Gay high school senior Shea Dietz plans sit-in protest at Denver Catholic high school for right to form Gay-Straight Alliance

Like most of his fellow seniors at Regis Jesuit High School, Shea Dietz is preparing for finals. Anxious for graduation. Day dreaming of summer. His future.

But there’s something else: Dietz is planning a sit-in at his school after the administration has refused to allow the senior to form a Gay-Straight Alliance.

Dietz, along with 20 other students, will protest the private-Catholic high school’s administration and its decision May 24.

The students hope their non-violent action will convince school officials to sanction a GSA in the 2011-2012 school year, and thereafter.

“I don’t believe my school offers a 100 percent safe environment to come out in,” Dietz said.

The protest, set for 7 a.m., at the Regis campus in Littleton, is the cumulation of a tumultuous year for Dietz.

Since coming out to his friends as bisexual last August, Dietz said he’s been subject to harassment – mostly online bullying via social networking websites – from some of his classmates.

The school’s leaders haven’t been much help either, Deitz said.

They’ve done nothing about multiple threats on Facebook, denied his request to start a GSA and forbid him from bringing his boyfriend to the school’s prom, Dietz said.

Meanwhile, they have hosted multiple conversations with Dietz and his father suggesting he temper his activism until after he’s graduated.

“I feel hated,” he said. “People don’t want to extend anything to me.”

But instead of going quietly, Dietz plans on going out fighting.

“I want to end on a high note,” he said. “We want a GSA. We want to change the school, not destroy it.”

Dietz said he first asked his school to form a GSA in November after he said a fellow student posted a threat on his Facebook wall. Dietz said he took a screen shot of the threat and deleted it because he didn’t want others to see it. The student who threatened Dietz received a “slap on the wrist,” he said.

Meanwhile, the faculty member in charge of the diversity program at Regis denied the petition for the GSA blaming it on the Archdiocese of Denver, Dietz said.

Dietz believes the school fears a GSA would bread homosexual acts.

He cites Catholicism: it’s OK to be gay, as long as you don’t act on it.

“They believe it’s a call to be chaste,” he said.

While Regis does have a diversity program, sexual orientation and gender identity are never mentioned. The school does include both in its anti-discrimination policy under bullying, harassment and sports code, however.

But Dietz said its an empty policy.

Dietz first went public with his claims of harassment in April when Principal James Gmelich told him he couldn’t take his boyfriend to prom.

And that’s perfectly legal in Colorado, despite the state having an LGBT-inclusive student non-discrimination law, said Mindy Barton, The GLBT Center of Colorado’s legal director.

Because the school is private and a religious institutions, she said, the school is excempt from those laws.

Dietz isn’t going alone. Numerous LGBT advocacy organizations have pledge to support the youth in one way or another. Those organizations include: the state’s Human Rights Campaign chapter; The Matthew Shepard Foundation; The Gay-Straight Alliance Network; and Rainbow Alley.

Dietz also has his band of 20.

Danielle Chapleau, a student in the school’s girl division, said the administration is turning a blind eye. And enough is enough.

“Something needs to be done,” Chapleau said. “At this point, the school’s in a pretty bad place.”

Chapleau, a member of the Diversity Action Group, said she helped lead a discussion about LGBT issues at a teacher inservice. But her presentation to a handful of teachers was 50 minutes and was not enough.

One student, who asked not to be identified out of fear of the adminsitration would suspend the him before graduation said the culture at Regis has to change.
And he believes a GSA will help.

“I know the culture of the school,” he said. “I know there’s a homophobic cutlure there. It’s not very accepting.”

Another Regis senior, who asked not to be named, said if the school is going to preach equality, it needs to live it.

“My hope is sooner, rather than later, we’ll have a support group that says it’s OK to be gay at Regis,” he said. “I hope the school can be better and more loving.”

The senior said he’s not sure how quickly change will come to the institution. But he hopes when it does they’ll pinpoint the sit-in as the turning point.

“This needs to change,” he said. “If we preach equality, we need to fight for equality – for everyone.”

Dietz is adamant: despite its flawed policies, Regis is a good school. He’s been given a world-class education.

“At its core, I believe in the school,” he said. “They preach diversity. I just wish that included LGBT (diversity).”