By Mikaela STONE

“We’re here, we’re queer, we’re peers, let’s cheer!” was the rallying cry of LGBTQ+ students and straight allies during Crescenta Valley High School’s Solidarity Week. In a show of support for their othered peers, the student-run Gay Straight Alliance decorated the CV quad with positive chalk messages and offered face painting and friendship bracelets on the school’s outdoor rally platform. 

This year, the GSA chose “queer joy” to be the theme of Solidarity Week. Much discussion surrounding LGBTQ+ youths is grim – more than one in 10 LGBTQ+ youths attempted suicide last year, as reported in a 2024 U.S. survey by the Trevor Project Foundation. However, the survey also reported that living in an accepting community lowered this number by over half. By taking the time to celebrate queer joy, CVHS took a vital step toward being such a community. 

One joy of being a part of the LGBTQ+ demographic is the way in which members of the community came together to support one another. The CVHS GSA shared an ongoing partnership with the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Each month the center’s community action program supervisor Yvette Topete meets with the GSA to teach leadership skills and give advice. The LGBT Center offers support programs, including employment services and social events for senior community members such as the senior prom, and cooks 425 meals a day for those in need. 

To celebrate Solidarity Week, Topete hosted a presentation on the school campus in the Wellnest on allyship and understanding identity. As always, students were encouraged to engage only as much as they felt comfortable. 

First, Topete went over the specific rights of LGBTQ+ students in California. These include choosing “if, when, and how to come out,” the ability to live in accordance with one’s gender identity, “to date who you want,” “to form a student group” and to be called by the correct name and pronouns. 

For allies, Topete offered students specific advice. 

“[You] don’t have to know everything, but [you] have to have the willingness to be open to learning and be empathetic,” she said.

To illustrate varying forms of identity, Topete brought in a picture of the character SOGIE, the genderbread person. SOGIE is a cookie cutout marked with little icons to help better explain how biological sex, gender identity, gender expression and attraction differ. Everyone has a biological sex, gender identity and gender expression regardless of whether or not they are part of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Topete taught that these four identities are distinct from one another as well as being self-defined. All of these identities exist on a spectrum, with some people identifying more strongly with certain ideas than others. 

Gender identity is someone’s internal compass when it comes to gender. On SOGIE it is represented by the brain. This can be described as the gender of the mind, spirit or soul. Some people do not have a strong connection with gender at all or connect with both genders. In a 2021 analysis, UCLA reported that 1.2 million people in the U.S. identified with the term “non-binary.” While the idea of being non-binary may seem new, Crescenta Cañada Valley’s first residents, the Tongva people, considered “Two Spirit” community members to be blessed. 

Gender expression is shown by a line that encompasses all of the genderbread person. Gender expression refers to how someone chooses to present themselves. Hairstyle, clothes and makeup are all forms of gender expression. 

On SOGIE, attraction is represented by the heart. Topete used the term “crush” to explain that one’s attraction to others is not dictated by appearance or identity. 

Biological sex is the gender assigned at birth, depicted on SOGIE by the Venus and Mars symbol for gender with an additional prong for people who are intersex. An intersex person is someone with both male and female biological traits. The word intersex replaces the medically outdated and often derogatory term “hermaphrodite.” 

Topete emphasized the importance of such language’s impact. While CV High School GSA students chose to announce “We’re queer!” many older LGBTQ+ community members still associate the word “queer” as being a slur. 

Similarly, erecting pride flags has an impact on LGBTQ+ community members as a sign that a space is safe to be oneself. While many places put up pride flags during June and take them down as soon as the month is over, decorating year round with pride flags is a way to ensure that the community knows allies are present. 

To affirm their commitment to solidarity, Crescenta Valley students signed tiny pride flags with their oath to be an ally. Alicia Harris, the teacher sponsor for the GSA, arrived to school early one Friday morning to place the flags on the school’s front lawn. As she began, a dog walker offered to help her set up. As the two talked, he revealed he was the father of a CVHS sophomore and alum and he could not wait to tell his graduated daughter about the flags. Harris described this interaction as “the best part of her week.” She saw championing the GSA as doing her part. 

While Harris recognized she cannot control the wider world, she can help make CVHS a more accepting place. 

Glendale Unified School District board member Ingrid Gunnell also came to the school to offer her support.

“It is important for our school board to support all students and employees,” she said. 

GUSD is one of many districts subjected to misinformation campaigns accusing schools of teaching inappropriate material in classrooms or forcing LGBTQ identities onto students. 

“[These campaigns] have taken a lot of human resources away from educating students and away from dealing with budgetary and administration issues to focus on false narratives,” she said. “[These narratives] put students at risk, not only from physical violence but from suicidal ideation.”

As Solidarity Week ended, teacher Alicia Harris said, “Sometimes when you talk about the LGBTQ experience, it’s all about suicide rates and fear, but with those kids it is all fun.” 

While she believed the fight for acceptance of queer students is not over, seeing them dance on the rally platform, paint one another’s faces, and look out for their peers filled her with hope “queer joy will continue, regardless.”