Most gay pupils bullied in school

EDUCATION COMMITTEE: MOST LESBIAN, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) second-level students have suffered homophobic bullying, the Belong To youth service has told an Oireachtas Education Committee.

More than 20,000 post-primary students are lesbian, gay or bisexual, representing an average of two students in every classroom. A smaller number of students identify as transgender, according to Belong To.

Research involving over 1,100 LGBT participants, funded by the Health Service Executive (HSE), found that half were subject to verbal abuse in school because of their orientation, 40 per cent were verbally threatened by their peers, 34 per cent heard homophobic comments by staff and one-quarter were physically threatened by their peers. Sandra Gowran, director of education policy with the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen), said homophobic bullying was pervasive in schools, regardless of whether they had a particular religious ethos or whether they were co-educational or single sex.

“The bottom line is that these young people are not safe in our schools because of the extent of homophobic bullying,” she said.

Most young people became aware of their LGBT identity at around 12, but did not disclose it to another person until around 17.

“LGBT young people are part of every school . . . in Ireland yet they are largely invisible in any meaningful or positive way,” she said.

See Most gay pupils bullied in school - youth service Irish Times -

Budget for fiscal year leaves funding for LGBT programs in doubt In Mass

On June 29 Gov. Deval Patrick signed the budget for the state’s Fiscal year 2010, which began this month, but how much funding will go towards the state’s LGBT-related programs remains in question. In prior years the state budget included specifically earmarked dollar amounts for state programs serving LGBT youth, elders, and victims of domestic violence. This year, in response to the economic downturn and growing public criticism of the earmarking process, Patrick and the legislature eliminated most of the dollar-specific earmarks from this year’s budget. The new budget includes language specifying that the state’s LGBT programs receive funding, but the decisions about how much money to provide are left to the discretion of the state agencies that oversee the money.

The state’s HIV/AIDS budget has its own dedicated line item in the Department of Public Health budget, making the outlook for HIV/AIDS funding more certain. The line item is funded at $35.3 million, a slight reduction from last year.

Curt Rogers, executive director of the Gay Men’s Domestic Violence Project (GMDVP), said the Department of Public Health (DPH), which provides funding to his agency, has not yet told him how much his organization will receive this year. He said he believes DPH is still analyzing the new budget, which includes substantial cuts to public health and many other program areas. Rogers said DPH commissioner John Auerbach, who is openly gay, and DPH staff have been strongly supportive of GMDVP’s work, but funding for domestic violence programs overall was cut in the final budget, and Rogers expects GMDVP and other agencies will have to take a hit.

"They’ve given us a tentative contract for a much lower amount [than last year], and there’s the implicit message that that contract will go up once the numbers are set. ... But it’s really tricky to start spending money into the fiscal year without knowing how much we’ll have for the total fiscal year," said Rogers.
See Budget for fiscal year leaves funding for LGBT programs in doubt Bay Windows

Gay-rights ordinance reborn in Kalamazoo

KALAMAZOO -- A unanimous Kalamazoo City Commission vote Monday to expand legal protections for gays, lesbians and transgender people did not settle the issue.

Opponents organized as the Kalamazoo Citizens Voting No to Special Rights Discrimination announced they would begin circulating petitions today seeking a November referendum on the City Commission's second attempt to outlaw employment, housing and public-accommodation discrimination based on sexual orientation.

If the group is successful in collecting at least 1,274 signatures on petitions opposing the new ordinance, the 10-page measure would be law for less than a month.

Under the Kalamazoo City Charter, petitions challenging a commission decision must be filed within 20 days of the law's effective date to either force the commission to rescind its decision or send the issue to a general-election ballot. City Clerk Scott Borling said the new ordinance becomes effective July 9.

Borling said July 29 is the deadline for filing petitions to challenge the ordinance.

If petitioners meet the deadline and Borling certifies they have sufficient signatures, Monday night's action would be suspended.

See Gay-rights ordinance reborn Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com

Demonstrators protest police raid on gay bar

FORT WORTH — A crowd of more than 100 protesters chanted "No more!" from the steps of the Tarrant County Courthouse on Sunday evening as they demanded an investigation of a police raid that happened hours earlier at a gay nightclub.

One patron was seriously injured during the raid at the Rainbow Lounge, which resulted in the arrests of seven people, protesters said.

