Amelia Goodman ‘28 has been a member of Jesuit’s GSA, or Gender and Sexuality Alliance, club for as long as she has been at Jesuit. Now, she serves as GSA’s program's representative: designing slideshows and creating meeting ideas.
Goodman originally joined GSA to help foster a community of acceptance and inclusivity at Jesuit.
“It’s just a safe place for people to hang out and be themselves,” said Goodman.
A typical GSA meeting includes a signing in, discussing historical facts and information about a queer icon of the week, learning information about upcoming community events to attend around Portland, playing an activity or game, and eating lots of snacks. GSA meets quite often to ensure consistent involvement and opportunity for its members to participate.
“We usually meet up around two to three times per month during flex periods,” said Goodman.
According to Goodman, GSA is a great place to learn about LGBTQ history, hang out and discover new friendships and connections, show support, and unlearn any shame about your identity. Goodman’s favorite aspect of being in GSA is all of the friendships she has made across all grades and with students from both Edison and Jesuit, people she thinks she wouldn’t have otherwise never met.
“It’s really nice when people that are allies come because it shows that Jesuit is supporting of that. Having Gender and Sexuality Alliance shows that we support you and we want you to feel safe, and that’s a really important lesson for anybody,” said Goodman.
If students are interested in being a part of GSA, they can sign up at the club fair to be on the email list, scan any of the QR codes posted around Jesuit, email one of the leaders, or just stop by a meeting.
“Some people aren’t necessarily devoted members, but they still come to meetings for fun,” said Goodman.
While GSA’s club meetings are the bulk of their activity on campus, they also occasionally host an event or celebration around campus. This past week specifically, they hosted their fourth third annual pride celebration in Hayes Plaza, which turned out to be another great success for the club.
The celebration, hosted on May 20th, consisted of face-painting, making bracelets and pins, pens, playing games like spike ball, taking pictures at a Polaroid picture booth, decorating cookies, and eating food and snacks.
“Basically, the whole point is to celebrate just being proud of your identity, being comfortable with who you are, and hanging out with people,” said Goodman.
GSA’s three leaders had been working with Jesuit’s DEI office for about a month to put on this celebration. Planning involved planning activities, assigning roles, reaching out to student government, and selecting a few GSA club members to help volunteer. All of the planning was surely worth it to see how the Jesuit community came together in support of this event.
“There were a good amount of people. I was really happy with the amount of support we got,” said Goodman.
Goodman assures that if you weren’t able to make it to the celebration this time, there are still many ways we can support GSA at Jesuit. Asking for peoples’ pronouns, being respectful with the language we use, and generally leading with kindness is a great way to show our support.
“The whole point of pride is that it's the opposite of shame, because shame is often what we're taught, and shame is a killer. So, really, it's just about being comfortable and accepting yourself, and then celebrating other people that are also brave enough to do that,” said Goodman.
You can join Goodman in celebrating and supporting GSA at Jesuit by attending future meetings and events just like this celebration.
