Kitten's Pride in high school

[tarawillow66]

Ok, I've never started a thread before. so i'm a little nerveous.kinda feel like i'm going to puke . But i shall be strong and face my fears of being rejected.

I've been on this board for almost a year and i have only meet a handful of kittens my age. and when i do meet them i'm too shy to talk to them. so i have no idea what ya'll are going through,or if you are going through anything at all. So i decided to start this thread.

"What kind of pride do you show in your school"if any at all

and "are there any hardships that you could use some help with from people your age"



so if you decide not to stone me to death for doing something wrong...please talk to me! i'm here to help

love you all

megan

[Mainer]

I'm not in high school anymore, but I just wanted to say that I think this thread is a great idea. I knew when I was in high school that I was gay and it was not an easy time for me. I'm glad you came up with a way to help each other through this potentially difficult time. No worries about rejection here at the kitten board. We're all nice girls and boys.





~Spencer~

"Love is like a roller coaster: When it's good you don't want to get off, and when it isn't, you can't wait to throw up."

[fairydust]

*tackles and hugs megan* its a good thread sexy.....no worries You know you've helped me alot. I LOVE YOU!



*chants* AWOMEN! ttyl sweetie

I LOVE MY KARE-BEAR

[Guinevere]

When I was in highschool I didn't want to admit to myself that I had feelings about other girls, I guess I thought it would go away or something. There was 1 (openly) gay person in my school, and several others who were whispered about between class and at afterschool. I wish i had realized or rather, understood my feelings and had the confidence to speak out openly. I could have been a good role model for some younger girls or something. ( I was class president, and a whole bunch of other stuff)

Not that people actually said bad things about being gay, I just got the impression that it was something to be hidden. Which come to think of it is kinda a bad thing.

Things are better in college(I'm 22), I think its all the new people that get mixed in.

Edited by: Warduke at: 4/26/03 8:54:15 am

[sprhrgrl]

I'm queer and in high school.



No, it goes much further than that.



I'm blatantly, flamingly, screamingly queer in high school.



I mean, somebody has to be. And I suppose it'd be me since I never fit in anyway. (wry smile)



I came out to myself in ninth grade, freshman year. Washington State. Tenth grade I started a Gay/Straight Alliance in my high school. It wasn't really a. . . New. . . Group of people, as it was the same group as the drama club and the literary magazine and the Amnesty International group, but it was a new title. The title caused us to be acknowledged by the school. We were shut down for club status by the princi'pal', as she told us we were "a sex club." We refrained from mentioning, say, the football team . . . But ended up meeting on campus anyway, as we had the legal right to.



We fought through student council, but were turned down eventually because they said that we had packed the meeting for our status with supporters. The fact that we had only one negative vote wasn't accounted for just by the group of students that turned out. . .



I think we ended up getting club status, but that was a long way into it.



Eleventh grade I moved to California. I came to school with queer buttons and beads, was blatant about my girlfriend and reawakened the Gay/Straight Alliance at that school, which had official club status. That club actually turned into a 'sex club,' unfortunately. . . They're doing better this year, but I'm not there since I moved to a different school.



Eleventh grade was weird, though. The school I was at was very racially integrated, but sexuality was a different matter. I was generally accepted by my peers in the advanced classes, but some were still confused. It was generally a okay environment, though, except for the time that some guys threw water bottles at me and called me 'dyke.' There was also some hate through tearing down of GSA posters and such, but not too immense. I did a forum on anti-gay harassment (from the Safe Schools Coalition of Washington) in response, which inspired some dialogue. As did our participation in the Day of Silence. At the lunchtime meeting for that, we overflowed a classroom.



This year, senior year, I'm at a very liberal charter school. We're tiny. I haven't started a queer group because there really aren't any clubs (really), and because there are three queer students, other than me, that I know of. I'm friends with two of them, and don't know who the other one is - I've made my orientation clear throughout the school, though, and hope that anyone who needed help could come to me. I'm running for prom king, by the way.



