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Novelo Rectangle

The room quickly filled with students from every social group, all casually gathering snacks and forming groups with familiar faces around the lab desks.&nbsp;Once the second hand finally hit the two-thirty mark, Jess wasted no time jumping right in and shushing the crowd.Violet sat with Emmy and Yvonne in the back of the classroom. It was strange seeing Ms. Elliot from a different angle, and not teaching chemistry. Dani and Neil sat at the table just in front of them, all eyes on Jess as she spoke.“My name is Jess Daniels; many of you probably know me as the VP of Student Council, but today I’m coming to you as the student coordinator of the new community led Gay-Straight Alliance,” she announced. Half the room began clapping and hooting at her as she turned and motioned to Ms. Elliot. “We also have Ms. Elliot, your favorite chemistry teacher, here to act as both our advisor and a school-liaison, since again, this is not sponsored by the school.” She and Ms. Elliot smiled as if they were in on some private joke, but even members of their audience couldn’t help but chuckle at the subtle, passive aggressive, ass-covering comments Jess threw in her opening speech.&nbsp;Ms. Elliot stepped forward. “I’m Ms. Elliot, and I’m really excited to see all of you here today! As a part of a different generation from yours, it makes me so happy to see such a diverse group of students coming together for support of your peers. When I was growing up and my brother came out as gay, life was very difficult for him in a community that feared what they didn’t understand. The goal here is to spread tolerance and acceptance for everyone in the LGBT community and to become active participants to stand up against unfair treatments of our fellow members,” she explained. The movement in the classroom was all in agreement as students nodded along with her speech.“Today, our focus is on information!” Jess called, commanding attention back to her. “We want to identify the current state of the community and explore the definitions of LGBTQQIA+ for everyone’s benefit. It also may help you understand a little more about yourself. So we’re going to start off with the Kinsey scale. Has anyone heard of this before?”“It gives you your gay-straight rating!” someone shouted back from one of the front tables.“Exactly!” Jess said. “This is a short, seven question quiz that helps people describe their sexual orientation. Now, if anyone is uncomfortable with this activity, please feel free to sit out and watch. What I have here,” she raised a stack of papers in her hand, “is a paper-copy of the Kinsey Scale assessment. For those of you who aren’t trying to leave a paper trail, feel free to go to this website on your phones,” she pointed back to the whiteboard where Ms. Elliot wrote a URL on the board. “Let’s see how we identify,” she said, beginning to walk toward the outstretched arms reaching for a paper copy of the test.Violet took note of the website URL. She and her friends immediately to her left and right pulled out their phones to copy the information on the board.&nbsp;https://www.idrlabs.com/kinsey-scale/test.php&nbsp;Dani and Neil patiently waited for their paper copies, grabbing their pens while they waited.The room began tapping and circling away, completing the simple math to see how they ranked on the scale.Violet read through the first question.&nbsp;To whom are you attracted?a.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Both men and women.b.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mostly people of the opposite sex from mine.c.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mostly people of the same sex as mine.d.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Only people of the opposite sex from mine.e.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Only people of the same sex as mine.She tapped on d, and moved on to the next question.&nbsp;Who have you had sex with?a.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Both men and women.b.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Both men and women, but I prefer people of the opposite sex from mine.c.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Both men and women, but I prefer people of the same sex as mine.d.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Only people of the opposite sex from mine.e.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Only people of the same sex as mine.&nbsp;She tapped on d again. Question three.&nbsp;Who have you had sexual fantasies about?&nbsp;She made a face. She didn’t really have sexual fantasies. If left to her own devices, and not inundated with non-stop subliminal messaging reminding her of sex, would she ever think about it? Laying alone in bed in the dark seemed like the best test, and she never once used her completely free time to fantasize about anyone.“Some of you might be noticing”, Ms. Elliot said, interrupting the train of thought and directing the attention away from the test momentarily, “that this assessment does have limitations, namely no representation for non-binary folk and the differences between romantic and sexual attraction, but just answer to the best of your ability. I promise, we’ll address this shortly.”Violet nodded and continued to finish the survey, selecting responses that positively referred to the opposite sex exclusively. She submitted and page refreshed and showed a scale made of several bodies, on the far left reading “exclusively heterosexual”, and on the far right reading “exclusively homosexual.” A yellow box circled around the far left. That sounded right to her.“Exclusively heterosexual,” Yvonne said aloud for Emmy and Violet to hear.“Same,” Violet replied.“Heterosexual, incidental homosexual tendencies,” Emmy said with a face of interest.“Really?” Yvonne questioned.Emmy shrugged. “I don’t know…a threesome would be cool,” she said casually.