Joe Palumbo, 16, is a student at Jones College Prep High School, winner of GLSEN’s first Safe School Award. Joe is the president of the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at his school, which has given him the opportunity to work with GLSEN, Leadership Summits, The National Day of Silence, and the Night of Noise Rally. Last spring, Joe was featured in a story on school GSAs on Channel 11. ‘It was really difficult to be so personal in such a public forum, especially because I was not out to my entire family at the time,’ he said. ‘However, I felt it was too important to be able to tell the story of GSAs and what it is like to be gay in high school nowadays, when things are hopefully taking a turn for the best.’
Through his work with his school’s GSA, awareness raising and petitioning, Joe hopes to deter discrimination and violence in schools, an issue he says affects many GLBT youth.