[Danielle Balocca]: Hey Medford Bites listeners, don't forget the Pride events begin this week in Medford. I hope to see many of you at the flag raising at City Hall on June 2nd from 2.45 to 4 o'clock. Today's episode helps us kick off LGBTQIA Pride Month with a conversation with a member of Medford High School GSA. I hope you enjoy. All right, thank you so much for joining me today. If you don't mind just introducing yourself with your name and pronouns and just a bit about who you are.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, so I am Lila D'Antonio, my pronouns are she, her. I am currently a senior at Medford High School, although this is going up in June, I'll be graduated by then. And I am an officer of Medford High Gay-Straight Alliance and have been doing that since my sophomore year.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you, and we'll get into a little bit more about what you do at the GSA throughout the episode. But I'm wondering if you could answer the question that I ask everybody, which is what is your favorite place to eat in Medford and what do you like to eat there?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I know my favorite place used to be Best Sellers Cafe until it closed because my dad, brother and I used to go there every Saturday for breakfast. My favorite place would probably be, I mean, I like the ice cream shops, Stevie Scoops and Colleen's a lot.
[Danielle Balocca]: Popular ones, yeah. I love that Best Sellers Cafe too. I like really good stuff, but I was so sad to see a place like that leave, yeah. Yeah, it was really sad. Yeah, so we're here to talk about the GSA. So I wonder if you could sort of describe what the GSA is and what you all do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so the Medford High GSA, it's, I believe it was started in the 90s so it's pretty long running. Nowadays, we basically, we mainly function as a way to provide a safe space for queer students. We meet weekly, and our meetings consist of like, you know, just hang out and talking, playing games, educational stuff. And then we do host a couple of events throughout the year, although that's looked a little different the past couple years due to COVID.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, so it sounds like you're describing, I actually participated in the GSA at my own high school. It sounds like you're, which wasn't in the 90s, but it was close to it, but it sounds like you're describing like a supportive space for folks, like a queer safe space, and that you maybe do some events. I'm wondering about like any sort of like activism or like action that you all are a part of.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, yeah, so we do. Like, we, for stuff around the school, like we do this assembly at the start of every year, you're usually at the start of every year, this year, it was in later in the year. But where it's called it gets better assembly. And we basically have the freshmen all get together and we just kind of talk to them about like, hey, like the GSA is here and also like we don't tolerate homophobia here. And then for more outside activism, we have had like panels and stuff with like different organizations like Bagley and people like. And I know that like in the past, if there's been like any queer related protests, we have arranged for people from GSA to meet up at those.
[Danielle Balocca]: So Bagley, Boston area, gay and lesbian youth, and then P5 parents and friends of lesbians and gays. Some real funny outdated terms, I think, but yeah, so that's great. So you're connected to sort of the like regional groups that do some of the same work. I like that idea of starting off the year with an expectation for new students about what is tolerated and what's not tolerated in terms of homophobic behavior. I wonder if you could speak to like anything that made like any, anything that you've noticed or like, kind of, like have seen as an issue around homophobia in the, you know, the high school or the Medford public schools generally.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have not experienced a ton directly I definitely like, I know that definitely and I feel like in middle school, especially you would remember hearing a lot of people just like tossing around the floor like, and I mean like we definitely have seen I know one of my fellow officers actually posted a picture to his Instagram story the other day of one of the murals from the GSA at Medford High that had been like that just had like gay written all over it and vandalized it had gay written all over it had the S written all on it. So we definitely do see little things like that. And then I know that some people have had issues with like misgendering. Mostly from other students, teachers are usually pretty good about it. But we do have the occasional teacher who there are problems with them like just not shutting down any homophobia or transphobia in the classroom. Um, but I mean, overall, at least from my experience, I've been fortunate enough to mostly surround myself with queer people in general. So I have not encountered a ton direct of hate or like bullying basically like directed at me. I have like observed little bits of it, but like not a ton.
