A Productive Year for East Lansing High School’s Students for Gender Equality

East Lansing High School’s Students for Gender Equality Club was created in May of 2014, when its co-presidents Brianna Wells, Aiden Foster-Fishman, Sarah Hansen, and Sara Faverman, identified what they believed to be clear gender biases within a cyber safety presentation given by the High School. “We then decided to create a club to combat these and bring awareness to the school,” says Co-President Hansen.

In October of that year, the club had its first meeting, where the co-presidents asked members how they defined feminism and discussed their goals for the club. The club’s goals are to create awareness about gender equity issues pertaining but not limited to the LGBTQ+ spectrum, the wage gap, intersectionalism, and more.

Students for Gender Equality (SGE) reports a very productive previous 12 months with many events including PhotoVoice, an event where the club asked several volunteer photographers different questions relating to gender bias. They were to answer these questions with their photography. These photos were blown up and placed in the high school’s cafeteria on April 24th, 2015 with numerous guests discussing gender biases in society.

“The event went really well. I think that the gallery allowed for ideas to be represented with visuals, which I think shows how effectively art can serve as an agent for social change,” says co-president Brianna Wells.

The club also had a Consent Workshop and a Sexual/Gender Identities Workshop with the help of organizations at Michigan State University, including The Alliance of Queer and Ally Students at MSU, TransAction, and HUES.

During the past school year, the Club’s goals expanded to include the revision of the High School’s sex ed curriculum. Senator Curtis Hertel Jr., (D-East Lansing) was a guest at one of the club’s meetings in late February to discuss Michigan’s current sex ed law.

“The club was awestricken when we learned the restrictions of the sex ed law on high school curriculums. The general heteronormative focus of the curriculum in addition to the idea that sex is unsafe outside of marriage, are some of the things we wish to change,” according to co-president, Aiden Foster-Fishman. Soon after this meeting, a committee was formed to begin revising the sex ed law, to make it more comprehensive, accurate, and inclusive; the SGE is striving to get such a revised bill passed.

When asked about the Club’s future, co-president Sara Faverman said “a big thing we want to do is expand SGE into other schools, whether that be the Middle School or other school districts. It’s all about creating a community that is safe and empowering.”

Disclosure: Charlotte Baykian is a former member of ELHS Students for Gender Equality.