The lights are all off, casting the auditorium in darkness. The lack of light hides the faces of students in the audience, barely visible beyond a sheer outline created by the small, rather dim glow sticks they hold. The only illumination in the room other than the thin glow sticks gleaming in the crowd is the spotlight shining down on the panelists on stage.

At Anonymous Ask, an event hosted by WHS’ Alliance Club, students had the opportunity to ask panelists questions about topics ranging from sex and gender presentation to relationships and life as teenager. The club intended that the Q&A provided a safe space for students to ask questions that they otherwise might feel uncomfortable discussing. The event, which took place in the auditorium at Wayland High School on Tuesday, Nov. 23, was held in complete darkness to keep the identities of attendees anonymous, with only the panelists lit.

The event was proposed and organized by WHS’s Alliance Club members and co-advisors librarian assistant Kassie Wright and innovation and design teacher Hayes Hart-Thompson.

“The goal for Anonymous Ask is to allow students this space to ask questions that maybe, with their face behind it, with who they are behind it, they may not be comfortable expressing,” Hart-Thompson said. “And so the goal of it being in the dark is that you don’t see anyone’s face so that, cheeks get red, people get a little embarrassed, it’s their question, but you can’t see anyone.”

Anonymous Ask was not just for the LGBTQ+ community. The event was open to anyone who has questions about sex, gender and relationships, especially questions that students might otherwise feel awkward or uncomfortable asking in wellness class or without an element of anonymity. In fact, Hart-Thompson credits the idea for Anonymous Ask to students looking for an event like this.

“It came from students, again communicating that they wanted that,” Hart-Thompson said. “As the advisors for the club, our job is very much to see how can we actualize what students need and look for. So, we do logistical stuff like booking the space and working with the panelists, but the origin of it really comes from students and the needs that students portray to us.”

Prior to the event, students submitted questions for the panelists via a Google form accessed through a QR code on posters hung around WHS. Hart-Thompson and Wright received more than 100 questions from students and plan to use those responses to address areas where improvements can be made to the curriculums taught in freshman wellness classes when sexual orientation is discussed. Wright feels that although the wellness department is currently doing a good job, she has heard from students that they want to learn more about LGBTQ issues. For example, repeated responses to the Google Form included questions about what it means to be asexual and who can contract HIV.

“There’s a lot of things that made us want to do this,” Wright said. “One thing has been brought to our attention is that we’ve been hearing people say ‘pansexuality is the new bisexuality.’ That is not a thing and are two very different things… Students told me that they were being taught that.”

The idea and framework for Anonymous Ask was adapted from similar versions of an “in-the-dark” Q&A that have been done at other schools.

“[Other schools] do it ‘in-the-dark’ to kind of add a fun element to it but also anonymity,” Hart-Thompson said. “It stems from students wanting the ability to ask questions that they might not necessarily feel comfortable asking in public.”

Hayes and Wright were part of the varied group of panelists as well as four others with experience and backgrounds in the LGBTQ+ community, sexuality and relationships. Others on the panel were Ione M., a researcher in language and speech pathology and a self described “avid member of the lesbian community”; Xander K., a law student with a focus on transgender rights and who has previously researched the neurological connections between gender and sexuality; Abby Q., a student studying human rights; and Jon L., an organizer of a coffee shop known for employing members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“The goal was really to diversify who would be talking to you guys,” Hart-Thompson said.

Wright and Hayes expressed the possibility of holding the event again in the future, including a similar event during Winter Week with student panelists.

“I definitely feel that there’s a big need [for this event],” Wright said. “For one, this school teaches abstinence, which is great and I definitely think is good, but we also have to be realistic and know that there are kids who are going to be practicing sex. This is a way to teach them safe sex, safe gender, safe things about their relationships [and] any type of thing that they may not have known.”

To protect the identities of the panelists of Anonymous Ask, only the first names and last initials of the panelists were included in this article.