Grayslake Central High School prides itself on acceptance.  The most important thing to a high school student is fitting in and being part of something. Some students at GCHS who are part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer + (LGBTQ+) community may have a hard time feeling like they fit in, but for these students, they might be too scared to come out because they don’t want their whole entire life to change and for people to see them differently. For a lot of them, they could lose friends, and finding community takes a big emotional toll on them.

Also, some students are afraid to come out because they are scared about what their teachers and classmates think of them.

“I think people need to be more educated on it because I remember people in my friend’s class made it such a big deal that like he was trans, and it was like it’s not a big deal,” junior Lily Oas said. 

To some people, this is a big deal, and they spend so much time trying to build their bravery to come out to others, so as a whole, people need to acknowledge this.

SAGE is a group of people where they can feel comfortable there a safe place for members of the LGBTQ+ community 

 SAGE sponsor Elizabeth Ryan explains that to make it possible for students to “speak about [coming out] with a parent that they were too nervous [to tell], or with a family member that wasn’t their parent like a grandparent or something like, how to explain it to grandma and so sometimes [so we have] have sort of like a mock conversation,[…] that helps [them] make people feel more comfortable.”

It is important to be educated and to know about what it really means and takes for someone to come out.

“It’s a small chunk of people that are okay with it, and the other group is not too sure about what it fully means,” said Oas.

This can be very hard on some students and can cause them to feel like they don’t belong or are wanted. 

If someone feels like they can’t belong or are too scared they can reach out to their deans and counselors and social workers. If you are interested in educating yourself further, use this link and check out Alexis Jones’s RamTV broadcast video on LGBTQ+ resources at the school.