What is the Gay Straight Alliance?
The Gay Straight Alliance is a club on campus where people of all sexual orientations, political positions and religious backgrounds can come together to focus on feeling comfortable around each other, promoting equality in our society and defeating discrimination.
ÿ
What are some goals this year for your club?
Some goals are to keep as many people in the club from when we started until the end. I’m adamant about wanting everyone to feel comfortable, safe and secure enough to stay. I also want our members to be more informed about everything that is going on in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender or GLBT, community. Such as legislation and events that directly affect us.

Are there any upcoming events?
We are establishing our own team for the 25th annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles this Sunday Oct. 18. The walk will begin and end in West Hollywood Park and we will be walking through L.A. and West Hollywood. We have a booth on campus to explain GSA’s involvement with the aids walk and will be collecting funds from people around campus so we can bring it with us to donate.

How do you join?
Just show up. Everyone is welcome. We like to surround our club with respectful, open minded people who value privacy. You don’t have to be gay to join either. We actually need more supporters and straight allies.

Why should students join your club?
It’s extremely important to understand people of a great minority in our society approximately; 10 percent of our population is gay and we are severely misunderstood and misconstrued by media and politicians. We want the opportunity to show people that we are no different than anyone else. We want to help others understand us that maybe don’t know too much about the GLBT community.

Where do you meet and what goes on during a meeting?
We meet from 1-1:50 p.m. in the Art and Behavioral Sciences Building B 317.

What is something unique about your club?
We won an ICC award for most interesting club activity for our Proposition 8 demonstrations. I was told we haven’t won anything in a really long time so it was a big deal for us. We represent a minority not only on campus, but globally. Our club is also active in our community and not only on campus. We work with The South Bay Gay and Lesbian Center.