Gay-Straight Alliance Network

Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are extracurricular, school-based groups that provide support, education, and advocacy for students that are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ). GSAs are student-led groups with membership open to all students regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. GSAs are a recent phenomenon in the United States and were initially formed in high school during the late 1980s and early 1990s. They now number more than 3,000 nationwide.

GSAs can trace their roots to Project 10 in California and the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Project 10 was founded by Dr. Virginia Uribe while doing research work on the issues faced by LGBTQ youth in high school. Dr. Uribe started Project 10 in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which still provides support groups or contact people for LGBTQ students in the majority of high schools in Los Angeles County. The first three GSAs were started between 1987 and 1989 in the greater Boston area. In 1990, a group of Boston teachers formed the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teachers Network to support LGBTQ youth and worked with the state of Massachusetts to adopt the GSA-model in their Safe School Program. By 1995, the network became a national organization and changed its name to the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. GLSEN is the largest organization in the United States supporting GSAs.

GSAs also address bullying and harassment LGBTQ youth face in their schools and promote respect for all students. As documented by GLSEN, almost all LGBTQ students experience verbal, physical, or sexual harassment in their schools, and GSAs have been suggested by several leading lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations as an intervention to make schools safer for LGBTQ youth. While the aim of most GSAs is to make schools a safe place for all students, some school administrators and boards have not been supportive of these groups. Primarily motivated by conservative and fundamentalist religious ideologies, parents and school administrators have opposed GSAs, claiming they promote homosexuality and promiscuity and act as recruiting beacons for students confused about their sexuality. In 1996, Salt Lake City's East High School formed a GSA and started meeting after school. The Salt Lake City School Board opposed the GSA and decided to ban all extracurricular activities for all their students rather than allow the GSA to organize. The conflict resulted in considerable media attention and a U.S. federal court ruling that the denial of GSAs is a violation of the U.S. Federal Equal Access Act. The U.S. Federal Equal Access Act requires that schools with at least one noncurriculum club must also allow GSAs or risk losing federal funding. GSAs continue to draw praise and support as well as condemnation. However, the National School Climate Survey conducted by GLSEN in 2005 documents the positive benefits of GSAs. Students in schools that have a GSA support organization report they feel safer, miss fewer classes, and feel they belong more at their schools compared to students without the benefits of such groups.