Speaker after speaker decried what they called excessive force during the raid, an accusation that police dispute.

"I was scared," said Todd Camp, a former Star-Telegram writer who helped organize the protest. "I have never seen anything like this in my life."

The rally lasted about 20 minutes, and then some protesters marched down Main Street, holding signs and waving flags. A second protest is planned for 7 p.m. Sunday at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

The Fort Worth raid occurred on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, when police raided the Stonewall Inn on the night of June 28, 1969. The protest by gays against police harassment helped trigger the U.S. gay-rights movement.

See Demonstrators protest police raid on gay bar Fort Worth Star Telegram

National Guard: Gay Iraq veteran must leave service

A panel of New York National Guard officers has recommended that an Iraq war veteran who acknowledged his homosexuality must leave the service, his supporters said Tuesday.

First Lt. Dan Choi disclosed in March that he is gay, challenging the 1994 "don't ask, don't tell" law that requires the military to discharge troops who disclose their sexual orientation. Tuesday's ruling, made after a daylong hearing, is a step toward stripping Choi of his officer's commission and ending his career.

"It's disappointing, but not unexpected," said Sue Fulton, a spokeswoman for Knights Out, a group of gay and lesbian West Point alumni Choi helped found.

See National Guard: Gay Iraq veteran must leave service CNN International

Boy? Girl? Parents aren't telling -- and s/he's 2!

A Swedish couple believe so strongly that gender is a social construction that they do not reveal whether their 2.5-year-old is a boy or a girl.

Only those who have changed the toddler's diapers know if "Pop," which is not the child's real name, is male or female. "We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mold from the outset," the tot's 24-year-old mother told the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. "It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead."

Pop's wardrobe includes both pants and dresses, and the child usually gets to decide what to wear. "Although Pop knows that there are physical differences between a boy and a girl, Pop's parents never use personal pronouns when referring to the child -- they just say Pop," according to the English-language Swedish site the Local.

See Boy? Girl? Parents aren't telling -- and s/he's 2!

Will Florida recognize gay adoptions from other states?

Lara Embry and Kimberly Ryan were a committed couple, and they wanted a family.

While living together in Washington state, each woman gave birth to a child, and each legally adopted the other's baby. They became a happy legal family of four: two moms and two daughters.

Fast-forward several years. The couple have moved to Sarasota and no longer are a couple. Embry and Ryan separated in 2004, and now they're in the midst of a bitter custody battle that has pitted conservatives who don't approve of gay adoption against gay-advocate groups fighting for family rights.

Embry wants the right to see her adoptive daughter — a visit Ryan forbids. The issue is whether Florida, the only state with a blanket ban on gay adoption, must recognize another state's adoption laws, even if those laws, such as Washington's, permit gay adoptions.

Last month, Florida's Second District Court of Appeal reversed a trial court's decision, giving Embry the same rights as any adoptive parent.

"Ms. Embry's same-sex relationship with Ms. Ryan is irrelevant for the purpose of enforcing her rights and obligations as an adoptive parent," one of the judges wrote in the opinion.

About half the states allow some type of adoption by same-sex couples, according to the National Center for Lesbian Rights. See

Will Florida recognize gay adoptions from other states?

Orlando Sentinel -

A teen book burns at the stake Salon

Francesca Lia Block, an award-winning author of young-adult books (the "Weetzie Bat" series among them), has known for a while now that one of her novels, Baby Be-bop (Dangerous Angels)is at the center of a controversy in West Bend, Wis.

A few days ago, she found out that it might be burned at the stake. "Baby Be-bop (Dangerous Angels)" is on a list of titles that a local group calling itself the West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries objects to seeing in the public library. In February, the group asked the library's board to remove a page of recommended titles about gay and lesbian issues for young people (including "Baby Be-Bop") from the library's Web site. Then they demanded that the books be moved from the youth section of the library and placed with the adult collection, "to protect children from accessing them without their parents' knowledge and supervision."

"My publisher brushed it off at first," Block said, "but now it's starting to look really serious." When the board refused to immediately comply with the requests of West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries, the town's common council voted not to renew the contracts of four recalcitrant board members. A second group, West Bend Parents for Free Speech, formed to oppose the plan to segregate the books.

