High school is a place where it can be hard to find your place, but the environment at our school has niches for countless interests and identities.

Whether it be a sports team, a club or a newsroom.

The student body at Lawrence High is diverse. Diverse in races, genders, religions and orientations.

Doing this issue has allowed us and our staff to research LGBT issues and speak with the LGBT community within LHS. It provoked ethical discussions and educated our staff, and we’re grateful that we’ve had the opportunity to attempt something that we hope is influential.

We decided to focus the bulk of the issue on LGBT issues, such as trans and bi visibility and GSAs at the middle schools, because we see them as critical, relevant aspects of the high school environment.

For the cover we had students and teachers from the LGBT community come in anonymously and have their photos taken. We decided this way we could keep their identies secure but also show an underrepresented sect of our student body.

We hope that the stories, editorials and information in this issue can provoke greater discussions of acceptance.