SAN FRANCISCO — Several straight students at Francisco Middle School in San Francisco’s Marina district have created a program to address homophobia in their school.
Jessica Pullano, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Education Fund, which is involved with the project, said that since none of the students are openly LGBT, they’re not calling it a gay-straight alliance.
The eighth grade Peer Resources class has created Allied Allegiance, a weekly lunchtime club where students can work on projects designed to encourage acceptance. Activities include guest LGBT speakers. So far, there are 12 club members.
According to Pullano, students’ reasons for starting the club included: “I want to stop homophobia because my friend is gay and his dad beat him and I know that he probably faces that same problem at school” and “My LGBT friends have been bullied and some considered suicide. My family doesn’t approve but I don’t care what they think. Some people even assume I’m Bi because my friends are.”
In forming the group, the youths also got some experience in grant writing. They submitted a funding application to a panel of other students and were granted $700.
The money will be used to provide lunches, produce flyers in English and Cantonese (many of the school’s students only speak the latter language), and cover other expenses.
Peer Resources is a joint effort between the San Francisco Unified School District and the education fund. The program’s classes are meant to help middle and high school students take an active role in creating safe, engaging, and supportive learning environments.
The club’s organizing a Day of Silence event in support of LGBT youth on April 5.
Reprinted by Permission.
Filed under: California
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kudos!
http://i.qkme.me/359i5l.jpg
Yay for straight allies! We can have full equality without your support!
Parker – SO APPROPRIATE!!!! :D
This is so awesome! Kids with the guts at that age to do this deserve some serious pats on the back and recognition. Middle school kids can be vicious! Most of the anti-gay bullying that I had to deal with was in middle school. By high school though, people grew up a lot, and I was on such a huge high school campus that people just didn’t care as much about picking out the gay kids, there were too many of us all over the place for them to target us! My graduating class was 1,092 or something, haha. But middle school is when kids start to get vicious about these weird social things. It probably helps these kids there that it’s in San Francisco, while I went to school in Texas in an area filled with conservatives and kids who are forced to just believe what their parents believe, so it was probably worse here than there. But still, these kids have guts and deserve this news story!
Now this is what i love to see! This made today worthwhile
Мне нравится !!! :D
So Rare,Yet Appreciated ;)
<3
there are still some good people out there :)
The greatest ally of homophobia is ignorance.
Several (not hundreds), but all long journeys begin with a single step
Thanks for your efforts! So wonderful to read “good” news. Keep up the great work. We really appreciate it.
The Neverending Saga!!!
YES!