Sam Greenwald, senior, spent the evening of March 6 wearing lipstick.

“I don’t wear lipstick to school, but I like lipstick, so I thought I’d wear it to [Queer Prom],” Greenwald said.

Queer Prom (QROM) is hosted by the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club. This year, 70 HHS students attended, and 50 students from other schools around the metro attended. The event aims to provide a safe environment for local teens who may not be comfortable expressing their sexual identity elsewhere, or who want to show support for the queer community.

“HHS is very inclusive, but some schools still explicitly disallow people from going [to prom] with a partner of the same gender or dressing in clothing not appropriate to their gender,” Greenwald said.

The event was held at Eisenhower Community Center, and DJ’ed by Asher Weisberg, junior.

“There was dancing, but that wasn’t necessarily the focus; it was more about coming to enjoy what’s happening. Usually when you’re at a dance and you know you suck at dancing, you don’t dance, but the gay community is super open so people just dance their hearts out.I have a fair amount of friends that are in GSA or that are in the gay community, and my moms are also gay, so I’ve always been around that,” said Alexis Saari, senior and attendee of QROM.

In the past, the event had been referred to as “Gay Prom,” and the club as “Gay-Straight Alliance.” This year’s name changes stem from a larger effort to make GSA more inclusive overall. Instead of referring solely to students of gay or straight sexualities, the term “queer” includes the LGBT community, asexuals, transgenders, etc.

“GSA has stood for Gay Straight Alliance, and people who don’t fit into those categories feel as if they can’t go,” said Karina Rivas, senior and leader of GSA.

Despite the changes in terminology, GSA continues to work towards a safer HHS community through hosting QROM.

“I think it’s really great networking. If you’re an awkward gay kid and you show up to QROM, you get to see all these super confident, super loud and proud people being themselves in this space,” Greenwald said. “It gives people role models and friends who are going to be accepting of them.”

As a leader of GSA, Greenwald also hopes to move towards a more inclusive school environment. Dr. Sharroky Hollie, cultural correspondent, recently hosted a retreat to discuss this overall theme. Gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms were a part of this discussion, and Greenwald hopes that the idea will continue to be discussed in the future.

“[GSA is] super excited about the fact that Dr. Hollie is here because he started to open up this dialogue within the school of affirming students of all different backgrounds, and that relates very well to gender neutral bathrooms and having a safe place. Locker rooms are also an issue. The bathroom policy right now is actually pretty decent, because people can just use the nurse’s bathroom, but when you’re in Lindbergh, that’s not a viable option,” Greenwald said.

Ms. April Felt, Mathematics, is the GSA advisor and looks forward to the continued discussion of gender-neutral facilities within HHS.

“It’s not something that’s easily fixed. There needs to be a conversation, and I hope there will be a bigger conversation schoolwide next year,” Felt said.

Greenwald acknowledges that even though the HHS community is generally accepting, there is still work to be done.

“It’s just an issue of awareness. People still don’t understand, and I think it’s important that people are learning the right things,” Greenwald said.