HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – With Honolulu Pride Month here, attention is drawn to the challenges faced by many LGBTQ+ individuals.
For youth, finding support to truly be themselves at an early age can be a struggle.
However, many school campuses across Hawaii are offering safe spaces for kids and young adults through GSA groups.
Formerly the gay-straight-alliance club, GSA is now known as the gender and sexuality alliance, and welcomes all who support LGBTQ+ rights.
It is not a sexual education course, but rather an opportunity for queer and questioning youth to build a support system with their peers.
“This is a club that is student-created, student-driven, and supports students who identify as LGBTQ+ and also all students who are questioning,” said 20-year veteran Hawaii State Department of Education teacher Sarah “Mili” Milianta-Laffin.
At Ilima Intermediate, Miss Mili, as the kids know her, ensures her classroom is a welcoming environment for all students. She pointed to research that shows even one supportive adult in an LGBTQ+ student’s life can reduce their suicide risk by 40%.
Ilima’s GSA was founded in 2014. Milianta-Laffin has been the faculty sponsor of the school’s GSA organization since 2017.
“What we’re trying to do is build a more inclusive campus for everyone,” she explained. “So we work on anti-bullying efforts, we work on student mental health, and we work on building community.”
There are a number of GSAs on campuses across the state. Many advisers, including former Campbell High GSA adviser Lord Ryan Lizardo of the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation, wish they had similar support systems when they were growing up.
“It can be really scary right now, I think, to have any type of club that relates to diversity,” Lizardo said. “And so I think that building that inclusiveness, again, is important. It’s an investment in our community.”
This year, Ilima Intermediate’s GSA has 20 student members. But when it was founded, it was the first GSA on a middle school campus in Hawaii.
In 2020, the club was recognized as GSA of the Year by GLSEN, an honor bestowed upon them from a pool of 8,000 clubs nationwide.
The true impact of their work, however, is often found in personal stories.
Milianta-Laffin recently received an email from a former student, now in their mid-20s, who had never been a GSA member.
“It just said, ‘You know Miss Mili, I never came out to you. I was a quiet student, but just knowing the rainbows in your classroom made me feel safe to be in your class,’” Milianta-Laffin recounted. “And the idea is we don’t, as teachers, we plant seeds and we don’t always get to know what happened, so we just kind of hope for the best, and it’s the beauty of this work.”
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