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- Yesterday B-block in the auditorium, senior Abby Holtzman, an officer of the GSA, participates in a play written by senior Nellie Robinson.
by Douglas Abrams
During B-block, the Gay-Straight Alliance sponsored a speak-out in the auditorium as part of Transgender Bisexual Gay Lesbian Awareness Day. For this presentation, students shared plays, short stories and poems about the LGBTQ community.
The play, written by senior Nellie Robinson, focuses on the adversity and prejudices LGBTQ students face at this school.
All of the lines in the play, except for the narrator’s, “were taken from a student survey about prejudices against the LGBTQ community at this school,” according to Robinson, who played the narrator. Advanced Placement English students performed the play.
Senior Abby Holtzman, an officer of the GSA, presented “Closing Night,” a piece about her piano teacher, Judy, whose gay friend David has cancer. In the story, Holtzman describes how important the friendship is to Judy, especially in light of David’s eminent death.
“She wants his mind, but she also wants his past—her past, she wants it back,” Holtzman read.
Senior Miko Walsh, an officer of the GSA, read a poem entitled “pride.” The piece discusses gender identity, opening with the lines, “I reserve my loathing for chasers/these boys, armed with the trappings of masculinity/claiming in my face know vulnerability.”
A short, untitled fictional piece, read by junior Anthea Safarian, describes the anxiety inherent in coming out of the closet. Despite his worries, when the boy in the story tells his friends he is gay, they are all supportive.
The story ends with the lines, “‘Love’s love,’ a girl chimed in. The table nods, and goes back to their food. He finds a smile on his face, and he feels it might be there to stay.”
Robinson read freshman Molly Dalzell’s untitled piece about when she learned the word “homophobic.” Click here to read the piece.