🏳️‍🌈LGBTQ+ clubs at school - BECOME A QUEER HANGOUTS PATRON👉patreon.com/queerhangouts  

BECOME A QUEER HANGOUTS PATRON! 👉patreon.com/queerhangouts

My old GSA teacher said something like: 'We would never encourage people to lie to their parents. . . . .but we do run the same time as key club'

My old high school’s GSA was fairly small (cause sort of conservative Texas school) so we had a running list of all of the “alternative clubs” lies that some of the members would give to their unaccepting parents. The majority of list was the language clubs cause that was the easiest for most but the default was the cooking club cause their meetings were on the same day and in the same hallway (they shared a many of snacks with us and it was very wholesome).

Not the last name being Intolerante 😂

GSA’s: if a student goes by a different name you can especially play that up. “No I’m sorry no one with the name ‘dead name’ attends this club.”

My GSA in Texas had a second flyer for "art club" bc it technically WAS held in the art room by the art teacher and we COULD create stuff in there if we really wanted to. This has been the queer truth for decades, if not centuries. A lot of hush-hush, a lot of secret meetings, info getting passed under the table, and secrecy. I'm not religious, but i pray for a day when that isn't the norm.

And this is why GSA at my workplace runs at the same time as several clubs.

Our was the GSA- for kids with not supportive parents, our permission slips didn’t say what GSA stood for, and we all agreed, GSA=General Studies Application if any of those parents asked

Being the president of a student led GSA was very difficult for me, and the worst part was meeting unsupportive parents. Keeping your members safe, and having to come up with lies on the spot was very difficult. Thankfully i also ran a photography club at the time. So that was my main way of getting parents to stay off their kids backs

My school wasn't allowed to have a GSA; they told us there was already a multicultural club that would suit us. They expected LGBTQ kids to crash the brown kids' club.

"Yo Austin you gotta get real into gardening" "What?"

I went to a private school (not by choice, I was forced in my parents divorce agreement) where being lgbtq+ could get us kicked out so, our GSA was just a bunch of kids who became friends and hung out outside of school because “oh my god are you also scared that you could get kicked out any moment because our school sucks?”

If I found out that I was being lied to about my kid not being in an LGBTQ+ club or group, I’d feel ashamed of myself for not being my child’s safe place. It’s not the school or child’s duty to indulge the parent’s bigotry. They protect the kids.

my middle school’s GSA always said we were the arts and crafts club to unsupportive parents, worked like a charm since most of us were artsy kids anyways

The people who are saying "The parents need to be told the truth" would absolutely tell the SS where people were hiding in the 1940s

We had an lgbtqia club called Prisms that was started years before I ever got into highschool, but we haven’t been able to meet this year because of “issues behind the scenes.” AKA, the school board probably got angry parents calling them and basically is trying to completely shut the club down as students fight back.

its not realistic, the realistic response is "GARDENING? I DONT WANT MY SON TO TOUCH FLOWERS, IT WILL MAKE HIM GAY"

The amount of people that would rather the kid potentially be in harms way then just lie is disheartening A child should be allowed to have a life outside there parents anyway

I WISH there was a queer kids hangout near me!

Some people seem to be confused about what most kids/people do at GSA’s/LGBTQ clubs. I can say that at my GSA we mostly just talk,eat and sometimes organise events like spirit day. And of course we support people but you don’t even have to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community to join. Also we aren’t indoctrinating people we are just having fun making friends and taking about stuff we like (most of those things usually aren’t even queer). So don’t that GSA’s are bad if you’ve never even been to one🫤 (Edit: I’m not saying it’s okay to lie to parents, but sometimes the truth can put the child in more danger than lying would. I would personally ask some more questions like why the child isn’t allowed to join and then decide what to do) (Edit2: I meant that sometimes it’s better to lie if it’s unsafe for a child at home.

