GLSEN

Richard Walsh is a 16-year-old high school student who lives in Chillicothe, Ohio, a rural town with a population a little more than 25,000. In spite of the fact he’s encountered plenty of challenges in his young life, he has stood tall and come out on top. Richard’s parents divorced when he was young. After he told his dad and stepmom he was gay he told his birth mom he was gay and she stopped talking to him. They haven’t spoken since. Convinced that his truth was more important than the opinion of one person, Richard followed up his conversation with his mom by coming out to his entire middle school.

Despite the harassment he received at school, he knew he was loved at home and soon Richard wasn’t only standing up for himself, he was standing up for those around him. In 2007, Richard helped form a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) at his high school. GSA is a student led group dedicated to creating safe school environments for students to support one another. Students, both gay and straight, educate their peers and community about the perils of homophobia and they fight against discrimination, harassment, and violence in their schools.

In addition to being the president of the Chillicothe GSA, Richard is also an Ambassador to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). GLSEN supports and provides resources to more than 4,000 GSA’s across the country. Using materials developed by GLSEN and the Ad Council, Richard was able to spark dialogue in his school about the harmful use of the saying “That’s So Gay.”

Today, Richard is making great strides in this rural town of 25,000. He not only has the support of his family, but also the support of his school’s faculty and staff, as well as many of his fellow students.

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) strives to ensure all members of the education community are valued and respected regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. GLSEN believes that establishing an atmosphere of value and respect at the K-12 levels creates a positive sense of self — the basis of educational achievement and personal growth. And because homophobia and heterosexism undermine a healthy school climate, GLSEN works to educate teachers, students and the public at large about the damaging effects these forces have on youth and adults alike.

GLSEN was founded in 1990 by a group of 70 gay and lesbian education volunteers under the name the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teachers Network (GLSTN). At that time there were only two Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) in the nation, one state with a policy in place protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students, and a general lack of awareness regarding LGBT student needs. GLSTN became a national organization in 1995 and hired its first full time staff person, GLSTN’s founder and Executive Director, Kevin Jennings.

In 1997 GLSTN staged its first national conference in Salt Lake City, UT in response to that state legislature’s proposed banning of any and all student groups. The desired outcome of the ban, if passed, would have been the prevention of GSAs forming anywhere in the state. 1997 was also the year GLSTN changed its name to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, in order to attract new members to the struggle for safe schools. After 20 years of hard work GLSEN’s efforts have resulted in more than 4,000 student-led GSAs and 31 GLSEN chapters nationwide.

In 2008, GLSEN, in conjunction with the Ad Council, launched the public service announcement (PSA) ThinkB4YouSpeak, becoming the first LGBT-specific PSA conducted by the Ad Council. Think Before You Speak arose from the fact that nearly 90% of all LGBT students had reported experiencing homophobic remarks and harassment at school, and the fact that harassment over sexual orientation, like the common phrase “that’s so gay,” often leads to an atmosphere where LGBT students felt disrespected, unwanted and unsafe. Because of this, Think Before you Speak was developed and launched with the goals of reducing and preventing the use of homophobic language in an effort to create a more positive environment for LGBT teens and to gain support from all adults, including school personnel and parents.

Richard Walsh, co-founder of the Chillicothe High School Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) and GLSEN Ambassador was able to spark dialogue in his school about the harmful use of the term “that’s so gay” using the posters and TV commercials featuring Hillary Duff and Wanda Sykes produced for the ThinkB4YouSpeak campaign. Today, Richard is making great strides in this rural town of 25,000; he not only has the support of his family, but many of his school’s faculty and staff, and even his fellow students.