Free As My Hair

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It’s October, and for GSAs across the country, that means we are gearing up for Ally Week. Each year that I have been the sponsor, our GSA has added and evolved its Ally Week events and activities, and this year is no exception. The members are planning rainbow tie-dye parties in addition to our traditional ribbon-wearing, pledge-signing and bake sales to benefit the Trevor Project, and I’m looking forward to helping make it all happen. This year, also for the first time, the Upper School is holding an assembly on National Coming Out Day and showing the film Straightlaced; this is one of the many reasons I feel lucky to work where I work.

Each year, the girls make an announcement at our all-upper-school morning meeting to preview the events and explain the meaning behind the week. Unfortunately, in the past year especially, there has been no shortage of tragic news stories to bring up to bolster the anti-bullying message at the heart of Ally Week. This year, the club chose the story of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, who killed himself less than a month ago after being repeatedly bullied for being gay. In their announcement, they first played the It Gets Better video Jamey had made earlier this year, and then announced his recent suicide. Jamey was a dedicated Lady Gaga fan, as is one of our club members, and she found a video of a recent performance an obviously emotional Gaga dedicated to Jamey. It was a really powerful moment, and I was so proud of the girls for developing and delivering this message in front of over 300 of their peers and teachers.

As I have written before, working with our school’s GSA has been so rewarding. Now that I feel comfortable in my role of supporting the students, I want to start challenging myself to make my teaching more inclusive.  While I have a safe space poster (PDF) hanging in my room, I only teach a few poems a year by GLBTQ authors, and that aspect doesn’t even always arise in our discussions. I want to add more GLBTQ books to my classroom library, but also incorporate some kind of assignment to get the students reading them; one idea I’ve kicked around is adding an extra-credit reading assignment when we read Catcher in the Rye, giving them a list of YA novels about adolescence and then having them explore how young adulthood is represented in those texts. The list could include everything from The Outsiders or Prep: A Novel to Boy Meets Boy or Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  I’m still thinking about the best way to do this, but it seems like English would be an easier fit than some other subjects might be–suggestions welcome!

Like teaching itself, working with these students outside the classroom is work that is incredibly fulfilling, but where you don’t always see immediate results.  I may never know what impact these announcements and events have on the students, but I do know that every move has potential ripple effects, whether or not I ever get to know it.

Related articles

• Lady Gaga Honors Jamey Rodemeyer (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• Lady Gaga Sings “Hair” for Jamey Rodemeyer (now100fm.radio.com)
• Lady Gaga, 500 Funeral Attendees, And A NY Senator All Commemorate Jamey Rodemeyer (queerty.com)