By Ellenore Holbrook — The Gay Straight Alliance is different from many other clubs in how they sell t-shirts. Instead of only allowing club members to buy t-shirts, they are available to all students and also members of the public.

“The motto of our club is, ‘everyone is welcome,’ and we will stand by that,” club leader and junior, David Seatter said.

The t-shirt is all black with white lettering that says, “GlenOak’s Gay Straight Alliance” with an equality sign on the front pocket. The shirt is meant to be simplistic as to show the club is very serious about its job and services for the community.

“Everyone thinks we just paint and play games, which we do, but we are also helping students feel welcome. That is what we’ve strived for and wanted since the club was started,” Seatter said.

The club has tried to make students feel welcome since the beginning of the year and has an abundance of members and nonmembers. According to Seatter, nonmembers are students who support the club and agree with its ideas without attending meetings. These nonmembers are just as essential to the club’s success as regular attendees as they keep the idea and fundamentals of the club alive.

With the help of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, Seatter has multiple ideas to spur the club forward to becoming a mass force at GlenOak.

“With the help of my co-founder, we are really hoping to make the club much larger and more of a family than this year. Again, we are not a “Gay Club” but an alliance that just wants people to feel welcome and safe,” Seatter said.

[Updated Aug. 7, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]