Having unsupportive parents can be the hardest thing .. esp at that age. But having a school lie to you as the parent? I’m not sure how I feel about it. But I will say, children’s NEEDS should come first. If this type of thing is happening - I would suggest family counseling 🩷 - from a teacher who sees this all the time

Hi parents, potential parents, and/or upset people in the comments! Please keep in mind that if you don't want your child to feel as though they can only confide in their teachers as opposed to you, provide a loving and understanding environment. Allow them to explore and figure themselves out. If you don't do that and instead express animosity at the thought of your child being an individual, ignore their feelings, thoughts, and concerns, or worse off, harm them in any way, you have LITERALLY no one to blame but yourself. You hold the power in a relationship with your child so if they feel unsafe telling you something, it's almost certainly your fault. Finally, as a parent, you need to get comfortable with the fact that sometimes your child won't want to talk to you about every single thing that comes up in their life, even if you're doing everything right, and that's fine. Trying to force an answer out from them or their teachers will only push them away, and gaining their trust back is millions of times harder than losing it. The guides in place for teachers are to allow children a safe outlet for their thoughts and feelings. Not all parents will harm their children but many do or would, and because they are typically quite good at hiding their crimes, it is important for teachers to trust their students and provide them that confidentiality (outside of the mandated report situations obv). Teachers are not your enemies and if you see them as such, that is a you problem, not a them problem. Protect children! Also, if your kid joins an lgbtq club of some sort or a gsa (gay straight alliance), don't make a big deal about it? Maybe they're joining because their friends are, maybe they just want to learn about their peers, or maybe they're trying to figure some things about themselves out. You don't get to tell them no to any of that. They're allowed to have friends, they're allowed to seek knowledge, and they're allowed to want to know more about themselves. If you can't handle the thought of potentially having an lgbtq kid, don't have kids. If you have a kid and can't handle the thought of them potentially being lgbtq, seek therapy or, if you're capable of it, talk to your kid about it CIVILLY. Guide your child, don't control them. They are going to grow into an individual with their own thoughts, feelings, beliefs, likes, dislikes, etc. and the sooner you are able to relinquish control and begin guiding instead, the happier you and your child will be. It can feel bad to give up control of something, I understand, but remember that it's something you were never meant to have control of in the first place. Children aren't toys or accessories; they are future adults. They will be running the world someday and will do so even when you're not around. If you only try to control them and not guide them, you are robbing them of the ability to function in a world without you or when you grow to old to control them anymore.

Its crazy how theres people in the comments saying they'd rather the parent know where the kid is / tough shit parents hurt their kids. Just because it happens don't accept it , wtf ??? In this scenario letting the child actually express and find other people to connect with is best for many reasons. Plus if your worried about "safety" you do realize parents like this good chance don't give 2 shits about the kids wellbeing at all right? 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️ whats up with people

OKAY, LISTEN UP, ALL OF YOU SAYING THAT "you betrayed us! you're lying to parents!!!! we need to know where they are!!!!!" If the parent does not support LGBTQ+, the kid could be abused or even disowned/kicked out if they find out. You can deny it as much as you want and think "oh, isn't disowning a bit extreme? it never happens!", but it's a real thing. If you constantly yell "IF MY SON COMES OUT AS GAY, I'M LEAVING HIM ON THE STREET" your kid will definitely not trust you enough to come out. I get the concern that in case of emergency, the parents wouldn't know exactly where their kid is, but it wouldn't make much of a difference if all the clubs are meeting in the same school. Even less of a difference if the club is literally in the same hallway as the club they're actually at.

Dont forget to notify the kid exactly what you told their parent, so they dont figure out that you lied to protect them.

A child needs safe places. People to hang out with. To learn how to truly be who they are with good role models. Any club that fulfills that need is a good thing.

I go to pride club on club days and the only reason my parents dont shun me is because they dont suspect anything. Im a really good liar so im able to keep it under wraps but its really fucking scary

Are we all going to ignore that he is holding the phone with the back of it on his ear and not the screen hahaha😂😂

This is why my school run it at lunch. Homophobic parents would cause an issue

I love my GSA teachers i’m so excited for next month! we are having a “fruity february” were we go and have a picnic with other GSAs in our county!

As a recent high school graduate, finding out that schools have LGBTQ+ clubs makes me SO jealous 😭 although I am really happy for all the queer kids who get to go to these clubs

I completely support the LGBTQ+ community and am even a part of it myself being bisexual, but I feel like it is the parents choice on how they want to parent so while I feel like it sucks that a lot of parents don’t accept it, it is the parents right to know where their child is and whether or not they are participating or apart of the LGBTQ+ club

I never realized when I was in high school because I was very straight presenting and also pretty sure I'm greysexual as well as pansexual, so I never was interested in anyone. But, anyways, I never realized how intolerant my high school was. Most of my LGBTQ friends transferred schools by sophomore year. My school was full of extreme Christians. I never was bullied because nobody in my hometown had a clue about my sexuality

I wish my teachers were like this

I wish they had clubs like this when I was in school!

