WELCOME AND SOLIDARITY

The journey of a Gay Straight Alliance

By Catherine Cavanagh

Ifeed another bead onto the string and listen to the students chatting around me. We are gathered around a table in the center of the chapel. The beads give us something to do as we talk about life as an LGBTQ+ person in our Catholic school.

We are in a meeting of our school’s Gay Straight Alliance.* Our school has been home to a GSA since the Ontario government passed legislation in 2012 ensuring that students in Catholic schools could form such clubs. Our students wasted no time getting theirs up and running. The last eight years have been full of variety and change. Some years, our club has been loud and vibrant, an active part of the larger school community, putting up posters promoting inclusion, selling rainbow cupcakes for charity, and hosting movies. Other years, it has been a small, simple, and discrete place of conversation. The students lead the way. Always, our discussions and membership are confidential, while our welcome sign invites anyone to join us.

The journey has been a learning process for me. As a straight white female, I still worry if I am doing enough. There is no

guidebook for Catholic GSAs. In the early years, my school board administration was nervous about receiving pushback from the Catholic community, insisting I file reports and that my principal stop in periodically to check on us – something that has never been required of any other club. I also worried, I admit with some shame, about whom I might offend. But I worried more about our LGBTQ+ students and what their high school years might be like if we did not do all we could to support them. So I listened and I learned, and took the time to go to in-services and workshops. To this day, I continue to network, read, pray, and take advice (and also sometimes offer it). But mostly, I listen to the students, their parents, and their allies.

The purpose of a Gay Straight Alliance is to combat bullying due to sexual orientation or gender identity. In 2012, before the passage of the equity legislation, the Catholic bishops objected to their existence in Catholic schools out of fear they would somehow legitimize and promote sexual activity, particularly homosexual activity, among youth. But the government upheld the right of students to form the clubs. Over the years, the Bishops have come around, recognizing in the most recent Institute for Catholic Education document the absolute need for support for our LGBTQ+ students.

Our staff has grown more comfortable over the years as well. We welcome LGBTQ+ students and colleagues, and acknowledge LGBTQ+ role models in the classroom. For some it has been easy, a no-brainer. But for others, it has been a journey of growth, as old stereotypes and prejudices were shed and destroyed. A willingness to grow is at the heart of our Catholic identity, and I am encouraged to continue my own efforts at self-growth. Some years, a colleague or two will also join our meetings.

I am relieved and grateful for all of this. I look around the table today and see students who have been marginalized and struggle with feelings of self-worth. I see their supporters too. It is good to be here together. Several of the students are transgender, a change from when we started in 2012, when no trans student had yet come forward in our school.

One thing that has not changed is the courage of the participants and their unwavering support for each other. The conversation drifts, coming back every once in a while to stories of rejection or inclusion, of coming out to parents or friends, of the hurt of so-called “jokes” about gender identity or sexual orientation. Imagine having an aspect of your personality used as an insult. From time to time over the years, I have taken concerns voiced by students (with their consent) to our school administration. They have always been addressed promptly and effectively.

Our GSA provides a safe place for students to come, knowing they will be supported. It conforms to teachings from Jesus to “judge not” (Matthew 7:1) and to “do onto others as you would have them do onto you” (Matthew 7:12). It follows the model of solidarity and table fellowship exemplified by Christ, as he sat and ate with those who were labeled sinners in his time. As if we are not all sinners. As if being LGBTQ+ were a sin. Every so often, perhaps every year or so, someone new to the school will see the poster outside the chapel advertising our GSA and complain that it is “not Catholic.” It happened just a couple of weeks ago. But nothing could be more Catholic than supporting all of our students, regardless of who they are, and letting them know they are loved and they belong.

Jesus spends a lot of time hanging out and eating in the Gospels. He feeds thousands. He eats and converses with everyone and anyone, both before his crucifixion and after his resurrection. There is no ambiguity around Jesus’ example of hospitality and welcome. That is the heart of our GSA. So today we eat cookies between our beading. We share a laugh. And we listen.

I write this because I am aware there are still many fears about these clubs in the Catholic community. But there is nothing to fear. Our GSA affirms the dignity of all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. It operates according to the teachings of Christ, who said much about friendship and love, and nothing about sex, gender roles, or gender identity. If we are truly following Christ, then nobody, absolutely nobody, may be excluded from that love, or judged for who they are. Our GSA welcomes the voiceless and bullied, the forgotten but courageous ones who assert who they are no matter what. It welcomes the popular and strong too.

I feed another bead on my string, a purple one to go with the pink, green, yellow, black, and white ones I have already strung. I ask one of the students to tie my new bracelet around my wrist. Our school is brighter because of our GSA, just as my wrist is brighter with the bracelet.

I smile. I’m proud of my new bracelet and I’m proud of my students. And I believe Jesus is too.

Catherine Cavanagh is a teacher and chaplain at St Mary Catholic High School in Brockville, with OECTA’s Eastern Unit. She holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Regis College at the University of Toronto, and speaks and writes on issues related to justice and spirituality in the Catholic Church.