Salve’s Gay/Straight/Lesbian/Bisexual Alliance (GSLBA) Promotes Accepting Attitude

By: Mary Grace Donaldson
Posted In: News

Salve’s Gay/Straight/Lesbian/Bisexual alliance (GSLBA) wastes no time.

The club is known for being one of the most active and well-ran clubs on campus. Weekly meetings bring together anywhere between eight and 20 students on a consistent basis. Over 100 students subscribe to GSLBA’s email list. Events for the current semester have been in the works since returning from Christmas break.

“It’s most definitely a group effort,” said Nicole Baldassari, a senior and the secretary of GSLBA. The executive board, consisting of Baldassari and Alli Jean, Evan Gallo, Megan Petit and Priscilla Villa who are vice president, treasurer, president and public relations officer respectively, collaborate on activities and have recently instituted a policy of taking turns running meetings.

The new meeting policy and consistent enthusiasm from both the executive board and the active members have proved fruitful for the group. During the first semester of this academic year, GSLBA sponsored the display of an art project in O’Hare, titled “If You Really Knew Me” based on a similar MTV TV show and project of the same name. The signature element of each individual project was a statement along the lines of “I’m gay, but I also play a sport.” The project is designed to take the focus off sexual orientation and place the focus on the whole person.

Another event sponsored by GSLBA is Gapple Picking. In addition, the tragedy of Tyler Clementi motivated the group to assist in Salve’s response to the event. Back in November, GSLBA was the first co-sponsor to sign up with the Mercy Center to co-host the Human Dignity Forum.

“I thought there was a great turnout,” said Jean. “Definitely very positive.” However, Jean said, there could have been more dialogue among students and awareness spread as a result of the forum.

“I think it should have gone beyond ‘I have a friend who’s gay and I love him!'” Baldassari said.

The GSLBA executive board agrees that Salve’s campus has regressed from the mode of acceptance that was noticeable on campus after the Human Dignity forum. The advent of the website Likealittle.com promoted cyber-bullying, as well as comments that far from projected a campus culture of acceptance.

“I think that website brought us backward from the forum,” Gallo said. “Especially when people started putting people’s names on it. We were so close to achieving something and all being on the same page.” The executive board also said that other minorities were entitled to a voice and at the next forum, their concerns should be a topic of discussion.

In spite of the current setbacks, the success of the Human Dignity Forum sparked two follow-up discussions, both held at the Mercy Center. The setbacks also did not stop Gallo from completing a side project: shifting McKillop Library’s bathroom stalls to indicate that they were gender neutral. With the help of the executive board and members of GSLBA, Gallo made even the smallest difference on campus.

GSLBA plans on making a big difference this current semester. A great deal of events are already planned. Salve’s Annual Day of Silence is going to take place on April 19. There will be follow-up “breaking of the silence” panel discussion at 6 p.m. in the Mercy Center. The group even formed a “Day of Silence committee” within the active membership to help make this Day of Silence the best it has ever been. Club members have been discussing with the professors the possibility of altering the day’s lesson in order for students to remain silent even throughout their classes. The executive board even attended a conference for representatives of similar university groups on how to ‘create’ the best possible day of silence.

At the “breaking of the silence,” members of GSLBA will be filming students who are willing to be a part of the group’s addition to the “It Gets Better” video series. They feature everyone from celebrities, YouTube stars, or average Joes with webcams encouraging all who have been bullied or marginalized (especially in the LGBTQ community) that life will get better.

Just upcoming this week, GSLBA and the Social Work Club are teaming up to help contribute to Aids Quilt Rhode Island. They have held meetings last week under the title “TransAction,” to help spread awareness of the issues within the transgendered community.

Three GSLBA members, Bridget Collins, Evan Gallo and Amanda White have developed several highly concentrated workshops emphasizing the “safe zone,” or place where of anyone of any gender identity or sexual orientation is free to discuss their feelings, express worries and joys or inquire for assistance.

The workshop covers all issues ranging from heterosexism, coming out, being a double minority, and what it means to be a “Safe Zone” member. All participants earn a small plackard to put in their personal space indicating that they completed a Safe Zone workshop, and it was okay to be “out” in that space. The workshop also helps participants to deal with issues in the LGBTQ community that may not surface on a regular basis, or how to find the right words to a friend coming out.

“You need to have the training and the skills to approach that situation in the best way possible,” Jean said.

Gallo is also promoting and encouraging members to attend a Newport Community event, titled the “Don’t Ask: Just Dance– Born This Way prom.” The theme will not only consist of Lady Gaga look-alikes and music, but all those dressed both normally and in drag are welcome. The prom will be held at the Middletown Fraternal Order of Police hall on April 2, from 8 p.m. to midnight. Tickets for those with a valid student ID are only $10.

Perhaps the group’s mission statement explains its motivation to make both Salve’s campus and the world a better place:”To provide a safe haven for LGBTQ students and their allies, to come for support, to learn, for friendship, for anyone really.”

Salve GSLBA meets on Wednesday evenings at 6 p.m. in Wakehurst 206. All are always welcome.