They changed the date of prom for us. My girlfriend lives across the country. When the prom date was different from the projected one that I'd bought her plane ticket around, the prom committee ended up changing the date of prom for the lesbians. Which is mind-boggling.



I'm also working with the San Diego Gay Youth Alliance (a social support group for queer youth in San Diego) and San Diego Youth Pride:

SATURDAY, MAY 3, 12:00 - 6:00, San Diego Youth Pride presents SD's first Pride event for and by youth. Queer and allied youth ages 14-24 are welcome. Entertainment includes Bitch & Animal, I Am Loved, Elena and the Lancer Dancers. March from the Hillcrest Youth Center to The Center at noon, festival at The Center starting at 1:00.

So that's where I am. Where I'm headed? Civil rights law, of course, via The Evergreen State College and then NYU School of Law (an 'I hope' on the second bit).



So yeah. Busy stuff. My experience hasn't been quite, um, normal. . . But it's been what one could call successful, I suppose.

sprhrgrl.com

counting*stars

racism=sexism=homophobia

The truth shall set you free, but first it will piss you off. – Gloria Steinem

Edited by: sprhrgrl  at: 4/26/03 12:54:21 am

[The Smee]

Bloody hell. Go sprhrgrl! What you have done is rather amazing, I must say. It's a hell of a lot more than I've done, which is only come out to my best friends...I just don't think my school will be that friendly towards me if I do come out, seeing as 1) it's an all-boys school (alright, so that's pretty good for me...although most of them are wankers) and 2) the bloke who has come out get completely taken apart by almost everybody.

It dosn't help that the pikey/scally/townie/rude boy/dickhead to normal people ratio isn't that favourable either, or that it's a Church school.



I can't wait to leave this place and go to university (hopefully).

[Bookcat]

Well, hello. I too am a high school aged kitten--I'm almost 16 (sounds better than 15 in my opinion).



I'm not into showing pride at my school, but only because all five kids in the GSA are really frickin' annoying, and not even gay. One's got lesbian mothers, another is the aformentioned girl's best friend, and the three others want college credit for being club leaders.

I recently came out to my few good friends at school, however. They treat me exactly the same, which is excellent. And I can talk about my various celebrity crushes with them now. Wee.

More on pride in my school: last year, the most popular guy in school was this openly gay senior who ran the lit mag and the gsa and starred in the plays. Everybody loved him. It might be some "token" sort of thing, but personally, I think he's incredibly cool because he's a good writer/actor/singer.

That's all.

"Come and and go to my house, ladies. Come on and go to my house, girls girls!"

"I'll look you, right in the face!"

"Haha, there's a dog! Wait, that's not funny. [everyone else cracks up]"

[foreverpiper]

yay! high school peeps!!! i too am in high school! only a freshman, i daresay...though i think 15 sounds better than 14, and yes, 16 sounds even better than 15 (awful to say i'm still 14 *growls)



i havent done any of this stuff but i think its awsome what some of you are doing!...we dont even have a club thing at our school i dont think...but my school is actually pretty cool about the whole gay thing...one of my really good friends is openly gay...and everyone loves him! i am in the drama program and theres lots of bi people too, along w/ 2 girls who have an openly lesbian relastionship and i think its great! i havent realy heard anything bad...even the teachers know this is going on and they have no problem, so i think its great.



i'm not a lesbian or bi-sexual (contrary to anything that jayma would say) so i dont really have to come out to anyone...but i totally support the gay/bi/lesbian people in my school! so, yeah, there's my 1 and a half cents!



(these are just so cool!)

And never let it be said that I left a Tara craving unsatisfied. - Willow in Wilderness

[tarawillow66]

WOW! ii really do wish i could do half the stuff ya'll have done in your shcools. even if i did try to start a GSA i would be the only bperson in there. i'm the only lesbian at my school, there is 1 bi guy and 2 bi girls but they aren't that open. i'm friends with them though.it's a really small school, in a really small town in the middle of bigot-world.despite that i'm very open and taken up for GLBT rights whenever i can and since all the guys fear me they don't mess with me but:

sprhrgrl what you have done is amazing! keep it up!and good luck with making prom king! *thumbs up*

The Smee, all boys school, and a church school! wow that has to be tough. i'm really sorry and wish the best of luck.

