The LGBT community has been around for a while and at John Dewey High School, we have a club of our own that recognizes and celebrates that community. However, the biggest obstacles the club faces is understanding why the community is disliked. Heart to Heart club members aim to solve that problem.
The Heart to Heart club is a club that meets every Wednesday in the library, and starts around 3 PM. This club offers safety and acceptance for all students, giving them a place to relax from having to walk cautiously around other students who are known to have hatred towards the LGBT community or their parents.
Beyond the academic obligation that a school has to its students, they also have a duty to protect all students. For a student who has come out about their identity recently, they may feel vulnerable or at risk of being assaulted. Of course schools are doing their best to give resources to the students who come out, but it doesn’t stop the actions of other students who think otherwise.
“The [LGBT] community is fine, minding their business- so there is no reason to hate them.” Junior Nathaniel Williams said.
Why exactly are they hated? Why do they have to experience disgust or discrimination from other people? Do they deserve the hate for what they believe in?
In response to these difficult questions, Heart to Heart club member Isis Copelin said, “No, but the reason why they get so much hate is because people are afraid of the changes of traditional means and how the people aren’t used to the same gender loving each other”
In a sense, people are used to having this traditional love in society, where a male or female falls in love with the opposite gender. So many teenagers and elders have difficulty understanding that society’s idea of love has changed over time. Though, the biggest and toughest question would be- what exactly is love? What is considered love?
“Love is an immense emotion, bond and understanding of yourself and someone else, connecting you and them on an emotional level that can be ranged to all kinds” Heart to Heart club advisor Ms.Villafane stated.
It is the belief of the Heart to Heart club that love is love, and it’s an emotion that cannot be controlled. Club members wonder why in schools does the LGBT community get looked down upon by the students and adults?
Perhaps most students do not have much knowledge or were not taught about what love exactly is. This is why the Heart to Heart club came fourth in JDHS- to educate the concept of love with movies, pride festivals, mini parties as well as awareness days. Although there is no recent event coming up yet, there is one being planned to show that even the LGBT community is just as human as the rest of society, and that there is nothing wrong with loving the same gender or loving both genders.
