What is the difference between a gay doughnut and a straight doughnut? There isn’t any! In fact, at CHS Equality Club meetings, according to the club announcement, both gay and straight doughnuts will be provided.

At CHS, the Equality Club embraces the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, community and encourages other students to do so as well. The club supports events that accept the LGBT population, such as Coming Out Day and the Day of Silence. Equality Club meets twice a month before school in the library.
This year, the club changed its name from Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) to Equality Club, in an effort to reach out to everybody.

“We felt the acronym did not encompass everything we wanted to say about the club,” senior co-president Marin Klostermeier said. “Still, we are trying to make CHS more aware about how discrimination against the LBTG community is more than just a gay thing; it is an equality and human rights issue. We are continuing the work of those who came before us and trying to make the words of equality as loud and clear as possible. We want to make the high school a place where people can be themselves and not have to worry about being tormented.”

The mission of the club is to help CHS become a more welcoming environment to the GLBT community.

“Right now we are building support,” senior co-president Justin Elliot said. “We hope to change issues at CHS pertinent to the GLBT population.”

In fact, members believe whole-heartedly that equality for all is important. Students such as senior co-president Cooper Minnis believe that it is of the utmost importance to spread the message of equality throughout the school.

“I’m a member of Equality Club because I believe in its message with every fiber of my being,” Minnis said. “It is extremely important to me that all CHS students, gay or straight, are made aware that it is okay to be who you are, and no one else can tell them otherwise.”

Other members agree. Junior Andrea Hermann is a strong believer in equality and acceptance.

“I have been active throughout high school,” Hermann said. “I feel like so many people are misinformed about sexuality. First, you do not have to be gay to be in Equality Club. I know many people feel that this is the case, but everyone is welcome. Many people believe that it is a choice of whether one is gay, lesbian, straight, or bisexual. The fact of the matter is, though, that one is born that way. I decided to join because I feel if more people knew and understood the facts, they would not judge others as much.”

Klostermeier followed in her sister’s footsteps by joining the club. She stayed a member, however, due to her beliefs in equality.

“My parents raised me to love everybody without bias,” Klostermeier said. “My family has been friends with gay and lesbian couples for as long as I can remember, and, as a young child, I remember just seeing two people who love each other. When I learned that they were having rights denied to them, I was outraged; I wanted to help the people.”

Junior Amanda Wagner is an active member of the club, due to the fact that she wants to make a difference in an issue that she cares about.

“It all starts at school, and then hopefully we can branch out into the Clayton community,” Wagner said. “I personally have been enraged by the intolerance of the American society. Now that I am more aware of the feelings of the opposing side, including anti-gay and –marriage, I am even more driven to take action. It just blows my mind that the United States is so intolerant.”

So far, Equality Club has spent most of the time in their meetings discussing and brainstorming prospective events for this upcoming year as well as creating advertisement for the club.

“Soon, we will be shifting our focus to engaging in actual discussion about issues relevant to the GLBT community,’’ Minnis said.

Last year, the club presented a new nondiscrimination policy to the school board that includes nondiscrimination of sexuality for the board to pass in order to create a more equal environment at CHS.

“We presented this issue to them in April,” Elliot said. “Hopefully, by the end of the year, we will be the first district in Missouri to have a nondiscrimination policy that includes sexuality.”

Equality Club encourages students to participate in a variety of events to support their cause by encouraging students to participate in Coming Out Day, Spirit Day, and the Day of Silence. Spirit Day is a new institution, and the first one will take place on October 21, 2010.

“The purpose of Coming Out Day was to highlight the GLBT community at CHS,” Eliott said. “The day is about giving national rights to people coming out. Spirit Day is a new event, which will happen monthly. It is our goal for students to participate in Spirit Day. Everyone is encouraged to wear purple. The Day of Silence, which takes place in the spring, emphasizes bullying and hate crimes, as well as students and their silence about their sexuality.”

Also, Equality Club and Politics Club will combine on November 3 so that students may be able to see Shane Cohn, the first openly gay St. Louis alderman, come to speak with students about his life as a gay man in politics.

In recent national news, five (non-Clayton) students made headlines when they committed suicide because of bullying for their sexuality.

“Two of these boys were only 13 years old, but others were our age, around 18,” Hermann said. “These kids barely got a chance to live. It’s heartbreaking that whatever was said to these boys had such an impact on their self-image that they felt the need to take their own lives. If something this tragic ever happened at Clayton, I would be devastated. Everyone’s life is a gift, and nobody should ever be bullied, especially about something, like sexuality, that they cannot control.”

Hermann is not the only member of the club who feels this way about the current events; Klostermeier also dislikes the suicides that are caused by bullying.

“It really makes me sick to think that people are capable of being so horrible, that they can bully someone long enough to where the victim thinks that the only way to solve the problem is to commit suicide,” Klostermeier said. “If anything good can come from these tragedies, I hope that if someone is being a bully, they might think twice before they hurt someone, and maybe try to repair the damage that they caused.”

Although the Equality Club has not heard of anyone being bullied at CHS, there are many other schools nationwide where that is common, according to Wagner.

“Though we cannot directly be involved in other schools’ intolerances, we hope to make people aware of what is going on and try to have others take a stand as well,” Wagner said.

Equality Club wants to create a safe environment for all people at school by improving students’ attitudes on the GLBT community.

“The club is a real opportunity to make change,” Elliot said. “Although CHS is very open-minded, things are not the way they should be and we can still make change by not discriminating.”

Come as you are.