Bookcat let me get this straight...you have wannabe homos in your GSA group? that is funny. but if they are willing to help that'a good.

Foreverpiper those are so cut! when did we get those!?!

[foreverpiper]

i have no idea where we got them!!! i remember when all we had was like, 10 of these!! but now i'm just having all sorts of fun messing around with them!!! is by FAR my favorite...i love cows!!

And never let it be said that I left a Tara craving unsatisfied. - Willow in Wilderness

[fairydust]

Quote:

---

i'm not a lesbian or bi-sexual (contrary to anything that jayma would say)

---

OH BITE ME PIPER! You KNOW you are gay! Just admit it already! But don't you dare touch Karen or me! *scowls*



LOVE YOU MEGAN...YOU TOO BABY

I LOVE MY KARE-BEAR

[sprhrgrl]

The Smee - my girl was in a similar situation but, erm, opposite - she was at an all-girls' Catholic school. She even wanted to be a nun for a while, until I saved her. . .



Bookcat - Omigod we had a boy like him in my high school! My litmag editor, the president to my drama club vice-presidency, the VP to my GSA presidency. . . Yours wouldn't happen to be the boy third pic down on this page, would he?



Yeah, I didn't think so.



No worries about the fourteen-ness, foreverpiper. . . I just turned eighteen and it's not so cracked up as it could be. . . And yeah, of my GSA in tenth grade? There were like 25 people tops, and only three of us were out. Allies are grrrreat, though.



Thanks, tarawillow66. . . Prom king shouldn't be too tough (I hope) considering that there are only three boys in the senior class, none of whom are really too jazzed about running! (grin)



Hurrah for the high school gays! And again with the San Diego Youth Pride plug (see previous post).

sprhrgrl.com

counting*stars

racism=sexism=homophobia

The truth shall set you free, but first it will piss you off. – Gloria Steinem

[Ittybittykitty]

Well I'm the lone member of my GSA. I'm seventeen and a junior in highschool. I'm one of the two out lesbians that I know of in our school, and one of the three out gay people in our school. Good luck with your GSAs and other queer clubs, they are hard to get running, but they can deffinately be worth the effort.

"Well, if you blew a hundred bucks, we'd better make it worth your while," Tara said dragging Willow back into the laundry room and closing the door.-Happily Ever After

Edited by: Ittybittykitty at: 5/21/03 1:35:21 pm

[Morganlafay88]

Yeah, I have a GSA at my HS. It actually has a cool name: 'Visibility'. It's not huge, but I have a lot of friends in it and they try hard. I'm kinda an honorary member cuz the meetings are when I have dance. I know tons of people who participated in the Day of Silence. I was home sick, with no one to talk to, so I guess I was involved.? Anywayz, live long and prosper, GSA's.

And 'almost 15' does sound way better than 14.

[Tsia]

I am 14 years old, in England, and we haven't got anything of that type in my school; maybe because 11-years is the starting age, or maybe because our teachers are particuarly homophobic I am not out to anybody because of this - I'm sure if there was some kind of GSA in my school, I'd be much more open about my sexuality.

It would probably be social suicide for anybody to open a GSA at our school though, and the reasons above is probably why.



I hope that there will be a GSA at the Sixth Form college that I will hope to join

> From the mouth of Buffy...."They go together like chicken and....another chicken!!"

Edited by: Tsia at: 4/28/03 2:42:36 pm

[foreverpiper]

Quote:

---

OH BITE ME PIPER! You KNOW you are gay! Just admit it already! :P But don't you dare touch Karen or me! *scowls*

---

*gives you the finger...no, not the good kind...*







sprhrgrl: yeah, being 18 might not be all its cracked up to be (from what i've heard) but at least you can DRIVE!!



