LGBTQ youth conference drives support for GSAs in Alberta schools

An annual conference on gay-straight alliances drew its biggest ever crowd in Edmonton this weekend.

Around 500 students and staff participated in the Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Alliance Conference at Eastglen High School on Saturday. The goal of the provincial conference is to offer support for Alberta students and teachers in creating and maintaining GSAs for LGBTQ students and supporters.

Attendance has doubled year-over-year since the conference began five years ago, said Kris Wells, one of the organizers and theFaculty Director of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta.

"We're seeing an incredible movement happen across this province where young people want to learn how to start gay-straight alliances, they want to learn how to sustain them, they want to learn to the tools to make them strong and vibrant and safe spaces for everyone in their school community," Wells said.

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Student and activist Cameron Litowski said participating in theconference gavehim strength.

"At school sometimes I can get down because of homophobia or misogyny or racism, but by coming to a conference like this, they're so beneficial because now I have more motivation and drive to help people."

The conference offered workshops and presentations for staff and students on starting a GSA, as well as music, poetry and drama activities.

Earlier this year, Education Minister David Eggen introduced guidelines for school boards across Alberta to incorporate policies to support and protect students regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

Strathcona-Sherwood Park MLA Estefania Cortes-Vargas said the government continues to work with school boards across Alberta to offer support in implementing GSAs and other means of making Alberta schools more inclusive.

'Schools that have QSAs save people's lives'

Litowski said although there's still much work to be done in creating safe spaces for LGBTQ youth in schools, GSAs and QSAs(queer-straight alliances) are a necessary aspect of creating that sort of environment.

"Studies show that schools that have QSAs save people's lives," Litowski said. "Those little clubs after school where you talk about how you're feeling that day, that literally prevents people from committing suicide, and that small little club shows how beneficial this entire work is.

"Just recognizing gender minorities as a valid thing saves people's lives."

Just recognizing gender minorities as a valid thing saves people's lives.- CameronLitowski,student and activist

Wells saidit's an especially positive sign for youth that the House of Commons recently passed Bill C-16, which would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to include gender identity and expression onthe list of prohibited grounds for discrimination.

"[LGBTQ rights]isn't a partisan issue, this is a human rights issue," Wells said. "It strikes the very heart of Canadian society where we value diversity and multiculturalism, and this is just another form of difference.

"C-16 is really important because it signals to young people that are at this conference and across Canada that we see you, we value you as members of society and we want to ensure that you are fully included and protected."