Yellow Pages
MOUNT VERNON — Sarah Stitch wishes that when she attended high school, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues were talked about in her health class.
The 21-year-old Marysville resident said she didn’t really have anyone to talk to when she realized she wasn’t like her heterosexual classmates. It didn’t feel safe to come out of the closet until she was 18, she said.
“I got dragged into a Gay/Straight Alliance meeting, and that changed my life,” Stitch said.
Stitch was one of about 150 people attending the Over the Rainbow Festival at Mount Vernon High School.
Organized by the school’s Gay/Straight Alliance, the two-day festival is in its third year. It started Friday night with a screening of “Straightlaced: How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up.”
“It’s really important to hold a festival like this because often people don’t understand how hard it is for a community get past stereotypes,” said KC Bridges, a 17-year-old high school senior and president of the alliance.
Despite the fact that there are a lot of good people in the GLBT community, there are a lot of negative stereotypes about them, she said.
The alliance was founded at Mount Vernon in 2006 to combat homophobia and other bigotry, educate students and the community about GLBT issues, support members and hold fundraisers. Speakers and panelists included a Harvard-trained neurologist who underwent gender-reassignment surgery and a chaplain for the Seattle Police Department.
Workshops included dealing with homophobia, gay history, and being gay and religious. The panel on religion included pastors from the region who are openly gay or lesbian.
Rev. Craig Darling of the Seattle First Baptist Church said that in the Christian scriptures, Jesus didn’t have anything to say on homosexuality.
“Yes, I’m going to quote scripture,” Darling said. “Even liberals quote scripture.”
After the laughter died down, Darling said Jesus did command his followers to be supportive of gender minorities. Darling said that leads him to believe that if Jesus were alive today, he would be supportive of the GLBT community.
“Wherever love is found, respect it, protect it and let it be your guide,” he said.
Since the festival started, people have attended for many reasons, alliance advisor and Mount Vernon High School librarian Cathy Pfahl said. Some are members and friends of the GLBT community who want to support the youth. A few are opposed to some of the viewpoints represented at the festival, while many others seek acceptance and support, Pfahl said.
“It’s an environment where they can be celebrated for who they are and feel safe,” Pfahl said.
She’s seen a change in GLBT teens who attend a festival. They are more confident, she said.
It can be hard to be a teen, much less be a GLBT youth experiencing prejudice or even harassment, festival attendees said.
“In Skagit County, there are very few places where you can be who you are with no repercussions,” Bridges said.
Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .
Read more local news in the Skagit Valley Herald and the Anacortes American, or read it online in the E-edition
