| | About | | - VSU's GSA

|| About || - VSU’s GSA

About GSA

The purpose of the Gay-Straight Alliance is to foster an active and diverse culture at Valdosta State University. The Gay-Straight Alliance provides opportunities for students to build friendships and encourages open-mindedness and diversity within the community.

History:

The most organized beginning may have been in the Fall of 2003 when Jason Sininger organized an informational booth and created a sign up sheet that was set up at the campus organization fair called the “Happening”. In previous years, there have been students who gathered together, but were not considered to be an official organization. However, upon the completion of this event the goal was clear that an official organization needed to be created.

From this point the organization began to grow with the founding members Christina Watts, Pedro Tamayo, Desiree Figuerou, Ryan Moore, and advisor Jason Sininger. There was a consistent advertising of the organization in talking about the group to students, handing out flyers, creating an email listserv, and having bi-weekly meetings. At first the growth was slow; however participation in group activities and membership did begin to increase. Actually, due to this growth the location of the bi-weekly meetings moved from the Library to the Camellia Room —we were to loud to be in the library. As the group continued to grow there was a focus placed on building a support group among members, educating the campus on GLBT issues, and establishing the presence of the organization. Some of the activities for the year included: pizza night at Mellow Mushroom, informational booth for National Coming Out Day, Homecoming Bake Off, Diversity Fair, and Spring Fling

In January 2004, The Gay Straight Alliance became officially recognized as student organization. Throughout the second year the organization started to become even more organized and official in that we received funding ($2,000.00) from the Dean of Students office/Student Government Association. There was an establishment of an executive council (EC), and creation of are own website. The support for each other and those interested in the organization continued; however there was a little more emphasis in promoting awareness and education. Some of the activities for the year included: pizza/trivia night at Mellow Mushroom, informational booths for National Coming Out Day / National Day of Silence / AIDS Awareness Day candlelight Vigil, Homecoming Float, Diversity Fair, and the 1^st Annual Awards Banquet.

In the fall of 2005, the meeting place of the group returned to the Library in a classroom of the basement. The room was not the most appealing but the giant rainbow flag hanging from the ceiling outside was a definite attention getter. Actually, this may have been more of a theme for the year in that are group was established and that the activities we participated with were noticeable. Some of these activities included: pizza night at Fox’s pizza, attending the award winning movie Brokeback Mountain, hosting the 1^st Drag Show on campus with professional drag queens(there was drama associated with this event), and informational booths at National Coming Out Day / Safe Spring Break / AIDS Awareness Day, and the Diversity Fair, we attended a GLBT Summit at Kennesaw State University, and celebrated the end of the year with an Awards Banquet with Guy Frost as are guest speaker.

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