Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles performs at Crescenta Valley High during Ally Week
For three years running, Crescenta Valley High School has held a five-day series of events focused on building a better and safer place for those who identify as LGBTQ.
This year, among the events were two performances by the Gay Men’s Chorus Los Angeles on Friday.
Ally Week at the school was created by social studies teacher Alicia Harris, who was inspired by a similar program sponsored by the national Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network.
Harris teamed with the Gay Straight Alliance Club at Crescenta Valley High to help recruit other campus groups to take part.
This year, about 20 groups at the school supported Ally Week in some way, showing solidarity from allies — those who support members of the LGBTQ community but may not themselves identify as such.
The themed events included a Halloween pumpkin-decorating contest, rainbow-colored experiments by the campus chemistry club and a football game where players, cheerleaders and band members wore rainbow decals or pins.
“The idea of Ally Week is that in this little universe where we have some amount of control, we make understand that if you want to make school a safe place for all, you’ve got to give a little extra love and attention to those who are most at risk for emotional or behavioral problems,” Harris said.
The week was capped off by two performances by the Gay Men’s Chorus, who work to build better communities for LGBTQ people through performances and programs such as the “It Gets Better Tour,” which spreads antibullying and acceptance messages nationwide through shows and workshops.
Bill Gallimore, the school’s new assistant principal, is a member of the chorus and came to Harris with the then-secret idea for a performance while she was preparing for this year’s Ally Week.
“[Chorus members] are here as part of the Alive Music Project, where they visit schools monthly and do assembly presentations and … share their individual careers to show being LGBT doesn’t limit what you can do in this world,” Harris said.
Senayt Tassew, 17, a senior and member of the Gay Straight Alliance Club at the school, was selling Ally Week bracelets and T-shirts during lunchtime Friday.
She said the week reminds LGBTQ students who’ve lived in less-accepting communities that the Crescenta Valley is a place that realizes their importance.
“It’s also important that we point out that there is still a lot of homophobic rhetoric that goes around,” she said. “We not only need to recognize it, but have conversations with these people who don’t really understand what it’s like to be in the community and … tell them it’s not OK to use certain language.”
Twitter: @JeffLanda
