August 28, 2010

>Loan Tran Continues GLSEN’s Work as a Student Ambassador

>Loan Tran is a junior at Phillip O Berry Academy of Technology in Charlotte, North Carolina and has been working with GLSEN, advocating for safe schools legislation on the federal level as a National GLSEN Ambassador since the Safe Schools Advocacy Summit in Washington, D.C.

We now welcome Loan as a GLSEN Student Ambassador for the upcoming school year and look forward to continued safe schools collaboration. After participating in the Safe Schools Advocacy Summit, Loan visited the White House as part of the GLSEN delegation for the LGBT Pride Reception, and also attended our Safe Schools Media Summit. Loan has experienced a lot of personal growth along the way and wanted to share some of that during the Safe Schools Media Summit.

I have been interactively working with GLSEN for a little over 6 months now, as of July 2010. I have crossed paths with amazing people, from staff to the youth activists and delegates. I believe that the amazement that grows in my eyes when I encounter these people will never go away. On that note, the awe of witnessing and experiencing the understanding and warmth will never end either. GLSEN does a great job of creating a safe and comfortable space for everyone. I am most grateful for their initiation of asking everyone their preferred gender pronouns. GLSEN and the summits they host reach out to thousands upon thousands of youth, both LGBT and otherwise. The gender variance they encounter is amazing and they deal with it with such grace, genuineness, and commitment.

Before my first GLSEN summit I did not carry my gender ambiguity with pride. I was constantly distressed by the awkward atmosphere I created when people assumed they used the wrong pronouns. I was afraid to say “Hey, actually I don’t have a preference in pronouns – anything works!”. While I actively announced that I was gender queer I never covered all of the bases in a simplistic manner. But, truly enough GLSEN has introduced and instilled it in me.

I can not describe the gratitude and love I have for this organization and their actions. I’m afraid I will become either two wordy, or I have not fully accomplished the important of paying GLSEN their honors. So, in the end it’s very easy: thank you GLSEN.

   

About Elizabeth Free

       

Elizabeth Free is the communications manager at GLSEN--the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. Elizabeth joined GLSEN in 2009 to make schools safer for all students and says one of the best parts of her job is working with GLSEN's Student Ambassadors. She is originally from Texas and has a B.A. in Public Relations and Advertising from the University of Houston.