{"id":85507,"date":"2025-03-14T09:07:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T14:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=85507"},"modified":"2025-03-14T09:07:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T14:07:45","slug":"gsa-finds-visibility-and-inclusion-at-state-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=85507","title":{"rendered":"GSA finds visibility and inclusion at State Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Feature image: GSA President Anabeth Ratzlaff and other members of GSA prepared for last week’s trip in early February, making signs for Equality Day. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By RORY MOORE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fort Hays State University Gender and Sexuality Alliance made its annual trip to Topeka on March 4 to celebrate Equality Day. Students Echo Chastain, Annalise Mercer and Gabriel Stanton joined GSA president Anabeth Ratzlaff at the State Capitol to connect with other advocacy groups, raise awareness of LGBTQ+ issues, and meet high-profile individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to unfavorable weather, the Alliance was forced to remain inside the State Capitol, where their activities occurred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went through the Visitor Center but then we walked upstairs, there was a bunch of clapping, and the governor of Kansas was there giving her speech,\u201d Ratzlaff said. \u201cIt was really powerful. We had a lot of different speakers, and even a high school GSA speaker from Wichita came and spoke. It was one of those things where it struck you and was very impactful and powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ratzlaff had a special moment with Gov. Laura Kelly while attending the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was standing in the crowd and Gov. Kelly finished her speech and waved goodbye [to them. She walked over and was talking to people, then I shook her hand and thanked her for the work that she\u2019s doing. She said it\u2019s not time for us to back down and that we need to continue doing what we\u2019re doing and advocate for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chastain, a freshman majoring in Music Education, had a positive experience at the Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe learned about what we can do as citizens within Kansas to help fight for our own equality,\u201d he said. \u201cA few bills were talked about that day. One of those was a transgender bathroom bill and everyone was invited to come listen to their debate on that bill and whether it should be implemented as policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religious leaders were present at the event to join groups like the GSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a rabbi and he was probably the most excited person to be there,\u201d Chastain said. \u201cHe was open about caring for everybody and not the usual stigma behind Christianity or religion when put in comparison to the homosexual community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chastain felt indifferent to how the experience made him feel as a member of the LGTBQ+ community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t mean as much as I thought it would,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew bad things were happening and there were people who cared about us, so it wasn\u2019t as impactful as it is to someone who\u2019s been struggling. I\u2019ve been who I am for years, and hearing people talk and say I\u2019m loved, I know that. So. it wasn\u2019t as impactful as it could have been for other people in that room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health and human performance major Stanton was surprised at how different the event was based on his expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought it was going to be an outside thing, but it was entirely inside,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was mostly that a speaker would come up at a podium, and other queer people wanting to show they have a word in our government and that we can\u2019t be silenced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Mercer kept to herself most of the time, she had a pleasant experience accompanying her peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was busy and the governor was there,\u201d she said. \u201cWe came in towards the end [of her speech], and then she was shaking hands with people down the line. We happened to be there, so we shook hands with the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this trip happens yearly for the group, Ratzlaff believes it can make a difference in Hays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so impactful that people can go,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we can do is take the experience we got there because being in that room felt almost like it was a safety net where you could be who you are without faking. People were happy to be who they were there, so it\u2019s one of those things we can take from the Capitol and bring back here to spread into our own communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feature image: GSA President Anabeth Ratzlaff and other members of GSA prepared for last week’s trip in early February, making signs for Equality Day. By… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":84754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,3398,11,3570],"tags":[16144,14607,12632,15700],"class_list":["post-85507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-campus-news","category-news","category-politics-news","tag-equality-day","tag-fhsu-gender-and-sexuality-alliance","tag-fhsu-gsa","tag-rory-moore"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/2-of-6-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1636&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85507"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85509,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85507\/revisions\/85509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}