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The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

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New exhibit in Norseman Gallery deals with sensitive issue

The Norseman Gallery is now home to a new type of exhibit. "High Contrast: Shades of our Identities" is a traveling photo exhibit for youth about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.

The exhibit features two poems: "My name is not those people’" by Julia Dinsmore and "High Contrast Narrative," a compilation of works by other students. A photo narrative accompanies the poems. A school desk with discriminatory epithets written all over it complements the poems and photos.

"If kids go and see the exhibit, it could be really eye-opening," sophomore Portia Carryer, co-president of the Gay Straight Alliance club at Paly said. "Paly isn’t an intolerant campus, it’s indifferent, and that could be just as dangerous."

Junior Gabrielle Ault-Riche, co-president of the GSA also agrees. "This exhibit is a good opportunity for discussion. This issue of sexuality, it’s an uncomfortable topic at Paly, people feel discomfort."

Some of the pictures are graphic, which is why a warning was placed on the outside window of the gallery. "Some of it (the exhibit) is a little in-your-face, but it needs to be," Carryer said. "It’s important for people to be aware that some people have a different sexuality. Being human has nothing to do with who you spend your life with."

The exhibit was created by a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students three years ago when it first went on tour. It is sponsored by the GSA network and the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center or LYRIC. The exhibit travels from school to school in the Bay Area, staying at each school for one week and came to Paly two years ago. This year Ault-Riche aided to appropriate the exhibit for Paly.

The exhibit is offered on the GSA Network of the Bay Area and is advertised to High School and Middle School GSA clubs. A curriculum guide is also offered. Carolyn Laub founded the GSA Network in 1998, and is now the executive director of the network. "The exhibit is supposed to provoke discussion among teenagers about what is said around them and what goes on," Laub said. "The desk, it’s supposed to make people think about the insulting words that they see and hear around them. It says ‘Take a seat, I dare you to step into the shoes and think about it."

Somewhat consequent to the recent legalization of gay marriages, the exhibit is supposed to remind people that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have rights too. "Sexuality is part of who you are, it’s not your defining factor," Ault-Riche said.

Magdalena Rivera, the advisor to the GSA is proud of the club for having the exhibit at Paly. "I’m proud of them, they were willing to put themselves out there on such a sensitive subject to educate others."

The exhibit will be leaving Paly on Friday and will be traveling to another school in the Bay Area.

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