Reaching Out

Chapter 9: Things Settle Down and the GSA Takes Off

By Grant Bentley

It took a few weeks for things to gain some semblance of normality again. We got fewer visits and phone calls and our lives began to take on more of a routine. After years of living alone, I found myself thinking of us as a family and I was selfishly hoping it would take a long time to get their house finished. I liked things the way they had become. Since I worked from home, I would always have a snack ready for the boys when they got home from school, and dinner would be ready about the time Ian got home from work. We almost had what could be called a nice domestic family thing going. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like it would be for much longer.

Things were moving along with the new house. The burned ruins were gone, a new wood basement was in place and the floor was being constructed prior to the frame going up. The building contractor wasn’t sure when Ian and John would be able to move into their new house; it could be anywhere from two to three months. A lot depended on the weather as it was still the middle of winter and not the best time to be building. The insurance agent had suggested that they start looking at furniture and appliances, though, as the furniture companies didn’t mind holding things for delivery later. They had already replaced a lot of their clothes and personal items, and John had bought a new laptop.

Pete, Ross, Aaron, Scott and Evan almost became fixtures in our home. At least two of them, if not all five, came home from school with Jason and John each night. They usually all worked together on their homework at the kitchen table, or discussed plans for the GSA. More often than not, one or two of them stayed for dinner, then played the Xbox or just hung out until they had to go home.

They made it quite clear that part of the reason was their close friendship with Jason and John, but another part was the freedom to be themselves in a non-judgmental, safe environment. Even though all the boys were out to their parents, they didn’t always have the comfort level at home that they experienced at our apartment. I guess, for some parents, it’s one thing to acknowledge that your son is gay but it’s a whole different deal to watch him interact intimately with his boyfriend. Speaking of boyfriends, the five-some soon became a six-some with the addition of Theo, who seemed to have more that a passing interest in Aaron. Judging from the permanent smile on Aaron’s face, the interest was mutual.

The boys had settled back into school and the GSA was moving ahead. They had their first official meeting of the organizing committee and elected temporary officers. Pete was the new president; Jo-Anne was the vice-president; Scott was the secretary-treasurer; Aaron, Jason, Theo, Cary and John were the social/recruiting committee; and Ross and Evan were the graphics committee and designers.

Their first event they had planned was an assembly, at which Mr. Thiessen and Pete would speak to the general school population. Pete would be introducing the nineteen members of the organizing group and explaining the function and purpose of the new GSA for the students. Mr. Thiessen would give the school’s position and role in the GSA as well as speak to them about tolerance and acceptance. The first social event was to be a dance to recruit members. They planned to cover the school halls with posters and talk to as many students as possible over the next three weeks leading up to the dance.

The three weeks flew by and all too soon it was the big night. Ian and I had volunteered to help supervise, as had several parents and teachers. Mr. Thiessen, of course, would be there. Many of the mothers and a few fathers had spent the last three weeks baking, so there were enough cookies, squares and other baking on hand to keep the entire city on a sugar high for a month. The boys, of course, were finding it hard to contain their excitement. First, they were anticipating the membership drive and how many new members they would have. They were hoping they would be able to brag that they had the largest GSA in the city. Second, they were anticipating that, for the first time ever, they would be able to dance with their boyfriends at a public dance.

We arrived at the school at about 8:00 to help set everything up. By 8:15, all of the organizing members were there, as were the parents and teachers who were chaperoning. Everyone got introduced to one another and we were ready to go. The doors were to open at nine for the dance. There were eight tables set up along one wall, with coffee and punch set out on one of the tables and the other seven covered with baking. A table was set up at the door to admit students into the gym. Another three tables were set up around the gym to give out memberships, and several smaller tables were set up with chairs for people to sit down and relax between dances.

By 8:45, the DJ was set up and the music was blasting. By about 9:15, kids had begun arriving. Within an hour, the gym appeared to be at its maximum capacity. Jason and John came bouncing over to Ian and me with the biggest grins ever. They had hoped for a good turnout but never imagined that even half this many people would be there. Of course, many were just there for the free dance and goodies, but that still showed that, even if they didn’t join, they were accepting enough of the school’s gay students to come to their dance. At midnight, the DJ announced the last song. He played a slow love song. It was very moving to see the couples dancing with their arms around each other, cheek to cheek, boys with boys, girls with boys and girls with girls, and that everyone was cool with it.

Cleaning up didn’t take very long. Several boys swept the floor while others took down the tables, cleaned up what was left of the punch and coffee and took the leftovers to the kitchen. The last garbage bag was thrown into the bin by 12:45 and we were ready to go home. That didn’t mean our night was over, however. As I was driving home, I realized that there were at least five cars following us. Before I parked the car in the underground parkade, I let Jason and John out to open the apartment, as I didn’t think that the neighbours were ready for a dozen or more excited kids, all on sugar highs, standing out in front of the building at 1:00 in the morning.

