SALT LAKE CITY — For students in the LGBTQ+ community, finding a support system can be tough.

Some schools around Northern Utah have gay-straight alliances or other clubs meant to serve as buoys to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning students. They seem to be scattered, though, and because they are typically student-driven, a club may pop up in a school one year and then fade away the next as student interest and motivation wanes.

As Alli Martin, co-founder of Friends, Allies and Mentors of the LGBTQ+ Community, or FAM, describes it, the Utah law governing student-led clubs can make it daunting for those in the community to organize. Few schools in Utah have gay-straight alliances, or GSAs, she said, “and even fewer have strong GSAs that last year after year.”

With that in mind, FAM, which runs workshops focused on augmenting awareness about LGBTQ+ issues, particularly among educators, is holding a rally next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the state capitol in Salt Lake City. The aim — coming amid the backdrop of the controversy last February after a Murray teacher read a book about a transgender boy to a class of third-graders — is to carve a space for the students, a higher profile.

“Our main message is one of support for LGBTQ students, staff and families,” Martin said. “We want them to know that despite a lot of public attacks on their identities, they are not alone — we stand with them and for them and believe they matter in this world and in their schools.”

Such activism, public rallying, anyway, is a new thing for FAM, Martin said, so she’s not quite sure how many will turn out. She’s expecting participants from around the state.

Whatever the case, the plans put a spotlight on an issue that’s been the focus of at least a pair of high-profile incidents in Utah in recent months — how to address LGBTQ+ issues in the schools. After the Murray teacher read “Call Me Max,” brought by a student, parents of some of the students lashed out, angry it was shared without their permission, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. After a student cut down a rainbow-colored pride flag at Ridgeline High School in Millville just last month, advocates of the LGBTQ+ community protested outside the school, according to the Herald Journal newspaper.

Officials from the Ogden, Weber and Davis school districts say they aim to create space that’s safe for all students, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. “If there is a need to support, we want to provide that support,” said Jer Bates, spokesperson for the Ogden School District.

Likewise, Chris Williams, spokesperson for the Davis School District, said school officials will respond swiftly to bullying and other antagonistic behavior directed toward LGBTQ+ students. “We don’t stand for any behavior like that. We’re very quick to look into what the situation may have been,” he said.

’SUCH A NEED AND A HUNGER'Still, specific clubs or organizations geared to LGBTQ+ students or formed to advocate on their behalf seem to be limited. Around 10.2% of respondents to a survey of Davis School District students in the 2019 Student Health and Risk Prevention, or SHARP, survey identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or something other than heterosexual. The figure was 11.5% for students in the Weber, Ogden and Morgan school districts and 11.9% for students statewide.

Within the Ogden School District, Ogden High School has had a Gay Straight Alliance Club for two years, according to LaJean Elder, the assistant principal. It’s in its early stages of development, though, and hasn’t been able to meet this school year due to COVID-19 restrictions, she said.

The club aims to “create awareness and tolerance within the school” toward the community, Elder said. “The club is primarily a social club where students can make friends and have a place where they can be themselves.”

Students at Mount Ogden Junior High School in Ogden formed a gay-straight alliance club in 2017. But it’s since faded away.

“The last couple of years, there just hasn’t been interest,” said Cynthia Smith, the school principal. That said, Smith is aware of LGBTQ+ kids in the school who are open about their identity and said counselors and other staffers are at the ready to support and advocate for them.

Lane Findlay, spokesperson for the Weber School District, said Weber High School, at least, has an LGBTQ club.

Williams said he thinks most junior high and high schools in the Davis School District have clubs geared to the LGBTQ community. But he didn’t single out any specifics and said the varied clubs in the system’s schools “ebb and flow” as student interest waxes and wanes.

A teacher in a Davis County school, who asked to remain anonymous given the delicacy of the topic, says she’s aware of few gay straight alliance clubs in the system. She’s helping as an advisor for one, though, and says they are needed to create at least a measure of support for LGBTQ+ students. “There is such a need and a hunger for this sort of place,” she said. “I just really want to make sure everyone feels safe and welcome at school.”

Figures from the 2019 SHARP survey show that LGBTQ+ students report being subject to bullying at higher rates than students overall, according to Martin. And countering such data is part of FAM’s aim, in part by increasing awareness and understanding in the state’s schools about the LGBTQ+ community. The rally next week is a step to that end, but GSAs, too, play a big role by creating a welcoming air.

“What we know is that a school with a GSA likely has lower instances of bullying, suicide and disengagement among all their students. Researchers suspect that this is because schools where the most marginalized are provided explicit protections tend to feel safer for everyone,” Martin said.