Nashville --- One-In-Teen Youth Services, Inc. announces the formation of the Middle Tennessee Council of Gay/Straight Alliances. The council will be comprised of student representatives from each Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) in Middle Tennessee.

GSAs are student initiated, non-curriculum clubs. They are similar to human rights, civil rights, and social action clubs in that they focus on discussing the harassment and intolerance that schools often ignore and on some occasions inadvertently encourage. They are comprised of both gay and straight high school students, who are interested in addressing the homophobia in their schools. These student initiated clubs are a growing national response to our schools' failure to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) students. Several Middle Tennessee high schools have well established GSAs, such as Nashville's Hume-Fogg Academic High School. As a result of the work of three students, Hume-Fogg became the first Metro-Nashville school to have a GSA in 1999.

Now that an increasing number of high school students are becoming interested in organizing GSAs in Tennessee, the Middle Tennessee Council of Gay/Straight Alliances is being formed to foster peer support for the student leaders. DeWayne Fulton, senior sponsor of One-In-Teen, the oldest and largest program serving GLBT youth, explained that "these students are working without a safety net and, in many cases, the school's staff is hostile to the idea of a GSA in their school. These young people are taking risks and need the support of other youth leaders working toward the same goal and facing similar experiences." Fulton continued, "Anytime you attempt to empower a group of people who are the object of discrimination, you face social rejection, ridicule, intimidation, and even open aggression."

In keeping with One-In-Teen's youth empowerment philosophy, the youth leaders who participate in the Middle Tennessee Council of Gay/Straight Alliances will be working together to address what they agree to be the most pressing concerns. The overarching purpose of the council will be:

The Middle Tennessee Council of Gay / Straight Alliances will begin meeting this fall. Active GSAs, that are interested in participating, can e-mail for more information [info@one-in-teen.org] or contact One-In-Teen at 615-321-7288. For more information on One-In-Teen, visit its web site [http://www.one-in-teen.org].

The national web site of The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network(GLSEN) [http://www.glsen.org/templates/student/index.html] also provides broader information about GSAs around the country.