Tsia: YAY!!! another 14 year old!!! *high five!*

And never let it be said that I left a Tara craving unsatisfied. - Willow in Wilderness

[tarawillow66]

Jayma what is this thing with you and piper?how come you say she's gay? oh and you better get your sexy ass back online some time because this not talking to you for 4 days thing just isn't working!!!love ya!



sprhrgrl your gf wanted to be a nun! please tell me how you saved her from that. i mean DAMN!



foreverpiper i wish i was 14 again. i hate being 16...to many responsibilites(sp?).and i do have to say that i am the strangest 16 year old in the world i hate to drive. i just don't like it not to sure why.

god i love these things! hehehe!



i need some advice, i live in the smallest redneck town you can think of,aside from rosser, and i want to start a GSA at my school. so i went around and aked a few people what they think about the idea some where for it and some where aginst it(they called my a dyke and a fag ) and some didn't really care at all. i just wanted to ask your advice on how to go about this. i mean the last group i started went up in flames along with some injuries. so i've been scared to start one ever since.i was wondering if i should get some signatures of people that support it and take the list to the principle or what. please help in any way you can! thanks kittens

love you all

megan

Edited by: tarawillow66 at: 4/28/03 4:02:14 pm

[sprhrgrl]

Ittybittykitty is there _actually_ a GSA with you in it, though? Because that would r0x0r s0x0rs.



(ahem, sorry)



Visibility IS a cool name, Morganlafay88. . . Because that's what it's all about, isn't it? That's pretty much all my GSAs ever worked for. . .



Regarding the 'social suicide' bit, Tsia, it wasn't for the boi I costarted ours with. . . Because we were already pretty well established in the food, erm, social chain. . . As long as you have a few chums willing to stick with you at all times (and are they really friends if they aren't? ), it generally turns out okay. Through everything, somehow okay. . . And I'm not sure, but if your next school had a website it would theoretically list the student groups there. In case you have one in mind.



tarawillow66 and foreverpiper - I was never really that jazzed about driving. But I started when I was fifteen with driver's ed, since I lived far away from my school. The instructor told me I wouldn't pass my driving test and I ended up getting a 98%. Heh. I still pretty much dislike driving though.



Which reminds me of the bumper sticker on my car. . .



Oh, and I saved the world from Supernun by seducing her, of course.

sprhrgrl.com

counting*stars

racism=sexism=homophobia

The truth shall set you free, but first it will piss you off. – Gloria Steinem

[foreverpiper]

Quote:

---

Jayma what is this thing with you and piper?how come you say she's gay?

---

because shes mean like that! shes' been trying to convince me now that i'm a lesbian for a couple months now...



and my dad's taken to my school parking lot and let me take the car around for a few rounds...i thought it was pretty fun! hehe, though that may have been from the look of horror on my fathers face...





sprhrgrl: again w/ the driving w/ what i said above...but also, i'll bet thats gonna happen to me to! lol, i but to be fair i've got like, a year or two...by that time my dad might help me out...its good too, cause hes a mechanic, so i wont have to pay as much if i get in a wreck!

And never let it be said that I left a Tara craving unsatisfied. - Willow in Wilderness

[Tsia]

Yay foreverpiper!! Hehe.



Well, concerning the friends-standing-by me thing; I'm sure a few of them would, I'm just a bit reluctant to come out of the closet, if you get what I mean. There are some really bitchy girls in my year [there always are ] and I'm just worried about what they might do if they heard about my sexuality. I'm hoping to come out at a time I feel comfortable, and right now I don't .



Hopefully one day I'll march around school holding a gay pride flag ^.^

> From the mouth of Buffy...."They go together like chicken and....another chicken!!"

