#glsencnj

By Lana Leonard

Taking a break from protesting, I went to a different kind of unity gathering this past weekend. This Sat. Nov. 19 Perth Amboy High School held the thirteenth annual NJ GSA Forum hosted by HiTOPS and GLSENS Central New Jersey. The biggest forum yet, with over 500 student, educator, volunteer, activist, and parent participants, this year’s event was all about standing up, as the forum was titled, “Rise Up! ¡Levantense!” with keynote speaker, Sonia Guiñansaca. This will be the fifth NJ GSA Forum I have attended and I want to share with you some special moments. 

Let’s talk about religion. In session two, a workshop was held where a panel of spiritual LGBTQ representatives and allies opened up about their spirituality and religion and students opened up about their religion and spirituality in return. The panel, comprised of John Marron, board member of GLSEN Central NJ, Michelle McKenzie Creech, Tina Mummela, an ally from Finland, Tedford J. Taylor, Louise Walpin, Marsha Shapiro, and Reverand AnnMarie Zhati Agosta from Brooklyn. Each one opened up to the audience, a group of students and educators, about their history in religion and their present in it. I ended up in a circle of students and one other adult with Reverand Zhati. 48-years-old, Zhati discussed how religion is in the heart. 

As even Creech herself said, “Love is ultimately what brings us together.” Zhati furthered this notion by saying, “People have a limited understanding of what religion is supposed to do. Religion is supposed to bring people together.” I found this workshop incredibly important because religion is hard for LGBTQ people to feel welcome into. LGBTQ is often rejected by religious communities, but Zhati had a response to this feeling and what she said was not to listen to the interpretation of others but to respond to religion with how it feels inside of us—inside our hearts. 

I had asked what Zhati had to say about religion and this 2016 Presidential Election. What she said was brilliant: “Before an infection can be healed it must reach this intense point,” Zhati said, “The wound is where the light comes in.” Nelly Sanchez Aranda, 15, from Trenton was a particular sight that bent my heart. She kept her tears back, discussing her pain of the election and all of her fears. She had to come to a realization that through her pain, positivity would be the answer, as she said, “Don’t let the negativity fill your body—look on the bright side, we all want positivity. No to fear, yes to acceptance—we want the best for everyone.” 

Another workshop I participated in was, **We’ve been here: Improving your Allyship for Non-binary Latinx by Latinx, LGBTQ activist and Princeton University student Arlene B. Gamio Cuervo the author of Latinx: A brief handbook for the Princeton LGBT Center. 

Session one was extremely informative and eye opening to our global cultures. Cuervo discussed gender inclusivity through language, specifically in Latinx culture. Latin’x’, with emphasis on the ‘x’, refers to the gender spectrum for those that do not fit between neither man nor woman but somewhere in between or not at all. The ‘x’ brings more inclusivity where as the ‘a’/‘o’ are exclusive to binary genders, excluding those that, again, are inbetween genders or not at all. 

Cuervo brought attention to the dimension of intersectionalities between gender identity, ethnicity, culture, skin color and sexual orientation, as we discussed AfrxLatinx, or Latinx people of color.   

Colors of our skin vary in every ethnicity no matter the region we are from and that does need to be recognized, as do these minorities who are not recognized under certain political eccentrisms. Cuervo led the audience to answer her questions or answer others. As some audience members were young, learning about themselves and others, some were older also learning about themselves and others. One unamed high school student said, “I don’t know what I am.” 

The student was at the NJ GSA Forum and at Cuervo’s workshop to learn more about herself and LGBTQ peoples. She seemed intrigued by what was said but not fearful to ask questions or be questioned. I wanted to hug her because I wanted her to know she will find out what she is and she will be loved by all of us. I wish I hugged her. 

“It feels liberating, empowering, and energizing to be around a group of kids who share your identity,” said LGBTQ Director of HiTOPS Daniel Fernandez. Fernandez helped host this past Saturday’s event saying that this forum, in particular, was special to him. Latinx himself, Fernandez identifies as a transgender male. 

Fernandez and I first met at last year’s GSA Forum, which was held at my Ocean Township High School. Taking over the role of Corrine O’Hara, HiTops health educator and co-founder of the Forum. 

Keynote, Sonia Guiñansaca spoke to the forum’s over 500 students about Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton. She talked about her and her partner driving home in an Uber watching states turn read. She discussed her life as a once undocumented immigrant, and how the fear of such an unapologetic President-elect made her she said she hoped  “ I want to feel safe now; not in the future; not in twenty years from now; not after we have done all of this organizing in struggle, and I want to feel it now,” said Guiñansaca, “I want to be my full self everyday, right now.”

What Guiñansaca is confident about is the many acts we have already taken and the many acts of courage we will take. When I had asked her what has inspired her all of these years and made her find personable relation and representation of who she is, Guiñansaca said she has turned to poetry, turning to writers that have made her feel complete. Guiñansaca has also found inspiration in our queer, undocumented elders. She says, “How they have navigated their life has been inspirational.” 

This year’s forum has brought a plethora of diversity, love, emotion and heart. We have brought attention to intersectionalities upon intersectionalities, queer undocumented peoples, Latinx communities, being queer in the real world, Latinx allyship, being transgender in the workplace, Legal rights for LGBTQ+, art, queer people of color, and so much more.