Rarely are a student’s biggest bullies the governor and legislature of their state. But that’s the case for many queer K-12 students in Iowa, who are now subject to several laws passed by Iowa’s legislature and signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Plenty of adults and talking heads will gladly share their opinions, but it’s young people that are the most affected by these new laws. People like Naomi Pittman. A rising senior at Waukee Northwest High School, Pittman is a print editor for their school’s newspaper and president of the GSA (genders and sexualities alliance, also known as a gay-straight alliance).
Toward the end of the 2022-23 school year, Pittman kicked their activism into overdrive, helping to organize queer and allied students in school walkouts to protest anti-LGBTQ legislation, an annual Day of Silence in the spring, a Valentine’s Day fundraiser with the Student Council and Black Student Union and other events to encourage community and action.
I had the privilege of sitting down with Pittman to pick their brain about school, activism and being queer in the state of Iowa.
As a student, you’re in a unique position regarding what’s been happening lately in the state legislature. Has your relationship with school changed at all in these last few months?
I think it has started to, yes. I figure it’s going to start changing a lot this coming year because the big-impact changes in legislation happened at the end of the last school year. This year’s gonna be different because there are library laws that are gonna be very impactful; there’s the bathroom stuff that’s impacted a lot of our students. I mean, our [school] administration does the best that they can, but they have to obey the law, so this coming year is gonna feel a little more … I don’t want to say “hostile” but, ya know …. School is a place where you’re supposed to feel comfortable and, when there are these laws that are trying to make me and my friends feel out of place, it’s gonna feel less comfortable, essentially. It’s still a supportive environment, there are people there who care, but because of the laws that they have to comply with it’s not going to be as safe a space as it was previously.
How does it affect your ability to focus on your education?
It affects a lot! I mean, I’ve always been a very high-functioning student — I’m a perfectionist, it’s a lot — but I’ve been trying recently to be a lot more engaged in activism because I want to serve our community. As GSA president, that’s partially my responsibility to try to make sure people feel safe. It takes a lot of mental energy, I would say. I’ve spent so much time stressing out over, like, what are they gonna do with the laws, like, are our kids gonna be allowed to use the bathroom or use their name and pronouns. It just makes it difficult to focus on, like, normal everyday things when it feels like you’re fighting something so much bigger than you. It’s insane for a regular 16-year-old in the real world to have to think about fighting some higher power while I’m trying to do my classwork.
Would you say that you’ve always been a more outspoken person?
Honestly, I’ve been a doormat for quite a while … I’d say a big turning point, when I realized this is something that I can do, was our walkout this year, which I led. Honestly, not a lot of people volunteered *laughs*, and I just decided, “Hey, I don’t need to be in the background.” If I can have the courage to stand up and talk for other people who aren’t willing, or aren’t able, to fight for themselves, then I can make a difference, and I think I just realized that this year. I decided to do my best, even if it’s not the most, to speak out about things I care about, ya know?
Becoming more engaged, being more outspoken, leading walkouts, how does all of that affect your relationships with teachers, administrators and classmates?
It’s sparked a lot of really interesting conversations. I tell teachers, “Hey, I’m not gonna be here today, I’m walking out of the school,” and all of them have been super supportive. Some of them will pull me aside and say, “I’m really glad that you’re doing this,” and that’s the most that they can do — they can’t walk out with us, so it’s their way of showing support. It’s been really positive in letting me see, and letting other people see, that teachers really do care.
Admin has been amazingly supportive. It helps that admin know me and other people involved in [activism]; they’ll come up and talk to me and be like, “Hey, how did the walkout go?” … I know we’ve had some talks of a couple teachers who have not been that supportive, but for the most part [our activism] allows [teachers] to show that they’re with us.
What would you say are the benefits of having a queer-focused student group like a GSA in a school environment?
I think it’s a place where, if people aren’t supported at home, they know they can go to this place because there will be people like them who will listen to them, who will support them and who will really do whatever they can to make them feel comfortable. And it’s also a place that’s … I don’t wanna say “secretive,” but what happens in GSA always stays in GSA. So, if you can’t be out elsewhere, then there’s at least one place where you can be yourself. Let’s say there’s a trans student who can’t be out in class or at home; they could be out in GSA, and that offers a really safe and powerful space for them to express themselves. If you aren’t able to express yourself, that’s where a lot of those huge mental health issues come into play.
How do the political and social tenets of your GSA compare as far as importance?
The social one is the one we try to focus on the most, because there’s a difference between a “safe space” and a “brave space”; [the former] being more about the social unity, “you can come here to feel safe,” and [the latter] is more, “we are doing activism and trying to actively change things.” We try to never make it solely political, because there are a lot of people who can’t attend walkouts or protests because of family or something like that. Honestly, it’s just as important to be out there having your voice heard as it is to be able to just have friends who are like you. We try to balance those as much as we can.
Not to ask a clichéd question, but is there any person or group that serves as an inspiration for you and your activism, or your life in general?
There’s a lot! But if I’m thinking personal, we actually have a local activist who used to go to Waukee and now works professionally as an activist in the Des Moines area. Jo Allen is their name, and they’ve been to a lot of recent protests. So I think about them a lot whenever we’re doing a walkout. They came one day because they wanted to talk about what it was like being a Waukee student growing up. They talked a lot about how they wanted to leave Iowa because it’s becoming a dangerous space, but they felt like, if they left, then who would stay to fight?
That’s something that I think about a lot — obviously you can leave if you need to, but I feel like Iowa is my home, and I think about [Allen]’s words a lot when I think that it would be easier and safer to move to, like, Minnesota, or somewhere that is more accepting. But if I leave Iowa then I can’t help Iowa, if that makes sense.
What does “wanting to help Iowa” look like to you going forward?
That is a great question. *laughs* I mean, I would love to see more speaking out and protests until people can’t ignore it. If you aren’t involved in these issues it becomes easy to forget about them, to push them out of mind, but I think making ourselves more visible and more loud so that people have no choice but to see the cause, that’s what would help us.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s August 2023 issue.
