A gay–straight alliance, gender–sexuality alliance or queer–straight alliance (GSA or QSA) is a student-led organization that seeks to create safe and inclusive environments for LGBTQ students and their allies. GSAs are most commonly found in secondary schools, colleges, and universities in the United States and Canada, although similar groups exist in other countries.

The first gay–straight alliance was established in 1988 at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, by students and teachers including Kevin Jennings and Meredith Sterling. The model subsequently spread to other schools and contributed to the development of organizations such as the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the GSA Network.

GSAs commonly organize support networks, educational activities, and activism relating to LGBTQ issues and school environments. Research has associated GSAs with positive social, academic, and mental health outcomes for LGBTQ students, including lower levels of victimization and stronger feelings of school belonging.

In the United States, attempts to establish GSAs have sometimes led to legal disputes with school authorities. Federal courts have repeatedly ruled that students may form GSAs in public secondary schools where other non-curricular student organizations are permitted.

Terminology

thumb|The slogan "I [[hella love the GSA" is featured on merchandise in this photo.]]

  • ally – In the context of the founding in 1988, an ally is a cisgender, heterosexual person who supports equal rights for gay people and challenges homophobia. The meaning later expanded to include rights for all LGBTQ individuals, orientations, and gender identities.
  • Gay–Straight Alliance – name proposed by straight ally student Meredith Sterling for the original club in 1988. Sometimes with slash instead of dash.
  • Gay Straight Alliance – in title case, and without hyphen on the founder website.
  • gay–straight alliances – in lowercase, a generalized term for any club of this nature
  • Gay–Straight Alliance Network (GSA Network) – an organization founded in California in 1998 to support and promote GSAs.
  • gender–sexuality alliance – updated name for gay–straight alliance, the old name appearing "too binary" for a later generation
  • Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network – new name (2016) for the Gay–Straight Alliance Network
  • Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) – organization founded in 1990 in Boston
  • GSA – originally, designated a gay–straight alliance club, later, a gender–sexuality alliance club
  • QSA – is used for more inclusive use, as the community is more than 'Gay', the use of Queer being used allows other students that may fit the queer definition, like transgender or bisexual students, to be represented in these support groups.
  • Sexuality And Gender Acceptance/Awareness/Alliance/Association (SAGA) – unspecific general term, used as an alternative to both LGBTQ and GSA.

History

Founding

Concord Academy

The first gay–straight alliance was formed in November 1988 at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, when Kevin Jennings, a history teacher at the school who had just come out as gay, was approached by Meredith Sterling, a student at the school who was straight, but was upset by the treatment of gay students and others. Jennings recruited some other teachers at the school, thus forming the first gay–straight alliance. One of the first to join was Sterling's classmate S. Bear Bergman. Jennings credits students for both the establishment of the club, as well as for setting the agenda of struggling against homophobia, and for changes to CA's nondiscrimination policy. Jennings would go on to co-found the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in Boston in 1990.

United States

Described as "perhaps the most important precursor of the GSA movement," Los Angeles' Project 10 is seen as the start of the GSA movement. Founded in 1984, Project 10 was widely recognized as the first organized effort to provide support for LGBTQ youth in schools across the United States. The majority of its facilitators were heterosexual, and was named after the commonly held statistic that 10 per cent of the adult male population is "exclusively homosexual". Project 10 focused on issues such as substance use, and discussing issues of high-risk sexual behaviour.

The first GSA was started in 1988, in Concord, Massachusetts at Concord Academy by Kevin Jennings. The first public school gay–straight alliance was started at Newton South High School (Newton, Massachusetts) by teacher Robert Parlin. GSAs made headlines in 1999 with the Federal Court ruling in Utah–East High Gay/Straight Alliance v. Board of Education of Salt Lake City School District. This ruling found that denying access to a school-based gay–straight alliance was a violation of the Federal Equal Access Act giving students the right to use facilities for extra curricular activities at any school that receives public funding—regardless of private standing or religious affiliation.

On January 24, 2012, the United States Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, released a video on YouTube commemorating GSA Day and endorsing GSA clubs in schools.

Inclusivity

Approximately 28 per cent of participants at GSA Network identify as heterosexual.

Students at West Carteret High School in Morehead City, North Carolina, tried to start a GSA but the Carteret County Board of Education turned it down. In 1999, the Orange Unified School District in Orange County, California, moved to prohibit the formation of a GSA at El Modena High School. The students then sued the school board, claiming that their rights under the First Amendment and the 1984 Equal Access Act had been violated. In the first-ever ruling of its kind, Judge David O. Carter of the United States District Court for the Central District of California issued a preliminary injunction ordering the school to allow the GSA to meet.

The right of students to establish a GSA at school is guaranteed by both the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (with regard to every level of schooling) and the federal Equal Access Act (with regard to secondary schools as long as other student clubs are allowed, with the definition of secondary school for purposes of the federal law including middle schools and high schools).