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Led by Youth, EQUAL Links Gay-Straight Alliances - The New Network Stretches Across the Kansas City Area
September 1, 2007
by Bradley Osborn
The Kansas City area has a new, youth-led metro area gay-straight alliance (GSA) network called EQUAL. EQUAL stands for Empowering QUeer Activists and Leaders. Young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and allied (LGBTQA) activists started the group, and it is growing under the leadership of local members.
Traditional GSAs are established in secondary schools and colleges, often with the guidance of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). EQUAL succeeds QSAVED (Queer and Straight Against Violence and Ending Defamation) as a metro-wide GSA network. Working with CYSEE (Coalition for Youth Safety Empowerment and Education), EQUAL?s founders hope to go even further in networking LGBT youth in the metro and beyond, striving to keep them safe and free from discrimination.
EQUAL membership is open to LGBTQ and allied youth under the age of 24. Members may or may not belong to an existing GSA; the goal is networking activists from existing GSAs and linking up LGBT youth whose school may not have an alliance. Another goal of EQUAL is to keep youth activists involved in the effort for rights and safety as they move from high school to college. Some students used to having a high school GSA may find their university lacks LGBTQA outreach. Again, EQUAL plans to stand outside traditional organizational frameworks, linking individuals who might not have a school-sanctioned mentoring office.
Safety is a primary fixture of groups like EQUAL, and safe-space training was one of the first tasks accomplished at its recent retreat. Making sure participants were all using the same terminology for things such as orientation, gender and gender identity helped advance later discussions more efficiently. Another purpose behind the summit for these young leaders was to let them get to know each other, and to start forming the organizational structure of the group.
CYSEE is the de facto Kansas City safe schools coalition and will likely simplify its name to reflect that in the near future. It is made up of representatives of existing community organizations that have missions intersecting that of EQUAL in the broader community. These organizations are adult-led, and therefore differ from the youth-led management paradigm that established EQUAL.
Adults are welcome, however. Adults can donate time, space or money. They can mentor and educate members about activism. Mentor Maria Williams sees a new generation of adults who themselves had positive experiences as LGBT youth and want to pass that on to this new generation of activists. But she stresses the importance of youth ownership of EQUAL. Youth started it. Youth run it. And youth will see it to its maturity. But it doesn?t hurt to have an experienced older person around to help shepherd through things like grant applications to funding sources ? always a challenge for a new organization, especially one that spans an entire metropolitan area, stretching across two states.
In early August, Williams and EQUAL board member Colin Daniels attended the second annual National Gathering of the National Association of GSA Networks in Albuquerque, N.M. Delegates from Kansas City were invited to this year?s conference due to their groundbreaking work in the field. Connecting state and regional networks of GSA clubs, information-sharing, networking and youth leadership skills development were hallmarks of the event.
?Networking brings together extraordinary diversity, allowing young people to excel in school, become leaders and reduce isolation,? Williams said.
Each year GLSEN-KC and the LGBT Student Life Office of UMKC sponsor the Gay + Straight Youth Empowerment Summit (GSYES), a daylong event of skills-building workshops and reinvigoration exercises for leaders and potential leaders of local gay-straight alliances. Beginning this year, GSYES will be known as the EQUAL Empowerment Summit. Look for EQUAL at other community events such as Out in Westport and Kansas City Gay Pride.
For now, the best way to get involved with EQUAL is to join its Facebook group at http://facebook.com/group.php?gid=2385699927, or by e-mailing Colin Daniels at king_c15@hotmail.com.
To learn more about gay-straight alliances, visit the Web site of GLSEN?s national organization at glsen.org, or check out the Kansas City chapter?s myspace page sharing its space with EQUAL at myspace.com/glsenkc. Information on GSA networks can be found at gsanetwork.org.
?I hope EQUAL will become this tremendous organization that gives people of all genders and sexual orientations an outlet to speak, and stand up for what they believe in.? ? Colin Daniels
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