Edited by: Tsia at: 4/29/03 8:09:09 am

[Mrs Vertigo]

*shrieks with teenagery joy* Eeeeeh! Finally a thread where I don't feel like the junior partner. Cheers to that! From the mighty stature my 16 years give me I shall bestow wisdom upon you all



sprhrgrl: Wow. Pretty impressive resume right there. I'm amazed that you had the drive to go and do something on that scale. I hope you do end up in civil rights law, where you could probably do much good.



As for me, I'm not so keen on big deal-ing it. Everybody knows I'm out, and I answer directly to direct questions. I don't censure my humor, my language or my references, but I don't push the subject anymore than in arises naturally. As far as acceptance goes, nobody gives a hoot for who or how or what I wanna boink, aside from telling me if they heard any good lesbian jokes lately. I like that. I wouldn't be in a GSA even if there were clubs in my school (they don't do that in Israel), but if I wanted to start one I have about… 12 possible participants in mind? No, scratch that, about 15. My whole CLASS is just made of bi and gay boys, with one or two token lesbians.



My school is very gay-friendly. It's very everything-friendly, really. We don't care if your're a faggot or a dyke or a nigger or a godless sinner or a geek or devil worshipper or a cripple or a walking piece of cheese. If you speak more than three words of Hebrew and know the lyrics to at least one Disney song, we love you. Well, as long as you're not a vandal, anyway. We lynch those.



Tsia, I'm so sorry to hear that. I used to be scared shitless of coming out too. But then some how I did… well, not so much *come* as stumble on a couple of skeletons, fall badly on a pile of stashed sex-toys, knock myself unconscious on a shelve trying to get up and finally coming to a couple of hours later only to discover my closet was in complete ruins and the nice sparkly sun was shining happily over the whole mess. Other people, on the other hand, were a whole lot more graceful about it then me. It turns out nobody really cares WHAT your sexuality is as long as you're not trying to knock up their little sister. Which I imagine isn't really a risk here. So cheer up it's not that bad.

My 2 cents: keep a dream-diary. Your brain is always best uncensored.

Edited by: Mrs Vertigo at: 4/29/03 8:30:35 am

[Ittybittykitty]

So excited, Youth Pride 2003 is comeing up in Boston! *dances*

"Well, if you blew a hundred bucks, we'd better make it worth your while," Tara said dragging Willow back into the laundry room and closing the door.-Happily Ever After

[the big pineapple]

this is so cool! at last a high school thread....i too am in high school.i'm a junior,16 and i hate cars (well the thought of driving them at least).

i was a core member of my H.S.'s gsa when it got the greenlight last year.it was great.we did an assembly last april for "unity week" and read poetry...that's how i came out to my school, around friends and supportive strangers.



though this year gsa is kind of sinking into the depths of being "that one club" in the yearbook which really stinks...it's a little too late to try to pick it back up so this next fall me and a couple of friends plan on starting it out strong and keeping it that way so it's there for future high schoolers...plus by then i'll be a big bad senior*grrrr*(well maybe not big or bad but ya' know*sheepish*)

[PunkNerd]

U know what my hs neva had a GSA club! and there were so many gay ppl too. Maybe its cuz i live in southern Cali and ppl are more understanding than say..redneck town.

Edited by: PunkNerd at: 4/29/03 2:49:26 pm

[Modjadji]

I really only have one word for what I feel when I read some of these posts. Jealous. Jealous jealous jealous jealous jealous Disgusting, I know, but there it is.



I'm 18, South African and a matric (senior) at a private Anglican small-town boarding school reknowned for turning out well-rounded young men and women. (Whew, that's a lot of adjectives) There has never been an openly gay person in the entire school. Ever. I know several people who have come out later in life, including a good friend's older sister, but never at the school. As for a GSA? Puhleeze....people who show even the vaguest signs of homosexuality are physically and emotionally and possibly even sexually abused, and usually leave. Yet they call the system where every freshman gets to be a senior's personal slave for the year the 'fagging' system. My fagmistress (yup, that's the real term) now goes to the town university and came out as bisexual last year, something that still gets me the occasional jibe. The aforementioned friend with the lesbian sister is constantly insulted by the massive rugby-playing jock contingent because of it, and three people at the generally more liberal methodist school down the road were asked to leave last year for "lesbian activities".



