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Inclusion has been the name of the Gay-Straight Alliance’s game for quite some time. Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), originally called Common Ground, was started in 2000 here at Olivet by Judy Fales, library director and co-advisor for international Students, and Laura Barlond-Maas, associate professor of english.
The organization works to be a place that people of any gender or sexuality can come and be accepted for who they are and be comfortable while working toward the goal of raising awareness.
“The goal of GSA is to raise awareness about the LGBTQ+ community and to end homophobia, transphobia and other types of phobias that are associated with the LGBTQ community,” said Carrie Jacobs, community service coordinator and current advisor of GSA. Since the beginning, GSA has been putting on events to raise awareness within the community. For example, last semester they had a screening of the movie “Pride” in the Kula Samba Theater.
They also have an annual event for World AIDS Day. In addition to the events, Gay-Straight Alliance does community service projects around and outside of town to help get their cause known, according Britain Price, junior and president of GSA.
According to Price, during this semester, Gay-Straight Alliance is planning on having a bake sale March 6 to March 10 and is partnering with the Student Government Association on Friday game nights, where there will be games, food, and music.
Katie Priest, freshman and member of GSA said, “GSA is a good organization to have on campus, especially during people’s college years. They are discovering themselves as their own individual verses the restrictions they had before college.”
Gay-Straight Alliance meets on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. in the bottom of the Kirk Center.