[Danielle Balocca]: Um, Yeah, that's, I mean that's hopeful to hear and it makes me wonder too about, like I remember in like the, when I was in high school like the early 2000s that there were still some GSAs that had to be secret like people couldn't sort of have to know if they were happening and where they were happening to sort of protect the participants. makes me think about some of the sort of national like changes that we're seeing around like like gay rights and and transgender rights and the you know thinking about specifically these like don't say gay bills and the sort of like. criminalizing of gender affirming care. And so it makes me like, it makes me sort of wonder about the, like, you know, it reinforces the importance of groups like the GSA and how, you know, how, if you have any thoughts about how, like any concerns that students have or that you might have about sort of the future of some of these things.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we definitely have talked about that sort of thing a bit in the club and just kind of like, just fear for mostly just especially just like concern for other people in the community um I think in Medford we are overall pretty lucky with um the environment obviously like there is some bigotry but like it's definitely not super bad um most of the time um so I think like but we definitely have talked about like kind of some of the effects of stuff like that and also just like how things like you know like the don't say gay bill how like it's kind of just like a it kind of connects to just how there's already such a lack of representation in the classroom. And that's something that I'm really passionate about, just having that representation in the classroom. So watching all the don't say gay stuff has just been really difficult. Last year, I was actually working on a project to incorporate some queer history into the history curriculum at Medford High. And so it's, it can be really discouraging to see that happening elsewhere, but then it can be really encouraging to go in school here and know that there is this community that is pretty strong.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, that's great. I wonder too about your health curriculum, like the sex ed, is there, this is a question that I've had for a long time that I haven't had a lot of answers to, but what is taught in sex ed or health that is like either inclusive or exclusive of sort of the gender spectrum and the, you know, this sort of identity?
[SPEAKER_03]: So Medford High only like introduced like a comprehensive sex ed fairly recently over the past couple of years. My class was one of the first to really receive it. So it, it was definitely very heteronormative, cisnormative. with the discussion like we there was a lot of focus on like preventing pregnancy and um like you know like a lack of like gender-neutral language um a lack of just mentioning queer couples um it was it was definitely it definitely felt like they were assuming that the class was made up of cisgender and heterosexual people um we are I know that the, like, director of the health program is looking to change this. There is actually a. student focus group that me and my fellow officer Cameron attended a couple weeks ago where they where they invited juniors and seniors to come in and talk about what they would like to see in health curriculum. So we both raised those concerns about kind of the lack of queer inclusion in the curriculum. So I'm hoping hopefully we'll be able to see those change for upcoming years and also just hopefully expands the sex ed curriculum generally um because it was definitely very much lacking you only get it freshman year and then they kind of just like don't really return to it um so it's sticking so like you're just learning stuff that is more appropriate for freshmen and it's not really like you're not learning stuff as as you mature um so we're hoping to see some more career inclusion in the future and imagine to the
[Danielle Balocca]: all of the other pieces of sexual health are like talking about consent, talking about pleasure, talking about not just this sort of like preventing pregnancy or kind of like scary talk about STIs and all those things. Yeah, yeah, that's great. I'm glad that you were able to give feedback that way. Um, yeah, it also makes me think about, you know, what we know about mental health for LGBTQ youth and, um, you know, increased, increased sort of, uh, rates of, um, like depression and suicidality. And so I wonder if you could, if you know, or if you could like speak to what supports exist for, for those students in Medford.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so we, as the GSA like we do definitely make sure that our members have access to, like, we have a GSA Google Classroom page where we have links to like any like helplines links like some of Bagley's mental health like support groups and like, I believe, Bagley also offers like a, or did offer at one point like it like free 20 minute therapy sessions. And so we make sure all that's available and then as well within GSA we do make sure that like students are aware that they can talk to the officers or the advisors if they have any issues that they need to discuss. The school does not really have a ton in place, typically like my experience with mental health support in school has been fairly good but is because I had a diagnosis and parents who are willing to advocate for me. I think for other students who may not have one or both of those things, it can be a lot harder. Because, you know, I was able to get access to having a adjustment Councilor to support me and help me make a 504. And that adjustment Councilor was able to invite me to like a student support group. I feel like students who like kind of don't have access to The researchers said get diagnosis or don't have people in their life who are going to make sure they get what they need. It's a lot harder to access those services within the school.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, what I imagine there's something also to that supportive element of the GSA where students who might lack some of those things and are able to come to your meetings and sort of see that model for how they can access some of these supports, how they can sort of see themselves reflected in other people who are maybe better supported or maybe have different like sort of approaches and healthier attitudes. That has to have a big impact on some of those students, I would assume.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I do hope that we're able to do that both by again providing the supports and then also just like with those of us who are those of us who are those of us officers and advisors who are comfortable being open about our own struggles like I hope that that encourages like the younger kids especially to like be like this is a space where you can talk about that stuff if you need it and we'll support we'll listen we name we're obviously not professionals so we can't do everything but we can like be there for you as a friend or get you to other resources. Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, how do you become an officer in the GSA?
