GLSEN

GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) is a nation-wide organization that focuses on education in K-12 schools. They believe all children deserve a safe place to learn. Unfortunately, for many children, school is a place where they are verbally and physically abused because of how others perceive their sexual orientation, or the sexual orientation of their parents.

I attended the 1998 national GLSEN conference in Oakland, California. At this three-day conference I met incredible people from our nation's 23 states. There were queer and non-queer people, aged infant through 70s, of many nationalities, races, ethnicities, and religions. The focus was on equality for everyone. Equal rights for people of different races, ethnicities, and socio-economic status were supported vocally - in the workshops, and in the keynote speeches. Best of all, an incredible feeling of optimism and determination pervaded. I never wanted it to end. It was such a safe place, a supportive place - and a real place!

Never before had I attended anything similar. I cried when I listened to the education programs GLSEN is developing in cooperation with schools. Sexual orientation was so closeted when I was growing up. It was not until college that I met someone I knew to be gay. And I live in California, in the Bay Area!

When I first got to the conference, I was busy looking around to see if I could discover what a lesbian looked like, what a gay man looked like. This may sound silly, but remember that most of my concept of queer people has come from the media! So there I was, saying to myself, "Oh! so lesbians have big noses." A moment later it was, "Okay, so lesbians are tall...no, they're short. They're heavyset. No, they're slender. They're masculine - no, feminine." I did a similar thing for the men. After having a conversation with a sweet grandma in her 70s and then learning she was a lesbian attending this convention, I gave up. First-hand, I experienced what I already knew in principal, but had never seen in practise: gays, lesbians, bisexuals, queers, are mostly invisible because there is no "type." People are people, regardless of sexual orientation.

I also liked experiencing the caring between gays and lesbians, and between straights and queers. I had read about gays not caring about lesbians, and vice versa, about straights not caring about queers, and vice versa. But what I experienced was people caring about people. I have never been surrounded by a more wonderful, large group of people. I did not want to go home Sunday.

I encourage you to visit GLSEN's web site at http://www.glsen.org/ or click GLSEN.