HOW DO I START A GSA AT MY SCHOOL?
Guidelines for starting a student club should be found in your student handbook. If you have any trouble accessing or understanding your student handbook, you can ask an administrator, a teacher, or another student-led group!
Student-led clubs are required to have a faculty advisor, which means you can ask a trusted teacher or another adult in your school community who has shown allyship to 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.
Under policy in Nova Scotia, Gender-Sexuality Alliances cannot be denied in schools. This means as long as you have an advisor, you have every right to form a GSA for your school community. If you face any barriers from administration, please reach out to us at the Youth Project!
Narrow down spaces in your school that are free over lunch hour or after school, feel like a safe location in the school community, and are also accessible for Disabled students. Some common choices are guidance counselor rooms, youth health nurse offices, student services, or the classroom of your advisor!
Tell your 2SLGBTQIA+ peers, ask if you can promote your club on the school announcements, put listings in the school newsletter, make posters for throughout your school!
STEP-BY-STEP: GSA MEETINGS
The Gay Agenda!
your meeting agenda is a list of things the group wants to discuss – created together before the meeting starts.
Circle Up!
doing a round of name and pronouns is important even if the group knows each other – GSA is often the space where trans youth find new language.
What’s My Role?
someone will need to take notes (or “minutes”), and it helps to have a “facilitator” to keep the meeting on track.
In This Space…
take time together to create a list of expectations for sharing the GSA space together – things like confidentiality. refer back at the start of each meet!
GSA NETWORK 