[SPEAKER_03]: So it is by voting. Typically at the end of the year, you can either nominate yourself or nominate someone else and basically just kind of be like, hey, I'm interested in being an officer or I think this person would be a really good officer. and then so usually you do that one meeting and then the next week everyone who's nominated decides like gives like a little um speech type of thing where like it's not really a formal speech you just kind of talk about like any ideas you have for meetings you do any ideas for events like just any stuff like that um and then everyone who's there that day votes um and we usually have five officers we're all equal so there's no titles like president vice president we're all just equal officers um which I think is really nice because it's like it doesn't like place too much pressure on one person and like it's all able to be equally distributed um and it also just helps it feel more like a team um and so usually we have four or five um I know last year we only had there was only two of us due to just like COVID making things difficult. But this year we do have five. And it's been really fantastic. Three of us are seniors, but the two who are juniors, I know we're going to do really well next year. If they still want to be officers again, and I'm hoping we can get some of our freshmen or sophomores to also participate. But yeah, so it's fairly simple. Usually if you do want to be an officer, you do get to be one. Because again, it's very chill. And like, even with even just even with officers like we do still like get feedback for meeting ideas from the other members as well like often like in like kind of at the start of the school year or like in January at like the start of the new year we'll kind of be like does anyone have anything they want to see in GSA this year so we just try and make it like it's just very much a student-led club and a member-led club. Our advisors are there to offer support, offer supervision, help us with arranging events, but they really let us take the lead.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. That sounds like a really great environment. And it's encouraging to hear that you have all the grades represented. Is there a middle school GSA in Medford?
[SPEAKER_03]: There is. It was started the year after I left middle school so I never got to participate. I've heard some of the kids who have, who were in it like in the past couple of years that it's definitely not involved, it's not as student-led, it's not as, I don't want to talk bad about it, especially since I have no experience with it, but a lot of people, we definitely had a lot of people that came to the high school GSA and were like, oh, this is really fun, I really like this, I wasn't really expecting this. We keep meaning to do some outreach with the middle school GSA it's kind of hard to work around schedules, like, trying to figure out, like, figure out transportation mainly, like, trying to figure a way of like, Oh, what would we be able to get high school or middle school or high school within like, but it's like, difficult to arrange. So I'm hoping that can eventually be done, or at least we can talk to the advisors of the middle school GSA just to kind of help them with it. But that will definitely be a project for the future.
