GSAs create safety and opportunity for self-discovery

L to R: Gunreet Sethi, Victoria Goldin, Yasmine Nijjar at The Birdhouse in Vancouver. The Birdhouse is a space for 2SLGBTQIA+ folks and allies. Photo provided by author.

By Yasmine Nijjar (she/her), outreach worker, Surrey

I am the first of many generations in my family to complete high school and attend post-secondary. My participation in my school’s gender and sexuality alliance (GSA) was the reason. As an at-risk racialized youth navigating the foster care system, I was in desperate need for safety, direction, and community care. I got all of those things and more through my time with the GSA.

When I joined the gender and sexuality alliance it consisted of less than 10 people. Throughout my time as one of the club’s leaders, I got to watch the GSA grow in numbers and influence. We went from a club of a few queer students to a diverse community of queer folks and allies that influenced the culture of an entire school.

We started with the goal of creating safety for our GSA members in club spaces. Overtime, we created a safe environment for the whole school. We had the senior boys’ basketball team set up an Ivan Coyote assembly, we saw straight-identifying students sing their hearts out to Kehlani at Surrey Pride Prom, and we had non-queer students in regular weekly attendance at club meetings. There was an understanding amongst allies that allyship was not simply tolerance. The work of the GSA had an impact beyond safety for queer students. It gave youth the opportunity to safely engage in self-discovery. This allowed our work to expand outside of the queer community. The school as a whole became a more inclusive space. Not only was there an effort to minimize homophobia in the hallways, but also racism and sexism. The GSA and its sponsor teacher were important factors in shifting that culture.

“The work of the GSA had an impact beyond safety for queer students. … The school as a whole became a more inclusive space. Not only was there an effort to minimize homophobia in the hallways, but also racism and sexism.”

I was a part of the leadership team for the club and was given various leadership development opportunities. From speaking at district professional development days about queer youths’ experience in schools to running education workshops on ally-ship in classrooms. Each of us found our own pockets of society to be a voice for. The first organizing experience I had was speaking at a SOGI education rally in Burnaby on a GSA field trip. I then went on to collaborate with organizations like The Elizabeth Fry Society advocating for the rights of kids in care.

Exposure to 2SLGBTQIA+ culture was one of my favourite parts of the club. Our GSA was lucky enough to experience Hayley Kiyoko live multiple times, along with Halsey. We regularly had movie nights where we watched queer films from the past and present. Knowing these pieces of queer culture made it easier for me to find my community as an adult. Many queer youth spend their lives surviving and only get to start living authentically in adulthood, but we had a safe space to get an early start. Our GSA teacher sponsor introduced us to queer music, films, art, TV shows, books, and even local restaurants. We created posts about these pieces of culture to share with a network of queer students across the district.

In some ways the GSA dynamic reflected that of a sports team, all the way down to our matching GSA hoodies. As a proud collaborator on those hoodies, I will continue to rep mine into adulthood because I carry many things from that time with me even now. In general, I found a sense of purpose and hope because of this club. For the first time ever I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be and wanted to be nowhere else. My nervous system felt safe in that room and that was, unfortunately, not a familiar feeling. It allowed me to embark on a journey of self-discovery, a journey that otherwise would not have occurred because the only safe space in my life to be queer was the club. This was a shared experience for most of our members. Because we had so much in common the GSA built friendships for me that have continued into adulthood.

I strive to create a safe space like this for my students now. I practise the skills I learned in the GSA every day now as an outreach worker in the district I grew up in. As a former at-risk youth, having a safe space like that was my saving grace in completing high school and breaking generational cycles. That space helped me learn who I was, why I was here, and why I needed to stay.