Senior leadership member Clay Martin of Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club was able to meet with local college leaders and learn about opportunities local colleges have for LGBTQ youth.
Talking about the LGBTQ community, senior Taz Nicholas said she thinks she may know why other schools in Kansas oftentimes do not have sponsors for their clubs.
“There’s definitely a little bit of a fear factor and a lot of stigma that surrounds our community as queer people and even trans people,” Nicholas said. “It’s for a really long time, looking back into history, we have been demonized, or it’s been (labeled as) mental health problems. It’s never been love who you want to love.”
Nicholas said that Central’s GSA is more established, compared to the other schools in western and central Kansas.
“It is just really weird to me,” Nicholas said, “I wasn’t aware that other GSA’s don’t have sponsors, and that they’re very student led. It’s a little sad, so it was nice to be able to give them ideas of how to get more people involved.”
This event was designed to make opportunities of club improvement, teach the students of resources of local colleges. It also is to show advocacy and network the other GSA clubs in Kansas.
“I think it was definitely a good connection point for all of us, because it is kind of difficult to go out of your way and make connections,” leadership member Clay Martin said. “I thought I knew quite a bit about it, but I learned that there is a lot more that I was unaware of.”
The sponsors – English teacher Sarah Byarlay and math teacher Stephanie Johannes – work to have events hosted in Salina for more recognition regarding LGBTQ youth.
Byarlay said Kansas is becoming more open to the idea of what it means to be a student in the LGBTQ community.
“I think now that we’re becoming more open to discussions with younger people in the community,” Byarlay said, “that we’re starting to see that not everything that an adult experiences is the same as what a child is experiencing.”
Johannes sat down at the Pride Prom during April of this year to talk about getting “Together We Shine, Together We Rise” hosted at Central.
“We’re seeing events happen in places like Wichita and Kansas City, but not here in Salina,” Byarlay said. “The issue is that we haven’t had a lot of what we like to call squeaky wheel, the people that step up and never take no for an answer like Johannes.”
The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, a Wichita-based educational organization worked with Johannes to get “Together We Rise, Together We Shine” to Salina.
“We need to be really intentional to say this is a diverse part of humanity, a beautiful part of humanity,” Johannes said, “and you can be it here in Salina, Kansas.”
Johannes said just because you are in a relationship with one person of a particular gender does not identify you, who you love and who you are attracted to.
“You don’t need a label to define you as a person,” Nicholas said. “It just makes you feel more connected to yourself.”
