By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

If an Illinois school finds itself having to address a GLBT issue, chances are likely that the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance will be asked to get involved.

ISSA’s mission, according to Executive Director Shannon Sullivan, is to promote safety, support and development for GLBT youth in Illinois schools and communities through advocacy, education, youth organizing and research.

The organization came into existence early in 2007. It is the result of a merger between the former Chicago chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and the Coalition for Education on Sexual Orientation.

Sullivan said the reorganization did not change the substance of the previous organizations’ work.

“We’re still doing all the same stuff. We just have expanded the work to statewide,” Sullivan said, adding that there is usually one of two reasons her organization might get called.

“First, there might be an activist student, teacher or parent. Second, it might be because something has happened. That’s what we don’t like to see, obviously,” Sullivan said.

ISSA frequently provides professional development for school personnel.

“As a former teacher, that’s kind of my favorite,” laughed Sullivan.

Teachers frequently lack the perspective and terminology to adequately address GLBT issues when they arise in the classroom. Few are able to make a distinction between gender identity and sexual orientation, she added, while many would not be able to spot that a student’s problems might be related to their developing sexual identity.

Teachers, Sullivan said, “are not being educated on this in their graduate programs.”

The organization also assists schools wanting to establish Gay-Straight Alliances. There are currently 100 such groups in Illinois, 85 of which are in Chicago.

ISSA is met with resistance nearly every time they do a school program.

“There is a huge fear of parental and community backlash,” Sullivan said. “Often it’s not a lot of people, but they make a lot of noise.”

According to Sullivan, when controversy erupts at a school, ISSA is usually not looking to generate publicity in the media.

“We have very well-organized opposition at both the national and community levels. We try not to call attention to ourselves that much,” she said.

Very often, the right wants to open gay issues up to a “democratic debate”—allowing them to present “another side” to the issue, but Sullivan added, “It’s not like you teach algebra and un-algebra.”

Sullivan said that ISSA never willingly looks to put young people at the center of controversy, though advocacy groups often use the talking point of putting a face to a cause,

“We don’t make them wear T-shirts to school, just to get our point across, unlike our opposition,” Sullivan said. “We often ask (if) they understand the consequences of talking to the media.”

Sullivan said the GLBT community needs to step up and advocate for its younger members but there are many reasons that hold them back.

The first is internalized mythologies about molestation and pedophilia—many GLBTs are afraid to interact with younger people for fear of being perceived as having lewd intentions.

“As a community, we’re harder on ourselves than we need to be,” Sullivan said.

She added that, unlike in other minority communities, GLBTs rarely have an opportunity to see younger members as their own kids.

“That’s one reason I think mentor programs like at Broadway Youth Center are revolutionary,” Sullivan said.

GLBTs should consider becoming involved at the school board level, where there are often positions for people without children in school, Sullivan said.

“Our opponents have this sense that schools are a battlefield. Every year more and more young people are supportive of our issues,” she added.

“Control over the curriculum is interesting. Part of it is getting institutional history rewritten—we’ve been made invisible and need to be made visible again,” said Sullivan.



Illinois Safe Schools Alliance hosts its “Coming Out” Launch Party at “The Bog” in Hermann Hall, 3241 S. Federal St., at Illinois Institute of Technology from 6-9 p.m. on Nov. 13. For more information, call (312) 368-9070, ext. 15.