Gay-Straight Alliance holds speakOUT event

SPRINGFIELD— The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) came together on April 11 in the A.Lincoln Commons to share members’ stories and promote the club. “I liked hearing everyone’s stories about coming out and the struggles and successes that came out of it. And I think it was a success. People got to listen to our stories and learn from them,” said Samantha Wetter, who is the secretary of GSA. Echoing that feeling, Madison Kidd said: “We could talk about our stories and share them, and it was nice to feel accepted.”

The club offered pizza and soft drinks at the SpeakOUT event, held with club adviser Beth Wiediger. Students and faculty were handed information in terms of LGBTQ and numbers to call for assistance and help. Also, GSA has club T-Shirts that they are selling which were laid out on tables for those who attended could buy for $10.

“My favorite part was how everyone came together, and yeah, I think it was successful,” Alex Hoover said.

The event started off with Terrelle Jackson who is President of GSA speaking on what the speakOUT event is and what the GSA club does at LLCC. He shared his feelings and personal experience of being African-American in the LGBTQ community.

“This year’s speakOUT was very successful,” Jackson said.

Several of the club members got to tell their stories of coming out and the struggles and success behind it as the event went on for those to listen to their stories.

“My favorite part was feeling understood by everyone cause there’s so many people that went through the same thing and it was definitely successful because those who haven’t gone through it learned a lot,” Chris Warden said.

Madison Mings is public relations officer and a club
member for GSA.