New LGBTQIA+ club open to anyone looking for safe space

We here at the Tiger Hi-Line believe in inclusion and safety for everyone: no matter their race, gender, religion or sexuality, which is why one of our staff writers, Albie Nicol, is working with counselor Susan Langan and faculty adviser and English teacher Heather Nicholson to create a safe place and community for LGBTQIA+ students here at the school.

The club will be called Gender and Sexuality Alliance, GSA for short. While GSA is typically an acronym for Gay Straight Alliance, Nicol, Langan and Nicholson feel that the club should be called Gender and Sexuality Alliance to be more inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ individuals that walk the halls of Cedar Falls because when called a Gay Straight Alliance it’s easy for anyone who doesn’t identify as simply “gay” to feel ostracized by the group. It’s simply an outdated term.

The group will serve three main functions: supporting each other, socializing with each other and being activists together. It will meet once a week, and the purpose of each meeting will rotate.

For example, the first meeting was based on introducing the club, talking about the mission of the club and also simple introductions and socializing. The next meeting might focus on advocacy or support/venting to each other.

In addition to having in-school meetings, the group aims to hopefully have a movie night or two, and have educational events open to staff, other students and the public.

Please consider attending the first meeting next Wednesday, April 5, if you are in the LGBTQIA+ community here at Cedar Falls. This group aims to include anyone in the community. The club will typically meet on Wednesdays during B shift of Power Hour in room 206 in the English hallway.

If there are any changes in the schedule, Langan will post them on Schoology to let everyone know.