Rachel Suggs ’21

The County Assemblies voted in December to allow male-male couples to attend their 2020 events, the Assemblies announced in an email to Staples’ Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) on Feb. 6.

Staples’ GSA both welcomed and helped initiate the decision.

“I’m glad that they’ve listened to us and are genuinely trying to make progress,” Dylan Alderucci ’19, the Staples GSA co-president said. “We reached out to Counties via email last year […] and at first they kind of ignored the emails I sent. But as time went on and I continued to try to get in contact with them, and eventually began to converse with the Board of Representatives, I think they saw that is was time to make the change.”

The County Assemblies host charity dances for 11th and 12th grade students in Fairfield County and allowing male-male couples to attend County Assemblies’ events has long been debated. The intent of their dances is to empower women by allowing them to ask their male dates to the dance, and some have argued that permitting men to ask other men to the dance would conflict with the event’s original theme.

“Part of the reason Counties said they were reluctant to change their policy was because their registration forms require[ed] a female to sign up [….] Requiring girls to ask guys,” Alderucci said. “And while that’s important […] they could have still gotten to that goal without stopping gay couples from registering.”

Graphic from the County Assemblies