Today we had the showdown. No one died, no one lost an eye, but there was plenty of spirited debate. This was the day that I proposed a Gay-Straight Alliance be started at South Georgia College.
A little background: at a usual Student Government meeting we probably have about four people: the President, VP, Secretary, and advisor. Well today we probably had about 35 people at the meeting. A lot of people were there to support the Gay-Straight Alliance, while there were a few who were there to voice their opposition to the club. Luckily, the Baptist Student Union didn’t come as a club and say that they didn’t approve of the new GSA – that would have been extremely, for lack of a better word: stupid! But any ho, so the meeting got started and we went through our usual Student Government information. I got to present a nice plaque to the President for his work with us this year, yada yada…Finally we got to the good part – I got to propose the club. There were many eyes on me so I was slightly nervous, but none the less I got up and explained the purpose of the club and what we intend to do on the campus. After my presentation another wanna be club presented there mission statement and such to the Student Government to get recognized by the school. Then we entertained questions from the audience. The floodgates opened. Some one from BSU proposed that the school just not fund any of the clubs in the school and that all clubs on campus fundraise. This was immediately shot down by several members in the Gay-Straight Alliance. To spare all the details of the whole conversation I’ll get to the good part, well the good part in my head. I wasn’t going to say much during the “discussion,” I just wanted to hear what everyone had to say BUT some one from the BSU made the comment (and this isn’t the exact quote-bad memory-but somewhere along these lines) “I know gay people, and the gay people I know don’t shove what they do in the bed room down my throat.” For some reason that pissed me off, so I had to get up and say something. I said, “We are not a club about sex, we are not going to sit around and talk about who’s having sex with who, we are here to promote acceptance of different sexual orientations through education. This club will also be a support group for people who don’t have a voice and need some where to get away from the negative forces in their life.” While I was saying this I did some pounding of my fists on the table and got the whole emotional thing in my voice, it was pretty intense.
SO, tomorrow I go to the Student Activities Budget Committee and I find out if the club has been approved (I think) – then we sit around and allocate funds to each of the clubs – fun!
Well I need to get back to my English paper.
