Florence-Carlton Gay-Straight Alliance founder speaks out – Missoulian

After protesters and supporters of the Gay-Straight Alliance sparred during public comment at recent school board meetings, the student said she hopes the discussion can be a learning opportunity for the community.

“I have a huge group of people around me to help deal with, or to help spread out the weight,” the student said in an interview last week. “But I also just kind of think that this is going to be good for people who are younger than me.

“This is going to be really beneficial to the community in the long run.”

The Missoulian is not identifying the student, who is a minor, to protect her safety. Only one of the two students involved with creating the club was interviewed for this article.

The controversy arose at a school board meeting in April, where trustees were “walking on eggshells” around the district’s policies regarding clubs due to the existence of the Gay-Straight Alliance, according to Brittany McLaughlin, the mother of a child in the district.

After the meeting, McLaughlin wrote a letter to the school board and superintendent explaining why she feels students need this club. The letter had more than 200 signatures in support from parents, community members and former students, she said.

“The people that you’re voting against are people, too,” said the student, referring to people who oppose the group. “And we all need to love each other equally, because without that we’re going to descend into chaos.”

Impact of permission slips

In May, the school board passed in a 3-2 vote the first reading of an updated policy to require parental permission to join formal clubs.

That policy would not have impacted the Gay-Straight Alliance, as it is considered an informal group, but it raised concerns among students and parents.

Attendance for the May meeting spilled out the doors of the district offices and into the parking lot, where people formed prayer circles and donned firearms and American flags.

A group called Stand Together for Freedom has expressed opposition to the club. The group describes itself on Facebook as a “community of God fearing constitutional patriots” in the Bitterroot Valley.

Stand Together for Freedom declined to comment for this article.

In a last-minute decision, the district moved the June 8 meeting from the gym to Zoom, citing safety concerns after alleged threats that people planned to bring guns to the campus.

At that meeting, trustee Matt Reeves sought to amend the policy to limit student participation in clubs to their affiliated school and require parental consent to join informal clubs. The discussion was ultimately tabled and pushed to a special meeting in July after complaints that the motion was too confusing.

Supporters of the middle school’s Gay-Straight Alliance argue that requiring permission slips to participate threatens the existence of the club, particularly for the students who need it most.

“I will sign a permission slip for my kids to be in the GSA, however somebody down the road may not be able to get their parent to sign that permission slip because they don’t think it’s right,” McLaughlin said. “And then that is the kid that loses out, that’s the kid that needs this group more than anything because they don’t have anyone else.”

Some said requiring permission slips might force a student to come out to their parents about their sexuality before they are ready.

Those opposed to the group expressed concerns their parental rights are being taken away. They worry about the secretive nature of being part of a group that you don’t feel comfortable disclosing to your parents.

“The fact is, that anything done in secret or in hiding, there is an underlying motive that cannot be good,” commenter Danell Miller said.

Other commenters explained that students might not feel safe coming out to their parents.

“I personally went to school with multiple people that are part of the LGBTQ community and they didn’t come out until after high school even, and there’s a reason for that,” said Kayla Johnson, who graduated from Florence-Carlton High School in 2011. “I know that some individuals weren’t able to come out at home because of their parents’ personal views, their religious views.”

Other alumni chimed in to support the group as well. Logan Oleson said being a part of a Gay-Straight Alliance in high school “was one of the most life-changing things in my high school experience.”

“I honestly don’t know where I would be today if I did not have the support that I got there,” Oleson said.

Bullying crisis

Local experts say peer support groups like the middle school’s Gay-Straight Alliance can help unburden students from the mental health impacts of bullying.

Shawn Reagor, with the Montana Human Rights Network, said that the number of crisis calls they’ve received from residents in the LGBTQ community has gone “from two in six months, which is our average, to over 23 in the past six months.”

Crisis calls come through the Montana Gender Alliance, a project of the Montana Human Rights Network, and are defined as someone whose immediate welfare or well-being is at risk. The calls can range from a person who is suicidal to a minor who is being kicked out of their home. 

“There is a crisis happening right now,” Reagor continued. “It’s very important that we provide safe spaces for people to be able to connect with their peers.”

Dr. Elizabeth Beil, a pediatrician based in Missoula who grew up in Florence, said that schools offer more than a place to learn — they are spaces to support students to help them grow and thrive.

As a pediatrician, she understands parents want to be involved in their children’s lives, but sometimes that isn’t possible, she said.

“I think the risk we see is if they’re not comfortable, not able to talk to their family, then this prohibits them from having another safe place for support and having a supportive adult figure,” Beil said.

Repercussions of students not feeling supported include stress, depression, sleep deprivation, self harm and suicidal thoughts, Beil said.

She pointed to a study by Leah Lessard that found schools with LGBTQ support groups like the Gay-Straight Alliance see a decrease in reports of bullying for stigmatized identities, compared with schools without similar groups.

“If a child doesn’t feel safe in their environment, they’re probably going to have stress that then is a repercussion on their grades and their academic ability to learn,” Beil said.

Dr. Lauren Wilson, a local pediatrician and vice president of the Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said pediatricians in the state and around the country are concerned about the effects of bullying on kids.

“There are a lot of kids who are at especially higher risk of being bullied, and kids who are minorities in any way, including sexual and gender minorities like the LGBTQ population, are at a higher risk for being bullied in school,” Wilson said.

Research shows that kids experiencing bullying are helped when there are people at the school that they can trust and who can be allies with them, Wilson said.

No ‘gay agenda’

In January, two Florence-Carlton middle school students approached their principal to start the Gay-Straight Alliance club to create a safe space for themselves and other classmates to talk.

“It was really frustrating being one of the only people there who was accepting,” said the student interviewed by the Missoulian.

The club is not affiliated with the national Gay-Straight Alliance, also known as the Genders and Sexuality Alliance. The middle school group does not receive any financial support from the national network.

The group started with just four members, who largely kept to themselves. By the end of the school year it grew to 12. Many members identify as part of the LGBTQ community.

The club operates like a support group, where students gather once a week at lunch to discuss their own experiences with their peers.

“We talk about something that’s happened during the week, like if one of my friends got called a slur or something happened at the school where they felt really unaccepted, or something happened at home where they felt really unaccepted,” the student said.

The members also share different ways that they cope with harassment.

They are selective about who they bring in and are not actively recruiting their peers, the student said.

“We’re not pushing our ‘gay agenda’ onto other people,” she said. “We are staying in our group and we’re not pushing it on to other people.”

The group’s adviser “doesn’t involve herself that much,” and will only interject if the students need help getting back on topic, she said.

Florence-Carlton public schools did not respond to a request for comment.

The student says they work to maintain a positive attitude, with their focus set on the future.

“Obviously, without the group, we wouldn’t be dealing with all this pushback,” the student said. “But my friends and my peers need a safe space, and I would never give that up for the world.”