Gay straight service

Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Network

We’re proud to support a growing network of students, schools and community organizations creating safer spaces for 2SLGBTQ+ students and staff.

The GSA network provides consultation, training, event funding, academy visits, networking and more to people involved in a GSA, or those who want to commence one.

Due to Calgary Board of Education restrictions on outside organizations in schools, we are unable to facilitate workshops or visits to CBE schools. However, we can provide digital resources, a GSA package, buttons and other assistance. Contact us for more details!

For more information, contact our GSA Network Coordinator.

What is a GSA / QSA?

GSAs are school-based groups that are student-run with teacher support. Different groups use different names, but some common names are Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) or Queer Linear Alliance (QSA).

These groups function to create safe, compassionate, supportive and inclusive spaces for 2SLGBTQ+ students, staff and their allies. Students meet, socialize and help one another as they discuss their feelings and experiences related to sexual orientation and gender id

Overview

Gay-straight alliances (GSAs) and queer-straight alliances (QSAs) are peer support networks run by students and supported by school staff and would be grounded in the principles of promoting:

  • equity for sexual and gender minority students
  • safe, caring and inclusive spaces for all students
  • healthy, respectful environments and relationships to prevent or get rid of bullying and discrimination

As peer support networks, GSAs/QSAs aid LGBTQ2S+ students overcome feelings of isolation and alienation that are a consequence of homophobic and transphobic bullying. They empower students as they develop a sense of belonging in their school. GSAs/QSAs also help interested students turn into allies for their LGBTQ peers and provide a safe place to aid understand and learn how to offer support.

Supporting GSAs

The Education Act (Section 35.1) outlines the roles and responsibilities of school authorities and principals around supporting GSAs and QSAs - so that students can get the support they need - when they need it.

The act:

  • requires institution authorities to create welcoming, caring and respectful policies and make them publicly available
  • protects the establishment of GSAs and

    As a gay man, I secretly had sex with a bunch of 'straight' guys. I knew I had to stop when I fell in romance with one.

    I came out to most people in my life at 14.

    I grew up in the world of gymnastics, so the sport helped me come out and acknowledge to myself that I was gay at an early age. It helped that no one on my team judged me because we were all so focused on what the judges thought. My teammates and I often congratulated each other when we accomplished the unthinkable — and didn't look after who we were kissing after the meet.

    But when I began hooking up with the boys on my brother's soccer teams, I realized I had a lot to acquire about sex and existence a gay person. 

    Around the time I came out to my friends, I also started to discover that I had a sexual superpower

    It came as no surprise to me when I started to explore my sexual world that I had a weird superpower, as one of my friends called it. I realized I was able to rest around with a lot of men who self-identified as straight.

    My friend speculated that I had this superpower because I include a unique blend of masculine and feminine drive that allowed me to be "bros with the boys," yet flirty enough to make them

    gay straight service

    Since 1985 Joe Kort has been a psychotherapist, specializing in intimacy and partnership problems with heterosexual, gay and dyke clients, and offering workshops for couples, singles and same-sex attracted men.

    He graduated from Michigan State University with dual majors in Psychology and Social Work. At Wayne State University, he earned a Master's in Social Work (MSW), then a Master's (MA) in Psychology.

    Joe's articles have appeared in The Detroit Free Press, Between the Lines, The Detroit News, The Oakland Press, The Royal Oak Daily Tribune, the Royal Oak Mirror, and other local and national publications. Besides providing therapy for individual and couples, he conducts a number of groups and workshops for same-sex attracted men. He is an adjunct professor at Wayne Articulate University teaching Homosexual and Lesbian Studies in the School of Social Work Master's Program.

    Written from Dr. Joe Kort’s perspective as an openly gay psychotherapist who has counseled thousands of sexually confused men over the years, Straight Guise shows how this phenomenon crosses all ethnicities and cultures.

    More about dr.Kort
    Источник: http://www.straightguise.com/


    I recently finished reading Dr. Robert Garfield’s terrific new guide, Breaking the Male Code: Unlocking the Power of Friendship, and last week participated in a joint interview with him by Dr. Dan Gottlieb on WHYY (National Common Radio) in Philadelphia. This all got me thinking about my own friendships and those of my gay male clients. The bonds between gay men and straight women have been written about and featured in popular media (i.e. Sex in the City, Will and Grace), though a lot less has been said about how lgbtq+ and straight men recognize and negotiate the distinct challenges, complications, and rewards of their friendships.

    Source: istock

    According to Garfield, among the many obstacles to male-male platonic intimacy, terror of homosexuality looms large. Straight men fret that if they get too close, others will see them as gay; which in their minds means feminine (horrors!), flimsy, and perverted. Perhaps even scarier is that their sentimental connections will somehow morph into sexual attraction. Interestingly, in the U.S., before there was such a thing as a gay self, some straight men would, with small shame, engage in sexual contact with other men (usually allow