The Bridge is honoring October’s Coming Out Month by raising awareness concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues throughout the greater Waterville Community.

Its main target is Waterville High School students. Members of The Bridge spent Thursday, Oct. 20 and Friday, Oct. 21 going into the health classrooms at the local high school to speak about The Bridge, address stereotypes, answer questions and promote acceptance. With approximately 20 members participating in the effort, The Bridge was able to speak to all of the health classes, a total of about 75 students. Members of the Waterville High School Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) began each class by introducing The Bridge to their peers.

The GSA was reinstated last year at the high school with the help of Professor of Education Lyn Mikel Brown and Darla Linville, a faculty member from the education department. Since then it has been very active, holding events such as a “No Hate Day” and a “Day of Silence.” GSA members are well known and visible in their school. The Bridge’s presentation is a part of GSA’s Ally Week, during which they encourage students to become allies and have students sign a pledge and wear a rainbow bracelet to show their commitment.

Each class was broken down into a series of activities, first defining LGBT stereotypes and breaking them down, explaining the difference between sex, gender and sexuality and having each student privately identify themselves on the spectrum of self. The Bridge then held a question and answer session.

Stereotypes were defined by having the students draw their personal interpretation of each letter of the acronym LGBT and acknowledging that these stereotypes do not actually qualify people as LGBT. The group also had an active discussion of how sexuality is addressed at their school, along with an open forum to discuss the students’ questions and concerns.

Carla Aronsohn ’13, who participated in one of the classes, was happy to see the students take interest. “It was so uplifting to speak to younger generations,” she said. “I am realizing how much change has happened even in the past few years since I was in high school. It reaffirms the work we do as individual activists and shows that real social change is possible.”

The idea for a presentation in the Waterville schools began as a result of the Waterville Inclusive Community projects, a group made up of professors, public school educators, parents and high school and middle school students. Their goal is to make Waterville a safer place for the LGBT community, using a variety of methods. Hannah DeAngelis ’12, the outreach coordinator for The Bridge, was part of the brainstorm session that came up with the idea of speaking to high school health classes as a way for students at the College to show Waterville students the importance of being an ally and promoting overall acceptance.

This program, which began last year, during spring semester has the unique ability to reach an audience that would normally not participate in such conversations. “I think that our presence in the room [does] a great job at breaking the stereotypes,” DeAngelis said of The Bridge’s impact. The program succeeds in making a difference by giving the students the ability to see active allies and to have a conversation with those who are out. Bridge members saw that they made a difference on an individual level as well, as some students sought to contact information of Bridge members to gain more information.

The Bridge will return to the health classrooms in the spring in order to meet with the other half of students at Waterville High School who are not taking health at this time, and continue their work to increase awareness.