Fruits of the Gender Workshop, DoS, a GLSEN Survey

So for anyone who follows this blog who didn't come to GSA this past Friday (unlikely, but hey, you never know), we did a gender workshop thing where everyone mapped (or attempted to map) their gender identity and gender presentation on this little chart thing where the Y-axis is male to female, and the X-axis is masculine to feminine. It was tough for a lot of us but enlightening, and the results are going to be posted on the GSA board some time this week--check them out. But I wanted to share possibly the best quote of the meeting, from Filipa describing how she graphed her gender identity: "so, I drew a sort of arch [spanning Female-Feminine to Female-Masculine] because I'm sort of everywhere. Then... I turned it into a stegosaurus. Because... my gender identity fluctuates like the spikes on a stegosaurus. And because sometimes I wish I could identify as a dinosaur."

Hunter's Day of Silence happens this Thursday!!! Day of Silence, for those of you who don't know, is a day when GLBTQ people and their allies choose to not speak for an entire day to show support of those who have been forced into silence and are not able to speak their minds or be themselves. It's a great way to raise awareness and show support. Hunter being the wonderful place it is, teachers are pretty chill about this and won't make a fuss about you not speaking during class (though you can't use DoS as an excuse to get out of oral reports, etc.). GSA will be handing out speaking cards for you to hand out to people (that say that you're participating in DoS) Thursday before school at the main entrance, or you can print out your own from GLSEN's website (pdf HERE). Some people who do DoS take a break and speak during their lunch hour, some people communicate via notes, some people do not communicate in any way at all. How you participate is up to you, but anything you can do--even just showing support to the people who are silent--helps. There may or may not be T-shirt making outside the auditorium tomorrow (Monday) after school; swing by.

And lastly, GLSEN has posted a survey about the experiences of GLBTQ youth in school (find it HERE); if you've got an extra 10 minutes, take a look at it.