yelling back.”
If you noticed a lot of teachers wearing white shirts with rainbow “LTHS” text, that was also another GSA creation. In addition to serving all the regular pride purposes of visibility and acceptance, they also could potentially swing a person’s opinion on the community; “If someone has feelings of disdain towards the community – feelings of uncomfortableness – sometimes them seeing a teacher they really like and they really respect in ally gear may just sort of subconsciously tweak that idea of, ‘Is it really as bad as I think it is?’”
However, I have left out one big factor that is likely the largest contributor to the GSA not being booed this year: the principals escorting the club during the parade. In contrast to the previous strategies of subtle acceptance over a long period of time, this one was much more immediate and arguably more effective in the short term.
But that type of temporary fix is just that: temporary. Ms. Hope made it clear that progress must continue to be made to stop hate. “There has to be people that are willing to keep putting one foot in front of the other and not feel defeated or stop moving forward when these little obstacles are in the way.” She was adamant when asked if she was optimistic for the future: “Absolutely.”
Ms. Hope also wanted to mention her gratitude for staff: “I want to say a huge thank you to staff that, over the last year between staff and admin, have reached out in ways to be advocates.”
In addition to reaching out to Ms. Hope, I also reached out to LTHS principals Dr. Johnson and Dr. Green. They provided a statement that went over most of what Ms. Hope and I talked about in terms of strategies, but also included an alternate plan for if booing occurred during the parade. “We planned to stop the assembly if booing occurred and to get on the microphone to address the situation. However, no action was needed. Yesterday, our students truly embodied the school spirit which was the support we wanted to see. Every Porter deserves to be seen and supported. We are proud of our students.”
“And yet, this is just the start. We will proactively work with students to ensure the culture and climate at LTHS is positive and joyful.”
…
These interviews and statements were genuinely enlightening as to how far LTHS has gone to combat homophobia. Beyond just simple diversity statements, Lockport has taken active steps to usher in a culture of acceptance and tolerance. Of course, these strategies will take time to fully set in and the question still remains as to how effective they will be in the long run. But even the fact that we are talking about this issue is a notable step in the right direction.
Homophobia is not going away anytime soon. However, that is not a reason to despair over the future. As the next generation, we need to build upon the foundations left behind by those who came before us and create actionable change, whether cultural, political, or individual. It may be scary and depressing and angering sometimes, but progress will ultimately be made as long as we keep fighting.
Special thanks to GSA co-sponsor Ms. Hope and principals Dr. Green and Dr. Johnson for their helpful insight provided for this article.
