There’s a creative bent to students who attend the biweekly Alliance Club at Oak Lawn Community High School that shows up in their colorful hairstyles and makeup, witty dialogue and even the way they move, sometimes almost sashaying across the floor.
Many come to club meetings directly from drama practice.
It’s an atmosphere club sponsor and art teacher Ailysh Cooper encourages because this is a safe space where students of all genders and sexual orientations can talk freely about their joys and struggles and have fun doing various activities and projects. Such high school clubs were formerly known as Gay-Straight Alliance, and Oak Lawn’s was started in 2011-2012, changing its format from year to year.
The club is mostly student-run, and questions and curiosity are welcome, Cooper said. One of the first discussions involved their identity, sexuality and preferred pronouns.
“That way we all kind of have common definitions, so we all have an understanding when we talk about ourselves,” Cooper said. “Just so we all know who we are.”
They’ve also created colorful pride flags and tie-dyed T-shirts in rainbow colors.
“People can choose, if they want, to walk around with rainbow colors, or have their own style, or keep it on the down low during the day,” she said.
At a recent meeting, Ollie Rabideaux, the club’s vice president, gave a presentation to help illustrate the concepts of gender identity and expression.
“Your brain identity — that’s how you present and define yourself,” Rabideaux told fellow club members. “That’s who you identify as, what pronouns you use, how people refer to you.”
Sexual or romantic orientation doesn’t always have to reflect one’s presentation, Rabideaux said.
Cooper pointed out that expression can be different depending on culture, with pink being a boy’s color and blue a girl’s during the earlier part of the 20th century.
“If we were filling this out 100 years ago, this could be different,” Cooper said.
Rabideaux, a junior at the school, said the club has been a good fit for her, a safe space where she’s able to take on a leadership role and teach others.
“It’s also just good to have a community you know will have your back,” Rabideaux said.
The talk was a hit, especially with club member Fay Galvan, who has experienced people staring and pronoun mix-ups.
“Can you be all my teachers?” Galvan said. “She’s just really fun.”
Kai McNulty, a sophomore who joined last year, liked that the club eases into discussions with activities, rather than jumping right into intense dialogue.
“It’s more on pace,” McNulty said. “People are getting involved but it’s not crazy.”
They haven’t yet gotten into the deeper conversations about gender identity, Cooper said, noting the club’s goal so far has been “just to make sure we’re all safe and understand each other.”
“It’s important for students to just have a space where they can be themselves and they have something in common and a supportive adult in the building,” she said.
Cooper said the students have a lot of support at the school. Last spring she led a professional development session on how the faculty and staff can help make students feel at ease.
That included being sure to use their correct names and pronouns and passing that information on to substitute teachers.
“Just even the fact that they’re asking shows students this is someone who cares about me,” Cooper said. “A lot of teachers said they want to help students but are not always sure how.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