Needless to say I'm not exactly out at school, even to my really close friends. Frankly, I don't see the point in risking my entire school career or my front teeth when I can wait nine months, get overseas and risk neither in being who I am. Hell, I can't even say I'm an atheist around most teachers without being sent to the principle's office. The school rarely talks about sexuality, let alone homosexuality, and we were once forced to hand in the free condoms a counsellor gave in an AIDS lecture. You wonder why 1 in 4 university students is HIV positive in this country.



I'm not exactly butch and I play next to no sport, but wearing pants a lot and not dating boys is more than enough to get me into trouble with the more conservative (read homophobic) crowd who pretty much rule the school. I have quite a few good friends and one or two incredible ones, mostly day pupils like myself who have a vague idea what the real world is about, but I know that once I start telling people about my sexuality there's no looking back, and I need to be sure I can deal with whatever comes my way. Until that time, the closet is a much safer, warmer place than the world outside. Wish me luck.



Cheers,

Mojo



-------



Edited because I forgot to mention my favourite random gripe about the school...they've tried to ban Buffy from commonroom viewing not once, but TWICE. Once because of Spuffy, which I can almost understand, and once because a housemistress watched the first five minutes of Seeing Red (the first five, you note, not the last five) and almost had an apoplectic fit. My only real almost gay pride stand, coward that I am, was to get the second decision reversed. Not that it was much worth watching after that anyway.

Edited by: Modjadji at: 4/29/03 4:09:36 pm

[AniJ15]

I'm in 10th grade, i've been out since 9th, i wanted to wait until highschool because i went to a tiny school and had a younger brother who also attended and i didn't want him to suffer any repercussions that might have occured, but yeah, i'm just gay, no one cares, no one says anything, i march in parades and stuff and go to the Gay/Straight alliance, but i don't wear a giant sign posted on my forehead.



anyway, thought i'd share, later.



oh, and great thread BTW, totally needed.

Edited by: AniJ15 at: 4/29/03 6:36:59 pm

[BabyJune]

Mojo - where were you thinking of attending college?



Everyone else - I must also admit that I am the prez of my school's GSA. We've done the Day of Silence for the past three years, and I organized the last two. We've had about 175 students (10% of the school) participate each year. Even so, I fed up with high school and can't wait to get to college - Wellesley, a women's college know for well...you get the idea.



-BabyJune

[Modjadji]

I've got a UK gap year lined up, actually. I'll probably have to come back here to college, but it'll be different because I know a lot of students. The town is very different from the school. The last post really came off as a rant, but it's not such a bad place if you can go home at the end of the day. It's boarders I feel sorry for.



Cheers,

Mojo

[the big pineapple]

Modjadji- that's got to majorly suck.i'm so sorry that you have to be around that...i want to go smack all of these people just for being stupid.Geez.I'd say "run away, run away and never return " but that's me...if i could i would totally come to south africa to try to help.



just know that you are one of us, a kitten, and because of that you hold a special place in my heart. much love

[mocha fiend 22]

ok first things first -mock glare at Megan and Piper and Jayma- WHY was i not told abt this thread hmmmm.... with that out of the way you all know i love ya.. we have a lil gay group at my school i love it its so much fun and im pretty much open with it at school you ask i tell... that sort of thing plus in my locker i have a I KISS GIRLS sticker and piccies of Jayma and one of the drawings so yea with all that i would say its sort of like out there ya know... all my teachers are supportive... um the kids can be mean not to me but more towards the boys and then i have to help them out and put up my dukes -giggles- ooo and on my bookbag that i take to every class is a pin that says i dont even think straight so yea id say im open to it

i didnt think there was this many teenagers on the board im not so lonesome... oh yea did i forget to say im 16 and for the driving Megan i hate driving i didnt want to learn how and now that i had to and i never took the test and stuff so yea i dont like to drive

I love you now and forever and a week