[Danielle Balocca]: Cool, and it brings me to another point about Medford's pride celebration. So it sounds like the GSA did lead some sort of celebration or small parade in the past. And I wonder if you want to tell us anything about that, and also if you have any plans to be involved in this year's celebration.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so the past two years, both 2020 and 2021, the GSA has arranged pride activities. During 2020, it was right outside the pandemic. We were just trying to find ways to give people something fun to do. So we hosted a couple of events over Zoom. We had a history of pride presentation. We had a coffee house, which is basically a talent show type thing that the GSA usually has a couple in person over the course of the year, and we did one. virtually for Pride 2020. We had like, a trivia competition. So we just did like some stuff to like, just get the community, we invite the whole community to just kind of join us in these virtual events. And we collaborated with the CCSR for that. And then last year, we hosted a youth pride parade where We invited high schoolers and middle schoolers to come join us on a little pride parade. And it was really fun. Like it was just, it was a pretty small group of us, but we just like walked through Medford blasting music and having a good time. And I think it was really wonderful. I think especially seeing like the middle schoolers who were so like comfortable there in like, so like, I don't know how confident they were in their identities, but definitely projecting that it just it made me really happy to see these kids like so into it and like clearly so happy to be in this environment. And we are planning on attending the parade celebration this year. I believe we'll be walking in it as a club. And yeah, I'm looking forward to it because it's been a while since I've been to a proper big pride parade. So it'll be fun.
[Danielle Balocca]: It seems like they're planning some fun events. I haven't heard a lot of the details, but planning on going to at least the flag raising.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. We also have been doing the flag raising the past couple of years.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_03]: During 2020, it was just a little thing. Just the mayor and one of our advisors was there. And then last year it was bigger like we invited the community, a couple of officers spoke, and it was just a really nice little event.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I wouldn't underestimate the power of what you all did there and like, and how that's precipitated this big event, right? It sounds like you, you, you all had like a pretty big influence on that. And, and I have to say, as like a parent of a kid who's in Medford public schools, who has, you know, two moms like that, I it makes me feel really reassured that this is like this system that he's coming up in that that there is such an emphasis on like acceptance and normalizing all these things. And thank you. I think it's like, it's in big part. So the work that you all are doing that, that this is maintained and that those sorts of messages are, you know, sent to all the students and parents and teachers. Thank you. Well, is there any, anything else that you want to plug or talk about before we wrap up?
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I don't think so. Yeah, I think that just about covered everything.
[Danielle Balocca]: Do you want to share any of your, do you have any plans for after graduation?
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm going to be going to the University of Vermont, and I'm going to be majoring in animal science.
[Danielle Balocca]: Cool, like veterinarian stuff?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's the plan. Great.
[Danielle Balocca]: Oh, I did have one question I forgot to ask, which was, do you have a favorite part of being in the GSA or a favorite memory of the GSA?
[SPEAKER_03]: I think one of the big things would definitely just be friends I've made. I've made some really close friends that are just such wonderful people that I'm really glad to have in my life. Also, I think another like because I love queer history so having the opportunity to teach other people about it has been really awesome and just kind of like. Because it's a topic that so few people know about. And I love being able to be like, hey, look at this cool person who is queer. Or, hey, did you know that this person that you already know about was actually queer? It's like, I love being able to introduce that and just kind of help spread the information to people because uh queer history was really important to me for figuring out my identity so I'm hoping to like kind of allow other people to have that resource.
[Danielle Balocca]: Do you have a favorite like queer historical figure?
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh I love Frida Kahlo. She's one of my favorites.
[Danielle Balocca]: Um yeah. The artist. She's an artist. Yeah. And do you have like oh sorry go ahead. Oh no. What were you gonna say? Do you have any recommendations for reading for people who might want to learn more about queer history?
[SPEAKER_03]: A good introduction, it's this little YA book of mini biographies called Queer There and Everywhere. And then also a couple good queer history podcasts are Queer as Fact and Making Gay History. Making Gay History, there's also a book of the same name. But yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's great, I'll have to check those out. Yeah, well, thank you so much for joining me and I'm really excited for pride and all the other and just seeing more of what the GSA can do. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks so much to Lila. I hope to see many of you this week and this month celebrating pride in Medford. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. And as always, if you have feedback about this episode or ideas for future episodes, you can email medfordpod at gmail.com. You can also subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Medford Bites!
[SPEAKER_03]: Medford Bites!
[Danielle Balocca]: Hey, good job.