Lgbtq is amazing and I may not be one but I support it

My school has this rule where we have to actually PAY to go to the clubs, I’m in band and art but I wash there was an lgbtq one for me and my other lgbtq friends.

I wish we had clubs at my school. Should we have extra curricular things and like there’s Spanish club but that’s just to organize the language fair. There’s not any other clubs. There’s news team, cadence (news paper), quizbowl, sciencebowl, Leo club, and a pop a cappella group. But all of these are school run sports/activities that take place during school.

This is why my high school always had the GSA meetings during lunch, for our closeted siblings to be able to attend without alerting any bigot parents

Parents have a right to know this about their kids

My old high school during my freshman year got rid of the GSA so they could run a Young Republicans Club instead claiming they didn't have enough funding or staff (the reason changed each time someone asked). It was also the only LGBT club and they denied any attempts to restart the club, still upset about it. So glad college is better.

I so wish I could have learned the LGBTQ+ stuff when I was in school. I barely knew gay existed back then, and I kept my head down all the time introvertedly stressed about missing assignments. I didn’t learn I was an aroace enby until after college! Crazy, right?

My school needs an lgbt club

Lying to parents can get a school in a LOT of trouble. The office worker would likely lose their job.

At my school Safe Space (which is an LGBTQ+ club), art club, key club, and gardening club are all on the same day and at the same time so we all have excuses. Since our club name is also Safe Space and the thing on our achool website says "a place for any and all students to feel safe regardless of race, religion, gender, sexuality, and even grades" we are double protected. 😭

mine's at break, which i think works well. I also made leader for next year despite only being 15:)

I used to be the kid that went to the LGBTQ+ club (called GSA gay straight alliance) and lied about it to my parents. Was usually saying drama club or for my agricultural education stuff

The gsa at my school happens at lunch time so kids are always able to come because they’re already here.

Lying to parents should not be allowed. Unless the child is being abused by the parent, they have every right to know.

Isnt it illegal for the school to lie about the whereabouts of their child?like wht if theres an emergency or something bad happens n the parent goes to the wrong club location cuz u lied?

I wasn't gay but I did participate in the LGBTQ club at my highschool back in 2005. I have a lot of friends in the community and thought I would support them, it backfired and a lot of people stopped talking to me

Is it a bit icky that the school is lying to the parents? Maybe a little but it's better to lie than to put children in a possibly dangerous situation.

That's what teachers should do. They should support the students and keep them safe, not to tell everything to their literal abusers at home.

We have one at my college it’s brilliant

My gsa club is a safe space. We host it on days of most other clubs in order to help back up students with homophobic parents. They are so nice and would never force people to do something to out them.

Parents have a right to know what their children do. Where i'm from you could lose your job for doing that

Me, at uni going to GSA meetings thinking I'm just an ally: I'm totally not LGBTQ! The GSA members: It's okay to say that you're LGBTQ. That's kind of the point of this club. Me: Wait does all those times I had sex with a girl count as having sex? GSA: Yes. Me: Yay! I'm not a virgin! 😂😂😂

This was a nice Save i don't encourage people to lie to parents but at the same time this is protecting the well-being of the student

This is bad. Schools should never lie to the teachers it’s ultimately the parents choice as legal guardians to do what it best for their child and should be in open communication with them.

HELP MY DADS HOMOPHOBIC I GO TO GSA AND MY PREFERRED NAME IS AUSTIN.... 💀

It's sad that kids today still feel the need to lie to their parents :(

As a parent, I know it's important to keep kids safe, especially from closed minded family! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎💙💗🤍

Bruh I need teachers like these

The number of people in the comments who think that CPS would be helpful in this sort of situation is astounding.

Not me actually joining a gardening club instead of the LGBTQ+ club because I was afraid my parents would find out…. they still found out I was Bi…

I wanna say something... If there are clubs in a elementary then there should be NO LGBTQ+ things AT ALL Parents should be able to tell their kids that not the teachers

Apparently, the LGBTQ+ club at my school (GLOW club) has snacks. Too bad I can't go because I'm too much of a DND nerd. (The clubs are at the same time) PROTECT AUSTIN!

My school has a club for LGBTQ and I’m glad that people are finally being accepting of it , I think that it’s really nice for people to feel comfortable and happy ❤ especially after somethings that I see on the internet

It's like what they say if u can't have beer at 5 years old then u can choose ur sex at 1 years old

I want to know what they do in the lgbtq club but I don't want to go because I don't want people thinking I'm not straight

As someone named Austin i can confirm im not in any clubs

LGBT is for people who actually belong there. So many follow it as a trend. You will have a hard awakening in your late twenties. You cannot rebel forever. There comes a day when you have to build a future for yourselves and there is no teacher or parent to rebel against, just you. I wish you all the best.

