As teenagers, everybody wants to fit in. No one wants to deviate from the socially accepted path in fear of mockery and judgment. High school can be a friend to some but a foe to others. The very walls that nurture one person can tear apart another and keep them from showing their true colors. Plano West is home to many unique people from all walks of life. The campus is very diverse with numerous religions, ethnicities and ways of thinking. There are 35 organizations and clubs extended to the student body, allowing for a majority of the students to find a niche and feel comfortable and accepted. All these organizations work to benefit the school community as well as the Plano community. The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) works especially hard to promote social acceptance and understanding amongst the student body. “I learned when I was a sophomore that homosexual teens were killing themselves because of bullying,” co-president Joy Che said. “I wanted GSA to create a tolerant environment where people understood they were accepted.”
GSA is a student-run organization that works to promote social acceptance by bringing together students of all backgrounds. This organization also works to actively create a safe environment for homosexual students and help them to resist bullying and fight for equality.
“I think it is important for a group like this to exist,” senior Lainey Borgsmiller said. “Students should not be afraid to be themselves. This may be a touchy subject, but when does it really work to our benefit to avoid the uncomfortable things? It only makes things worse.”
The GSA mission statement declares that its three major goals are to create safe environments in schools for students to support each other and learn about homophobia, educate schools about homophobia and gender identity, and the biggest goal, fight discrimination and harassment.
“It is more of a ‘this is who we are’ type of thing,” Che said. “We understand others’ points of view; all we ask is that they accept ours. It is more of a tolerance thing.”
The Plano West chapter of GSA is currently working on a fundraiser to raise money in order to donate it to the fight against HIV/AIDS. The organization they are working through is known as The Cure, which raises awareness of HIV/AIDS and donates money to researchers.
“We even plan on having guest speakers from this organization to come and talk to us,” Che said.
The GSA organization is also working with the chapters at Plano Senior and Plano East High school to create a large GSA organization. They have a meeting planned sometime in November after the homecoming rush.
“We live in a global community now,” junior Ari Surles said. “We live amongst all types of people, and if we ever have hopes of achieving some degree of world peace, we must learn how to be accepting.”