“Everyone finishing up?” Ms. Elliot asked, wandering around the room. Some verbal responses came in the affirmative.“Awesome!” Jess exclaimed, clicking a button on a remote in her hand to reveal an image of a graph with a positive correlation, heading up and to the right to show a gradual increase. “Again, if you’re uncomfortable sharing and just want to observe, feel free to stay seated, but now we’re going to physically represent the spectrum so we can see the distribution here in our group today. If you scored exclusively heterosexual, head over there,” she pointed to the side of the room which lined up with the starting point of the graph. “And if you score exclusively homosexual, head over there,” she pointed to the side of the room lining up with the end of the graph. “If you were somewhere in the middle, fill in where you belong.”Almost everyone stood up and began filling in their positions. A fair amount of students hung around the exclusively heterosexual side of the graph, probably around half, while the remainder filtered out slowly leaving only one person at exclusively homosexual and a greater variety of students somewhere in the middle. Neil punctuated the center mark, Jess and Emmy shared a space just slightly ahead of the exclusively heterosexual mark. Dani watched from the table. Violet wondered if it was because they identified as non-binary, like Ms. Elliot noted.Jess stepped out of line and turned to address the small crowd. “The reason we did this exercise is to demonstrate to you all that sexuality is a spectrum. Many of us don’t fit in the 100% gay or straight category because sexuality isn’t that simple. The idea that you have to be one or the other is simply false. You can all head back to your seats.”The crowd collected back at their tables.“What other myths or struggles do we think the outside person might not understand about sexuality?” Ms. Elliot prompted a discussion.“That it’s static,” a boy chimed in from a few tables in front of Violet.“Great! Elaborate,” Ms. Elliot pressed.“I might identify as gay now, but maybe in a few years I’ll identify as pansexual. Sexuality isn’t just non-binary, it can be fluid.”“Great point, what else?” she continued, seeking out students to call upon.“That two people can’t be gay and just be friends, or, like, straight guys and girls can just be friends. It really bugs me when girls think I’m going to try and get with them just because I’m bi,” a girl from the other side of the room called.“Or when you are trying to get with someone, and you’re laying it on super thick, and you don’t know if they could be gay or not,” another student called from the table behind her, “and you don’t want to outright say you’re gay or ask them because it can go so wrong.”“Seriously,” Neil added, nodding in agreement.&nbsp;Violet’s eyes burned into the back of Neil’s head. Was she reading too far into it, or was this finally the explanation she’d been looking for?Was Neil into Tanner? Could that have been why he hated her so much?Maybe Jess was right, everything he did was jealous behavior. Everything really started to click into place.Violet then remembered to refocus on the meeting. She’d zoned out of the conversation, and quickly tried to come back in.“That’s why it’s so important to ask, otherwise you’ll never know. It’s never fair to assume, regardless of your assumption,” Jess was saying.“On that note, I’d like to take the time to review our LGBTQ acronym and make sure we all understand what that means and the community we’re supporting. Something else that’s important to note is everything that is included in the ‘plus’ in LGBTQ+.” She clicked a button on the remote again revealing a slide with a series of letters. She began again, “the full acronym is LGBTQQIP2SAA, and honestly, there might be more.”The room was quiet; the group listened politely and intently as Jess defined the terms.“Most of us probably know these first five: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, right?”&nbsp;A chorus of yeses and yups responded.“Awesome, so anyone know what might be our second Q?” she clicked another button on her remote, prompting a laser pointer to shoot out of it. She circled the second Q.Violet chuckled at how much Jess seemed to be enjoying her clicker.“Questioning?” Dani replied.“Correct! It’s important to recognize and support everyone in the community, even if they’re unsure where they belong. Next is I. This means,” she clicked through the slides to get to the correct one, “Intersex. Intersex is defined as anyone who is born with both male and female reproductive or sexual anatomy, thus not fitting into the gender binaries of male and female.”&nbsp;She continued through the next letters, “Pansexual, pan stems from the language of the Greeks, meaning all. Those who identify as pansexual simply do not limit their sexual attraction to any gender binaries or identities.“The acronym 2S stands for two-spirit. This means those with this identity identify with both masculine and feminine spirits. This differs from intersex as intersex is generally focused on the physical and anatomical, while two-spirit focused more on the mental and emotional responses to masculinity and femininity. This is a wide umbrella term to encompass many people who do not feel they fit into the standard gender binary.“Last, but certainly not the least, we have two As. Any guess on what either of these As stand for?” Jess asked.“Allies?” Yvonne answered, her voice carrying across the classroom.“Not quite. Many of you here came for support and appreciation, but that isn't what our A's stand for. Anyone else have any idea?” Jess looked around, waiting for an answer for a few seconds before clicking onto the next slide."The first A is for agender, and," she trailed off, waiting for the next slide to appear.“This A is for asexual.”

Fake It Till You Make It

BR.Quinn

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