On March 6th at 2:45PM, Arrowhead’s Gay Straight Alliance Club, known as GSA, hosted an event with a General Electric Healthcare guest speaker about the opportunities for the LGBT community in future professions.

General Electric leads a club called the GLBTA (gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans & ally alliance) that works to create a more inclusive environment for all employees at GE Healthcare and to promote the company’s commitment to developing LGBT talent throughout the world. The page for this can be found at https://www.ge.com/careers/culture/diversity/gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-ally-alliance

According to Izzy Rahmel, an AHS junior and the GSA’s secretary, the speakers that come to GSA meetings usually like to give their personal stories on what their home and work life is like, so that the LGBT community can get an idea of their journeys and struggles as either LGBT or as their role as an ally.

“GE is a unique company in terms of their non-discriminatory rules,” says Rahmel. “Their company has rules against discrimination in terms of gender, race, physical ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, et cetera. The gender identity is a key because it protects transgender employees in the workplace, which is very rare for companies to do. Wisconsin has laws against sexual orientation discrimination but other states do not, so this could be considered rare too.”

According to the State of Wisconsin Department of Workplace Development, “State law protects workers from harassment in the workplace because of their race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, age 40 and up, disability, sex, arrest or conviction record, marital status, sexual orientation or membership in the military reserve.The Wisconsin Fair Employment Act prohibits employers, employment agencies, labor unions, licensing agencies, and other persons from discriminating against employees, job applicants, or licensing applicants because of their membership in specific protected categories, including sexual orientation. The Wisconsin Fair Employment Law defines ‘sexual orientation’ as having a preference for heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality, having a history of such a preference or being identified with such a preference.”

Rahmel says, “One of the spokespeople was pregnant and a lesbian, so it was very interesting to hear about her personal journey through that pregnancy process.”

“I think it’s so amazing that we have a club like GSA that talks about subjects that many people aren’t usually comfortable talking about,” says AHS junior Cassidy Rothwell. “I think the GSA is extremely important to the school because it gives a safe space to people who aren’t always treated fairly.”

According to Rahmel, there have been other guest speakers to GSA, such as a gender nonconforming pastor at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Hartland.

“There are no more speakers planned for the next of the year unfortunately. There is a GSA page on the Arrowhead website and anyone is welcome to join at any time,” says Rahmel.

The link to the GSA page is the following: http://www.arrowheadschools.org/activities/GSA.cfm