By Brenna Curley

Here at Beaver, there’s lots of diversity when it comes to sexuality and gender. “LGBT Safe Space” stickers line the classroom doors, showing that Beaver considers itself to be a place where LGBT+ kids can be themselves. From my own experience, Beaver has been a great place to explore my sexuality without judgment. Honestly, if I’d never gone to Beaver, I probably wouldn’t have realized I was bi this early on in my life. However, I wanted to see if the rest of the Beaver community agreed with me, so I decided to get some other opinions about whether or not Beaver is a safe space from LGBT students and faculty.

The first student I interviewed wanted to remain anonymous. However, being queer herself, she was able to provide some valuable insight as to how LGBT kids view Beaver. She offered some good insight by telling me that she “definitely felt more willing to be open about my sexuality because there are a lot of queer people here…I [Anon] don’t have to hide my sexuality, I can just be open” She said this was partly because of the number of gay people at Beaver. 

The second person I interviewed, Kai Calvo, identifies as a “Transgender queer and raging bisexual”. He told me how his identity influenced how he made friends here. “I’d say that it definitely made it easier to connect with people initially because there’s such a large population of gay kids… It influenced the speed at which I made friends.” When asked specifically about whether or not he considers Beaver a safe space, he said he definitely thinks of Beaver as one. He brought up that, “[in] any environment you go into there’s always going to be someone who’s uncomfortable with the way you identify, but Beaver handles disrespect really well.” 

Whether it’s teachers, sophomores, or seniors, it seems like the consensus is that Beaver is a great and welcoming community in ways that other schools may not be. One student brought up a good point that “It’s better than a lot of schools. People don’t question it as much here.” Thankfully, I’m not the only one who views Beaver as a safe space!