For a fledgling club, the Gay-Straight Alliance at Mare Island Technology Academy knows how to party.”I thought there might be this many people,” said a satisfied Dominique Marwick, a 16-year-old junior and vice president of the MIT Gay-Straight Alliance.

The club held a lunchtime awareness event Tuesday, drawing dozens of students for raffles, limbo under a rainbow string and an update to Proposition 8. The same-sex marriage ban was declared unconstitutional by a federal appeals court panel last week.

The club is in its first year, though Dominique and alliance president Nathalia Sandoval, 16, have been hoping to start one for years.

“We want to stop bullying on campus,” said Nathalia, a senior who is graduating early.

The club has about eight to 10 active members. Many meetings involve discussions about campus safety, such as incidents of name-calling and slurs for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, said Stephanie Morgado, an MIT science teacher and an alliance adviser.

“Seeing so many students is awesome,” Morgado said of Tuesday’s well-attended Valentine’s Day event.

Nathalia said the club’s outreach and education efforts have already paid off. She and other club members have seen a reduction in slurs and name-calling in recent months.

“We have made a difference,” Nathalia said.