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Gay/Straight Alliances: A Student Guide
Top Ten GSA Meeting Ideas

Running good meetings is an essential part of making your group successful. It's not so easy to choose topics or activities that make people feel welcome and encourage them to keep coming back. This Top Ten list was compiled after surveying groups from all across the Commonwealth. The following are some of the best suggestions:

1) "Things I've always wanted to know but was afraid to ask..."

Newton South has a Question and Answer Day. Students anonymously write down questions on any subject they want and then spend the rest of the meeting discussing the questions and coming up with answers.

2) Bring-a-Friend Day.

Concord-Carlisle hosts a Bring-A-Friend Day when every member is supposed to bring someone new to their meeting. They said it changed a lot of people's minds about the group and destroyed some of their stereotypes about homosexuality.

3) "No Adults Allowed" (Or only one).

Some groups have complained that their advisors are too domineering. Having this sort of meeting could be a good change of pace. Tell the adults that only one of them is invited to this special meeting and that they aren't supposed to talk unless absolutely necessary.

4) "What would the world be like if 10% of people were straight and 90% were gay?"

This is an activity that can help participants better understand what it feels like to be devalued. Ask the group to imagine that instead of living in a heterosexist society, you lived in a homosexist society. What would it be like if parents wanted their children to grow up gay? What would it be like if you had to come out as straight? How does it feel to be labelled a minority?

5) "How can the Gay/Straight Alliance work with other school civil rights groups?"

Newton South is planning a meeting with other groups to discuss how they can all work together and educate each other to make their school better for everyone.

6) Coming Out.

Some groups have found that coming out discussions are very helpful and important. Plan a meeting where people will talk about how they think people would react, what might happen, how to establish support networks, etc.

7) Games...

Brookline High School's Gay/Straight Alliance plays a game called Common Ground. The students and faculty advisors stand in a circle. One person begins by saying, "I've got a younger sister," or some other statement that is true for them. Everyone for whom this is also true, steps into the center of the circle. Everyone who doesn't have a young-er sister, stays on the outside. You can always lie and choose not to step into the circle. The game often brings up personal and important issues that students may not want to discuss in a more formal setting.

Sally Rubin, a Newton student, recommends an activity her group calls the Culture Walk. She said, "There are one or two mediators and they begin by asking a group of people, for example, the women, to move to one side of the room. The guys then ask them questions they've always wanted to know and the women give them answers. Then the women get to tell the guys what they as women want the guys to know about them. This game gradually becomes more personal. You don't have to talk or walk."

8) The things you'll learn...

Some groups plan meetings where one student researches a topic related to gay and lesbian life, culture, history or oppression, and then reports to the rest of the group what they've discovered. Topics don't have to be dry and boring. They could include: Rock Stars Come Out, The Stonewall Riots, Lesbian Pulp Fiction, etc. Other groups pick current events from the newspaper, such as Gays in the Military, and discuss how they feel about these issues.

9) Working for Change.

Most groups have spent at least some meeting time working to institute change in their schools or communities. Some have written editorials for their school papers describing the work of their group, their plans for the future, what they'd like to see change in their school and how to combat anti-gay prejudice. Other groups have detailed instances of homophobia on campus including the defacing of Gay/ Straight Alliance (GSA) posters and anti-gay slurs or remarks they've heard and then distributed them to students, teachers, administrators and school board members.

Groups have written editorials for their school newspapers, PTO newsletters and community papers about topics like "Homophobia Hurts Everybody" and "Why I'm a Straight Ally." Groups have also spent their meeting time planning political action strategies or letter writing campaigns. Brookline High's GSA made posters to carry at rallies for the amended Anti-Discrimination Law, sent letters to their state representatives and distributed petitions to the student body.

10) You're invited!

Inviting other Gay/Straight Alliances or other clubs to your meetings or functions can be a great way to build support in your school and network with other schools. Also, inviting outside speakers can really spark interest in your group. Newton North holds an annual GSA Conference, which is attended by numerous groups from around the state. Boston Latin held a social for GSA's in their area. Other groups have invited speakers to come and talk with them. Winchester High School, for example, invited Michael Smith from the gay and lesbian radio show "1 in 10" on Boston's 101.7 WFNX. Newton North attended a special talk by a history and social sciences teacher on "Gays in Popular Culture," and invited William Johnson from the Boston Police Hate Crimes Division to address the school.

(See the Resources Section for a list of all the GSA's in Massachusetts as well as suggestions for interesting speakers, musicians, writers and actors you can invite to your school.)