On Tuesday 1/17, GSA had its first meeting of 2012! During this meeting, members read an article about same-sex marriage in the state of Washington, looked at a map of the world that shows countries’ positions on homosexuality, and played a little game.

A bill in Washington has been proposed to allow same-sex marriage in the state. Although it has not passed yet and people are already thinking of ways to repeal the bill, it is a major step toward marriage equality in the United States.

And speaking of marriage equality, we looked at this map:

Countries range from having death penalties for simply being homosexual, to granting same-sex marriage rights. Interesting things to note: Europe and the Americas tend to tolerate same-sex marriages, while African countries give penalties for homosexuality. Interestingly, South Africa allows same-sex marriage while other African countries give large penalties.

For our little game, members formed a circle and took turns saying things about themselves. We learned some silly, scary, hilarious, and surprising information about ourselves. If you missed the fun, don’t worry; there’s another meeting on Tuesday 1/31 in C11 during lunch!

Where: Horace Mann Buena Vista Community School 3351 23rd Street, San Francisco, CA

When: Saturday, December 10, 2011, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Plus, a youth dance from 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM.

Cost: Sliding scale $0-$15. Pay what you can, no one turned away!

YES is an annual conference for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex (LGBTQQI) and straight ally youth activists and adult allies who are dedicated to defeating homophobia and transphobia and creating safe, supportive schools for everyone. 

Come to YES! Meet other youth activists, gain leadership skills, and discover resources to help your school implement the FAIR Education Act - and get LGBTQ history taught at YOUR school!

High school & middle school students, teachers, community members, and GSA advisors welcomed.

Register at www.gsanetwork.org/yes

1. The Youth Empowerment Summit 2011 (YES) hosted by GSA Network is on Saturday, December 10, 2011 from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM in San Francisco! I will post more info about this on the ASB website, but if you think you are interested, take a look at your schedule and let us know! Let’s try to get at least a few of us to attend to represent our GSA! There is also a youth dance that night from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, so if it turns out that we make a lot of cool friends that day, we can just stay and keep partying. :P

2. Our GSA’s next project will be our LGBT Library project! We have received an offer for a donation so that we can build our school library’s LGBT section/build a private GSA library! Check out this link to a webpage with some options for books we can order, or if you find a book/list of books that you want us to consider, leave the link on our Facebook page for everyone to see! If you are interested in getting more involved with this project, contact any of the GSA officers/email us/leave a wall post. 

3. I thought that the GSA cans for the Canned Food Drive were due today, but they’re actually due on Tuesday, which is good because now we can collect more! Bring your can contributions to room C11 and leave them in the GSA cabinet, or try to give the cans to a GSA officer sometime at school.

4. The t-shirt fundraiser is still going on, and we still have “Eat, Drink, and Be Gay” shirts available for purchase! Order one for $10 at our Google Doc order form!

5. Continue to be wonderful! :D

See ya’ll later. 

Love,

Zarrie

Order your “Eat, Drink, and Be Gay” t-shirts today here! They are $10 each, and they make you look fabulous! :D

Damn, hella cute.

Love,

Zarrie