VOLUME FOURTEEN | SUMMER 2014
35
TIMES ARE CHANGING AND SO IS STS BY SHIV RUPARELL ’15
Around late February 2012 when I was in Grade 9, I remember walking into my French class and sitting next to my good friend Austin. I was terribly nervous. My anxiety didn’t stem from the test we had on the ‘past tense’ that day (though there was that to worry about too), but rather because this was my second day of being an openly gay student at STS. What was I going to tell him? Before I entered the class I tried to think of ways to tell Austin, for it was better he heard it from me than from a peer. I could take the witty approach, the serious approach, the sad approach or the happy one; in the end, I said none of the lines I had practiced beforehand. I sat down, five seconds passed, then 10, then 15 until finally I looked at him ready to tell him the news (I had decided I would say it in French for dramatic effect) – before I opened my mouth he tapped me on my arm and pointed down to a sticker on his laptop that read ‘I ♥ Diversity’ with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rainbow flag as a background. He looked at me, nodded, and it was over. No funny one-liners, no in-depth discussion and no questions whatsoever; he accepted me and that was that.
Looking back at that moment, I still criticize Austin for not letting me use my hilarious gay joke to communicate the news; but when I pause to think, what Austin did was remarkable and even more remarkable was the way he reacted became the way my entire grade reacted. “We accept you, we are here for you, nothing has changed” – this was the message I received from my STS community, (though granted, conversations with my friends shifted away from Victoria Secret models and towards the Calvin Klein ones). STS is, without a doubt in my mind, among the most accepting institutions in the world. We are leaders not only in scholarship and character, but also in our progressive views and inclusive principles. Like any school, there will always be prejudice and discrimination, along with a list of ‘isms’ and ‘phobias,’ but at the end of the day students at STS live in a warm environment with a support network that will carry through for the rest of their lives. I look to gay friends in other Calgary high schools; there are those who hide behind the closet door terrified that if they leave they will face the cold-shoulder of their families’ rejection and the torment that comes along
with being a sexual minority. There are those who are open with their sexuality, and every day face the type of bullying and harassment that one might see in a Hollywood film that looks too brutal to actually be true. I look to the news, where stories of increasing suicide rates among gay teens and the denying of basic human rights are rampant. Then I look to my own circumstances; not once in my life have I faced discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Not once have I been shoved into a locker or called a fag. Not once have I felt scared in the hallways of our school because people may not like who I am. STS is truly a great place to express oneself – and it has changed my life for the better. Shiv Ruparell ’15 was the founder of STS’s first Diversity Week, and has been actively involved both in school and in the external community in promoting equality and acceptance for all.