By the time Ian and I got up to the condo, there were twelve very excited kids in my kitchen counting names. When they were done, they discovered they had 156 members signed up, not counting the nineteen on the organizing committee. That meant they had 175 members in the GSA–and that was after just their first membership drive. If they had been excited before, they were ecstatic now. In fact, a couple were in tears. For some of them, they had been living in fear for the past five or six years, never once believing they would be anything but picked on and beaten up. To realize they had so much support from other students was overwhelming.

It was 2:00 in the morning by the time the last couple left. It had been a highly emotional day, and as is often the case, as soon as things got quiet, we crashed. By 2:10 we were all in bed, and I think that by 2:15 we were all asleep.

I don’t think I moved again until about noon. I gradually woke up, scratched all the right places and rolled out of bed. I grabbed my bathrobe and headed for the shower. After ten or fifteen minutes under the warm water, I was finally awake and ready for the day.

I wandered into the kitchen to find that Ian was already up and a nice hot cup of coffee was waiting for me. We sat quietly for a few minutes before we found ourselves discussing the events of the past few weeks.

“I can’t thank you enough for all you are doing for John and me,” Ian started.

“What are friends for?” I replied. “You would have done the same for Jason and me.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he said, “but I still want you to know how much we both appreciate everything. It’s going to be very hard on John and Jason when our house is ready and we have to move out,” he said.

“Just on John and Jason?” I queried.

Ian smiled. “You want the truth?” he asked.

“Yeah, please,” I responded.

“It’s going to be hard on me too,” he stated. “I’ve become very comfortable and very much at home here.”

“So stay, then. There’s nothing I would like better. This is the happiest I’ve been in years,” I told him.

“So have I, and I’d love to stay,” he said, “but, after all the outpouring of help and money from everyone, how could we not move into the house once its finished? If we just up and sell it, I’m afraid many people are going to see that as a slap in the face.”

“I guess they might, at that,” I replied.

“As it is, insurance has covered nearly everything and we don’t need all of that money anyway,” he said. “I’m thinking of setting up a trust fund for Jason and John, to help with college or university. I also want to use some of it to help the kids with the GSA.”

“Those are excellent ideas,” I responded. “I know both boys want to go to university and that would make it so much easier for them. And they did mention that they want to set up a GSA meeting and rec room at the school. They want to give kids a place they can go and relax, play games and generally unwind. I think helping with that would give the GSA a big boost.”

“Speaking of the boys, shouldn’t they be up by now?” Ian asked. “It’s nearly 2:00.”

Of course, we had come to realise that all you have to do is mention their names and they tend to appear. Two bleary-eyed boys came shuffling into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffee pot. About half-way through their second cup, their excitement from last night began to reappear.

“I can’t believe we have a hundred and seventy-five members!” John exclaimed.

“I know,” Jason replied. “I was hoping for maybe a hundred, but I never thought we would actually get that many.”

“Well, I’m not surprised,” I said. “You all worked very hard and I’m really proud of all of you.”

“Same here,” Ian told them.

“Thanks,” they both replied.

“I guess we did work pretty hard,” Jason said.

“Yes, you did,” Ian said, “but now the real work begins. Keeping it going and keeping everyone interested is going to require a lot of work. They will be expecting more than weekly or monthly meetings. There are going to have to be activities and events and they are going to need to feel there is a purpose to belonging to the GSA. I think your rec room idea would be a great start.”

“I hope so,” John replied, “and we have already been working on that. We have a few fundraisers planned. We’ve also talked to the counsellors about setting up a help line with volunteers from the GSA.”

“We think it should be after school, from 4:00 until 10:00 every week night,” Jason added.

“What about homework?” I asked.

“We would have three people on each night, and we don’t expect it to be that busy. At least we hope it won’t be. If we alternate answering the calls, we should be able to do our homework with no problems,” John replied.

“I hope you’re right,” I responded, “but you never know; there may be a lot more kids out there who need help–or just a caring ear to listen to them–than you expect.”

“That’s true,” Jason said, “but we feel it’s needed and we want to try. We can always make adjustments as we go along.”

“Besides,” John said, “if everyone takes part, we would only be on once every couple of months.”

Their coffees finished, the boys decided that they needed a shower. They excused themselves and were off down the hallway in a shot.

“I can’t believe how much thought and planning they’ve put into the GSA,” Ian said. “They’ve really put their hearts and souls into it. I am so proud of them.”

“If a few more adults were as caring and hard-working as those kids, we would have a much better world,” I replied.

Once they were out of the shower, we sat around with the boys, relaxing over coffee and left-over baking for part of the afternoon. Around 4:00, John and Ian decided to go over to look at the new house and see how things were going. I was quite surprised when Jason didn’t want to go with them, but I chalked it up to being tired from the past few hectic days and didn’t give it another thought. I should have.

Chapter 10