The Gay-Straight Alliance recently went on a field trip to the Minnesota State Capitol! We sat in on a meeting of the Ways and Means Committee and took a tour of the beautiful building. A fun fact about the MN State Capitol: did you know that the marble dome it holds is the second largest self-supporting dome in the world, only second to the Saint Peter’s dome in Rome? The building itself is beautiful and that fact combined with the masterpieces of painting that ordain the halls makes it all the more impressive.

While at the capitol we met with the Queer Caucus, a group of Minnesota Representatives who are open with their LGBTQ+ identity. This group includes officials such as Rep. Leigh Finke, Rep. Athena Hollins, and Rep. Alicia Kozlowski. With the Queer Caucus we discussed topics such as the new ban on conversion therapy, how Minnesota has recently become a safe haven state for transgendered people, and much more relating to queer issues in government.

One of the biggest things brought up was that of bullying and harassment based on homophobia and transphobia in the modern day. Tons of queer students suffer verbal and/or physical bullying every school year simply because they are themselves and it’s important in the future for this to change. We discussed the experiences of LGBTQ+ students here and CRHS, which has led to conversations about how to make our school safer and more welcoming of this population. 

From what we experienced at the Minnesota State Capitol I can confidently say that in terms of the queer minority, Minnesota is in good hands.