This past Monday, in lieu of the annual Day of Silence, Gay-Straight-Alliance (GSA) decided to take a different approach to bring awareness to the difficulties of coming out at Belmont Hill. Donovan Payne ‘18 led a chapel in which members of the current student body read anonymous letters of various alumni or other current students discussing why most of these students decided to wait or are waiting until college to come out. One student noted, “I heard the word ‘gay’ used daily to demean just about everything possible – never once did I hear it used to empower or uplift anyone.”, explaining how our community is not perfect in welcoming gay students. However, another anonymous source explained that: “Belmont Hill boys DID accept me as something much greater than that when I came out to them”, showing the progress we have made as a school. This chapel proved a successful way to highlight the successes and shortcomings of Belmont Hill’s openness to LGBTQ members and may become a valuable tradition for years to come.