In my school they told me that they wnated to do an lgbtq club but they canceld it because it was too controversial 😒

i love the mechanics of GSA, when i signed up, the parent sign up sheet was very broad and only talked about “strengthening social and personal relationship skills”, with a separate paper for only you to sign about your sexual orientation and/or gender identity, everyone there was always so supportive and understanding of everything, there was this kid who constantly name called people there, he was told to stop for weeks in a very polite manner, until one day the counselor said in the MOST polite way possible “Well, now you’re going to have to go” and got kicked out for that meeting

Our gsa club sponsor is like "i cant lie to parents, but i won't say anything unless the ask directly ." Sucks that our pass says who signed it and out parents can see it. Lucky that the sponsor is my sister tracher so my mom wouldnt say anything

I wish our school did this, instead the openly queer kids made a “buddy’s program” which is basically an LGBTQ club in disguise lol

My LGBTQ+ club....is just my friend group walking around at school (And the theater/art club, as that's where the majority of us are in lol)

Schools have no right to lie to parents about anything ever no matter what

You know, I get what you’re doing and saying, and that this actually does protect some students and make them more comfortable, but lying to parents will only make the situation worse, especially when the parents end up finding out accidentally. I’m not saying that this is wrong, but I’m not saying that it’s right either, and I feel like maybe it’s better to just discuss these kinds of topics with the parent and child together in a parent-teacher meeting maybe, rather than lie and possibly make the situation worse, unless the child might want to come out to their parents alone and are planning to do it just at a time and place that they’re comfortable with, then it’s understandable I guess

All our schools clubs are on Wednesdays. They have 4 rotation, the LGBTQ is in 2 of them. The teacher who runs it is a science teacher. Last year, they and the students in it named it DNA. It stands for something, I don't know what (I'm a freshman and wasn't there last year). But yeah, science club....

Respect 🙏

YASS THAT TEACHERS THE GOAT!!!

I’m old so we didn’t have anything for gay kids. They weren’t even acknowledged at all. I’m glad things seem to be better.

Yeah cause keeping secrets from parents if definitely a great idea

My parents support but for the those whos parents dont support we just call it book club

SHUT UP MY GSA RUNS AT THE SAME TIME AS GARDENING CLUB

The way he was holding the phone backward💀

I’m my opinion the teacher shouldn’t lie to the parents. If the kid is going behind the dads back, that’s something the kid and the dad can figure out on their own

An easy solution to the GSA club was to have Art club at the same time!! It was really easy to do bc both are run by our art teacher (who’s the best)

I'm not usually one to lie to parents but it's not always safe for the kid to tell the truth.

I'm a parent who is by my daughter out of all 4 kids is a lesbian I'm proud of her for everything an anything no matter but if a teacher lies to me about where my child is that isn't safe period

In my school I have a friend who attends a dnd club with me and one time he had a boyfriend and they kissed,one of the teachers found out and while they made this whole assembly about discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and other kinds of discrimination,this teacher went and told his mom WHO IS HOMOPHOBIC about it??Meanwhile I sometimes see straight couples kissing and hugging in the hallways around teachers and they just ignore it?

I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to lie to parents about where there kid is…

How is it okay for you to keep secrets from the parents child. The child belongs to the parent, not the school system.

I understand in situations where the kids safety might be in jeopardy, but a teacher should never lie to a parent. It breaks a certain level trust we are supposed to have.

While I was surprised that my youngest didn’t tell me he went to the GSA club meetings (held at lunch) I was so happy he felt it was important to go and that he felt strong enough to go without getting permission from me. He’s such a rule follower (can’t relate), but this was important to him.

i was the founder and president on my middle school GSA, and our teacher sponsor was my science teacher... so if it was unsafe for someone to be there, they were getting science tutoring/tutoring someone in science

You don’t see anything wrong with a parent not knowing where his child is? LGBT aside, a parent has a right to know where his/her child is and who they’re talking to/about.

That is illegal btw, also, "protection" from a truly sane and worried Parent is not really a problem

School is about SCHOOL AND LEARNING. NOT SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Get over yourselves, and let kids be kids. They’ll figure that shit out later. Not saying it doesn’t matter, but that’s not a school’s job or issue to even handle.