**An error was made in the print issue regarding freshman Jacob Zelonky’s quote. The correct quote is, “GLIDE was great because it showed people that no matter what your sexuality is, you deserve to be accepted.” **

By ELIZABETH HOVANESIAN:

Speakers for GLIDE (Gays and Lesbians Initiating a Dialogue for Equality) shared their personal life experiences and talked about homophobia and stereotypes with students.

On Feb. 6, students went with their English classes to see guest speakers for GLIDE Nick Duretta, Michaela Ivri, Walter Batt and Sammy Zweben. This is the second year GLIDE has made presentations.

“I want to change the world and create a world where sexual orientation shouldn’t matter to you,” Duretta said.

GLIDE is an organization where the speakers inform the youth about homophobia and bullying. They share their personal experiences as well.

They speak at schools and show students the things that gay, lesbian, transgender and even straight people must deal with on a daily basis.

GLIDE speakers have a mission to get rid of homophobia.

Duretta, 62, shares his journey of self discovery with the students. As he told his story, many students had questions not only for Duretta but all the speakers. The glide presenters happily interacted and answered questions the students asked.

“What we do is have a dialogue. We are not here to change or force anything upon anyone just to give a different perspective,” Batt said.

The speakers asked the students for positive and negative words that are said about people with different sexual orientations. The students participated in answering this question discovering that there were more negative than positive things.