The Rainbow Alliance

It started as an idea that came from a casual conversation with a few queer students about growing up as LGBTQIA+ members of the MISP community. We’d fortunately never had the garden-variety, violent, stealing-your-lunch-money bullying that so many other queer friends of ours had encountered at more traditional Indian schools. However, where we should have had spaces to find security and community, there was instead a cold, unspoken rejection from our peers that came largely from a lack of information. I realized that MISP was in dire need of a space in its community for LGBTQIA+ individuals and allies—we could call it the Rainbow Alliance! I brought the idea to the small group of students who would eventually become the first members of the RA, and we recruited our then secondary school counselor to be the supervisor of our little team.

We discovered that this concept was by no means a new one, and that many schools had established spaces for queer students and allies, called GSAs, or Gender-Sexuality Alliances. And so began weeks of research to turn an idea and a name into MISP’s very first GSA. We ultimately decided that of the three possible core objectives that a GSA could have: self-education, advocacy and community—we’d be going for all of them. A month or so later, with the turn of the semester, the ‘Rainbow Alliance’ joined the ranks of the CCA sign-up list, and with 3 whole sign-ups, we were in business!

For those first few meetings, it was almost impossible to tell if we were really making any progress, and I worried that people would be bored or uncomfortable, especially since having to meet virtually made it harder still to connect. Over time, though, through cheesy icebreakers and countless moments of trial and error—and more awkward virtual silences than I care to admit—we went from the group of strangers from different grades that had hesitantly introduced ourselves on day one to a real community: the Rainbow Alliance.

Returning to school in-person marked a milestone for the RA, and over the time that has since elapsed, we’ve managed to see off members from a graduating class, double our size, design a logo, create two workshops for primary and secondary faculty about gender and pronouns, and host a giant fundraiser in the form of a pride-month carnival to raise money for the Humsafar trust, an LBGTQIA+ charity organization that worked to improve conditions for the Hijra community during the pandemic.

Founding the RA as a safe space for LGBTQIA+ members of the MISP community was an endeavor that I had hardly dared to hope would take root in the way that it did. Today, the Rainbow Alliance has expanded far beyond the scope of a CAS project and emerged as something that I am proud to say will continue to grow and evolve long after I have graduated.

Human systems and economic activities	The study of how and why people construct organizations and systems; the ways in which people connect locally and globally; the distribution of power and authority.
Social organization and culture	The study of people, communities, cultures and societies in the ways in which individuals, groups and societies interact with each other.
Continuity and change through time	The study of the relationships between people and events through time; the past, its influences on the present and its implications for the future; people who have shaped the future through their actions.
Human and natural environments	The study of the distinctive features that give a place its identity; how people adapt to and alter their environment; how people experience and represent place; the impact of natural disasters on people and the built environment.
Resources and the environment	The interaction between people and the environment; the study of how humans allocate and manage resources; the positive and negative effects of this management; the impact of scientific and technological developments on the environment.

Living things	The study of the characteristics, systems and behaviours of humans and other animals, and of plants; the interactions and relationships between and among them, and with their environment.
Earth and space	The study of planet Earth and its position in the universe, particularly its relationship with the sun; the natural phenomena and systems that shape the planet and the distinctive features that identify it; the infinite and finite resources of the planet.
Materials and matter	The study of the properties, behaviours and uses of materials, both natural and human-made; the origins of human-made materials and how they are manipulated to suit a purpose.
Forces and energy	The study of energy, its origins, storage and transfer, and the work it can do; the study of forces; the application of scientific understanding through inventions and machines. (IBO, 2009)

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