Kole Hutson said that his college in Omaha, Nebraska, became completely virtual at the beginning of the pandemic, and that it was difficult for him, as a young LGBTQ, because he felt “cut off from the world”.
“It wasn’t easy, especially since I don’t come from a very supportive family when it comes to my identity and all of that,” said Hutson, 17, a senior. “I felt alone. It was definitely a dark time, especially with everything going on, you are already missing a lot. “
He said the school is a safe space for some LGBTQ people, and “when the pandemic hit, we kind of missed it.”
Hutson said GLSEN Omaha tried to start a virtual Gay-Heterosexual Alliance or Gender Sexuality Alliance, which are community or school clubs led by students and often supported by adults. This may be a haven for LGBTQ youth, but he said that the virtual GSA did not work, in part because young people no longer use Facebook, and many also grew tired of going so much online for virtual school.
Hutson’s experience is part of a national trend: LGBTQ youth who have relied on GSAs or school diversity clubs to connect have been struggling to access these resources since the pandemic began. Many do not have access to the community they built at school, some of them being forced to hide who they really are while they are at home. Other LGBTQ youth have stood out, advocates say, and are finding creative ways to support each other, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.
Advocates across the country said the number and involvement with GSAs had dropped dramatically in the past year. Adrian Parra, executive director of Youth OUTright Western North Carolina, said the group saw a significant drop in GSAs: 20% of groups that register each year did not do so in 2020.
Cathy Chu, director of youth organization at GSA Network, a nonprofit organization that supports clubs in California, said that last year, 343 of them were registered in the state. So far, in 2021, 194 people have registered, although Chu has noted that the drop may be partly due to the changes the network has made to its registration process.
“We are probably predicting a general drop in the number of GSAs that have been looking to connect to the network,” said Chu. “And some clubs have seen membership drop. So, I think it’s still a fight ”.
Importance of GSAs
Many LGBTQ youth rely on GSAs because they help them build a community – some for the first time.
“It’s a space for young people to be more authentic,” said Ang Bennett, co-president of GLSEN Omaha, a Nebraska-based division of the national LGBTQ youth non-profit organization.
For some LGBTQ youth, schools offer security, said Bennett. “Having GSAs and clubs for diversity and equality is just that extra icing for them, and being close to their colleagues who have some of those same identities and being able to talk about them – maybe not even having the language and working with what it the language seems – it’s so important, ”said Bennett.
Research shows that GSAs have a positive impact on the mental health of all students. A study published in 2014 found that the chances of homophobic discrimination, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts were reduced by more than half for lesbian, gay and bisexual boys and girls in schools with GSAs at least three years old. The study also found that heterosexual boys in schools with GSAs established for at least three years were about half as likely to attempt suicide in schools without such clubs, although the discovery did not extend to heterosexual girls.
Some people need GSAs more than ever during the pandemic, said Parra, noting that Youth OUTright WNC has received more calls from young people over the past year. “When young people have no support for their identities or a favorable environment and are facing intolerance at home, then conflict arises and we see more violence at home,” they said. “We see children who are thinking of running or really running, we see children who are expelled because of their identities, or we see young people who feel they need to hide who they are to get financial support from their parents to survive the pandemic. “
Parra said “you see some bright lights” and LGBTQ youth who have shown resilience in everything, but what some of them are experiencing “can be very damaging”.
Connection barriers
Eli Bundy, 16, a third-year student from Charleston, South Carolina, said 10 to 20 people attended weekly GSA meetings before the pandemic. In the past year, meetings have come online, have become inconsistent and generally less than six people attend. The GSA also doesn’t get new participants as if it were in a classroom, Bundy said. As a result, the GSA does not provide as much support for new people.
“In general, it has become a much less available resource for people,” said Bundy. “I think probably the biggest thing for the worse is that, for the people who are already in it, we can still go out and chat, but we’re not really catching up with anyone new.”
Some teachers have also hesitated to schedule GSA meetings online because they are unsure how to do it safely if students are not at home, said Shawn Reilly, GLSEN Tennessee’s student leadership and engagement coordinator, who supports GSAs across the state. Even though students are at home, many do not have access to the internet or computers, and public libraries in many areas are closed or have limited hours.
And in addition to being “zooming out”, LGBTQ young people are feeling more anxious, Reilly said. “They don’t want to get a call from Zoom, because they are feeling more and more social anxiety after not being social for a year,” they said.
Silver ceilings and creative solutions
While not having access to LGBTQ clubs at school is incredibly difficult for many young people, Chu, of the GSA Network, said that changing organizations online has brought some benefits.
Since the creation of an online GSA, the network has had participants not only from California, but also from other states and territories in the US and other countries, including Canada, India and Colombia.
“I realized that some students had never been in a space with so many trans and queer youth,” said Chu. “I remember the students would say, ‘I’ve never been in a room where so many people share their pronouns or use the same pronouns that I use’. It was cool to hear that. “
Many young people have also created creative ways to socialize online. Parra, Chu and Reilly said the LGBTQ youth they support turned to Discord, a messaging app that allows users to create their own groups to communicate.
Bundy, who attends an art school, said GSA members use Discord to share their art or poetry. They said that the GSAs they support also held Zoom video game nights and several other creative events. “We did the show-and-tell,” said Reilly. “We did scavenger hunts. I’ve seen young people have a lot of fun with the digital space in a way that I haven’t seen in other spaces ”.
Young people in western North Carolina have also created a digital flipbook entitled “Getting Through”, which is available on the Youth OUTright website, said Parra. “They worked with some social workers and counselors to set up some coping mechanisms, be it breathing exercises or different types of grounding through the senses,” said Parra. “So, young people created art to accompany these activities and kind of explain them.”
Youth OUTright also sent care packages that included pronoun pins, snacks, safe sex supplies, masks, hand sanitizer and glitter, among other items. “We are just trying to make people feel connected and like we are sharing something together,” said Parra.
GLSEN Omaha also sent 75 youth care packages that included an affirmation kit and cards, “so that they could have something to look at every day and kind of motivate them, kind of start the day with something positive,” Bennett said.
Many young people are still struggling, said Parra, but his colleagues intervened to support them. “Young people who were already struggling are struggling more,” said Parra. “And then, I am also seeing these young people who are engaged in the struggle getting up and taking care of their colleagues a little now.”
Hutson said that last year was a “roller coaster of continuous adjustments”, especially for LGBTQ youth. “I think it is important that if people are a safe space, or if they have the capacity to support them,” he said, “that they reach the people they know in their lives and that they know that ‘I am there for them. “
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