Amophrast's blog

This is the full text of the interview I conducted via Skype chat with a freshman at Haverford High School.

[7:45:05 PM] Amophrast: Feel free to talk openly and freely about yourself and your experiences. This information will be published on Serendip, a website that is publicly accessible, but at this point or any point in the future you can choose an alias to go by or request that certain information or excerpts is/are made private. If you do not specify a particular alias, you will be assigned one based on your name, preferred gender (hypen will be used if preferred gender is none), and school. Example, my sister is C.F.HHS

[7:45:25 PM] Amophrast: do you have any questions?

[7:45:28 PM] M.T.HHS: Hmm

[7:45:44 PM] M.T.HHS: Can you have me be M.T.HHS or something with M first

[7:46:36 PM] Amophrast: sure, I will use M.T.HHS

[7:46:47 PM] M.T.HHS: Okay, thanks no more questions!

[7:47:07 PM] Amophrast: How do you perceive of the environment at Haverford High School?

think of it as kind of a campus climate report, and in terms of LGBTQ issues/individuals. For example, comments on bullying, freedom of gender expression, availability of safe spaces, other issues revolving around LGBTQ youth or individuals involved with LGBTQ issues

This is the full text of the interview I conducted via Skype chat with a gay, male-identifying freshman at Haverford High School.

I think the questions flow a bit more smoothly than the first interview

[3:52:02 PM] Amophrast: okay, going to start with my official intro message

[3:54:07 PM] Amophrast: Feel free to talk openly and freely about yourself and your experiences. This information will be published on Serendip, a website that is publicly accessible, but at this point or any point in the future you can choose an alias to go by or request that certain information or excerpts is/are made private. If you do not specify a particular alias, you will be assigned one based on your name, preferred gender (hypen will be used if preferred gender is none), and school. Example, C.F.HHS

[3:54:25 PM] Amophrast: do you have any questions?

[3:54:56 PM] CL.M.HHS: not right now

[3:55:06 PM] Amophrast: alright

[3:56:40 PM] Amophrast: How do you perceive of the environment at Haverford High School?

think of it as kind of a campus climate report, and in terms of LGBTQ issues/individuals. For example, comments on bullying, freedom of gender expression, availability of safe spaces, other issues revolving around LGBTQ youth or individuals involved with LGBTQ issues

This is the full text of the interview I conducted via Skype chat with a female-identifying freshman at Haverford High School.

The general interview:

[3:21:53 PM] Amophrast: So I'm going to give you my intro message again even though i already said most of it

[3:22:49 PM] Amophrast: Feel free to talk openly and freely about yourself and your experiences. This information will be published on Serendip, a website that is publicly accessible, but at this point or any point in the future you can choose an alias to go by or request that certain information or excerpts is/are made private

[3:22:58 PM] Amophrast: do you have any questions before we begin?

[3:23:15 PM] C.F.HHS: nope

[3:23:59 PM] Amophrast: do you wish to use an alias, abbreviation, or different name for the purpose of this interview?

[3:24:26 PM] C.F.HHS: nope

[3:25:03 PM] Amophrast: ok.

[3:25:36 PM] Amophrast: How do you perceive of the environment at Haverford High School?

[3:27:24 PM] Amophrast: think of it as a kind of campus climate report--either in regards to bullying, freedom of gender expression, availability of safe spaces, other issues revolving around LGBTQ youth or individuals involved with LGBTQ issues

[3:34:23 PM] C.F.HHS: I find it decently peaceful. It's laid-back and everyone goes about minding their own business.

Strengthening a Right Relationship that Should Already Exist

When Jason Landau-Goodman contacted me asking if I could help get Rainbow Alliance involved with the Pennsylvania Student Equality Coalition (PSEC, http://pennsec.org/), I was thrilled. Yes, I (selfishly) thought. This will increase our relationship with other schools in the area, making our events bigger, and more exciting, and allowing us to have successful activism attempts.

Meanwhile, PSEC continued to grow, having strength in the numbers they were bringing in.

When re-examining what Rainbow Alliance was doing, I felt kind of discouraged, and slightly ashamed. Our connections within the bi-co and the tri-co were not that strong (though they have been getting stronger since joining PSEC). Before PSEC we’ve had virtually no connection with Villanova University, a Catholic-affiliated university that is probably facing a whole different range of problems than Bryn Mawr may be facing. I feel that most of the issues Rainbow Alliance have been facing have stemmed from lack of attendance, which is usually due to several events on campus being scheduled on top of each other. In this generation of Rainbow Alliance, we’ve never had to face issues with administration, our events, or event funding. In fact, because we are an affinity group, we get an extra level of support from the Alliance of Multicultural Organizations (AMO).