High school students raising gender-sexuality awareness in Stephenville

Pride is spreading throughout western Newfoundland.

Inspired by a gay-straight alliance in Corner Brook High School, Stephenville High is forming its own Gender Sexuality Alliance.

"We have a lot of LGTBQ youth at our school and I feel like we need a safehaven for those people," saysFaith Young, who helped organize the alliance.

• Colourful crosswalks in Corner Brook celebrate pride

Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGTBQ) community were acknowledged during pride week and the International Day Against Homophobiain May, but Young said that's not enough for the students.

"We never had anything wherea bunch of students could come together and fight for what they believe in," she said.

Big response

Young said she was pleased with the turnout for the group's first meeting, with about 20 students attending.

Right now our health classes are veryhetero-normativeand don't talk about a lot ofLGBTQ-typesof sexual interactions.- Faith Young

"I was surprised. I thought we were only going to have five people," Young told CBC's Corner Brook Morning Show.

Young said the group is nowpreparing for Stephenville's pride parade on Sunday.

Young also said the group also hopesto change awareness aboutLGTBQissues in class.

"Right now our health classes are veryhetero-normativeand don't talk about a lot ofLGBTQ-typesof sexual interactions," said Young.

"And we also want to cover pronouns and different types of sexualityso that people are more educated."

'They can be themselves'

Corner Brook Regional High School has had a Pride Alliance for more than a year. Group memberJade Mackey saidit'sbeen important to many students.

"It's a space where they feel they can be themselves and a space where they are not feel like they are being demonized for who they are," said Mackey.

Mackey said the group in Corner Brook is currently raising money to go to a international conference called OUTShine, an international summit hosted by Egale in Windsor, Ont., in 2017.