See

A teen book burns at the stake

Salon

LGBT Youth To Converge In Pittsburgh For First Statewide

Pennsylvania's first statewide conference for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youth, their straight allies, parents and family members -- kicks off over the weekend of July 17-19, 2009, in downtown Pittsburgh, with distinguished guest Stephen A. Glassman -- the nation's first openly gay appointed official and the state's highest-ranking official -- and a "sneak preview" of the soon-to-be-released documentary, "Out in the Silence."


Volunteers from the Pittsburgh chapter of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, are collaborating with The Persad Center, Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and Dreams of Hope, with generous support from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh to affirm and support wellness through workshops, networking opportunities, special guest speakers, and social activities.

Workshops for youth and parents include: "What is Gender Identity?, Becoming An Advocate, and Bullying -- An Epidemic." A panel of current college students and parents will answer questions about what to look for and expect from college in the event, "Life After High School."

Stephen A. Glassman, chairman of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, is the conference's keynote speaker. He will discuss civil and legal rights, and how young people need to prepare themselves in an evolving society as it pertains to LGBT issues. Mr. Glassman is the first openly gay individual in the country to chair a state gubernatorial commission subject to Senate confirmation, and he is the highest-ranking openly gay appointed official in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He has appeared as a media spokesperson on television, radio, and in the press on behalf of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender civil rights causes and AIDS issues. See

LGBT Youth To Converge In Pittsburgh For First Statewide ...

GoErie.com - ‎

June is Gay & Lesbian Pride month

Since 2000, June has been officially named Gay & Lesbian Pride Month. This month was chosen to commemorate the Stonewall riots in 1969 in New York. This special month is used to highlight the history of the Gay Rights Movement as well as to celebrate the diversity of sexual orientation. This is also a time to learn more about HIV and AIDS, although we know that this disease affects many more people across the world, and not exclusively gay men.

Although Gay & Lesbian Pride Events occur all around the country throughout the entire year, this month I will be featuring those events in and around Los Angeles to help you celebrate. In this time when Proposition 8 is upheld in the California Supreme Court, we must show our respect and support for those who cannot claim to have equal rights under the current constitution.

Whether you identify as lesbian, gay, bi, straight, or anything in between, enjoy the sexual diversity of Los Angeles and attend an event this month.

To keep your pride showing all year long, visit the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. This crucial facility provides services to youth, people with HIV and AIDS, and many others who are need of assistance. Some of the services provided include safe havens for those who are homeless, medical care, counseling, legal advice and referrals, and so much more. Check their website for information on how you can donate your time or money to help.

See June is Gay & Lesbian Pride month

Examiner.com -

Announcing the 2009 Point Scholars

Point Foundation (Point), the nation's largest scholarship-granting organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students of merit, announces its 2009 Scholar Class, bringing the total number of individuals supported by the seven and a half year old organization to over 140 individuals.

"We started almost 8 years ago supporting just 8 scholars," said Point Co-founder Bruce Lindstrom. "I am thrilled of our progress and overwhelmed that we have had the opportunity to have helped nearly 150 students today."

Point received a record-breaking amount of applications this year: 2,463 submitted applications. Over the six month selections process, which includes an online application, submission of supplemental materials, a phone interview and an in-person interview in San Francisco, Point selected the new scholar class and is excited for the valuable contributions this year's diverse group of 11 undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate Point Scholarship recipients will bring to its Point Scholar community.

"We were impressed by the variety of backgrounds, achievements and accomplishments among the applicant pool, which undoubtedly represents the performance and quality of LGBT students nationwide," said Scholar Relations & Selections Program Director Vincent Garcia. "Once again, we are pleased with the diverse representation of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation and race and ethnicity among our new scholars and within our entire Point Scholar class. Additionally, new geographic regions are represented by our new scholars in this scholar class."

"In the last two years, we have received a number of calls from college admissions officers verifying individuals' status as a Point Scholarship Finalist in their admissions applications. This alone speaks to the nature of our highly competitive scholarships and the prestige associated with becoming a Point Scholar," commented Executive Director & CEO Jorge Valencia. "We are proud of all our scholars and equally proud of those individuals who make it to the finals, representing the top 2% of our nation's LGBT and straight ally applicants."

Point Foundation provides financial support, leadership training, mentoring and hope to LGBT individuals who are marginalized because of their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression. In June 2009, a total of 68 Point Scholars will be enrolled in their respective college or university and 72 Point Alumni will have continued on to pursue their life goals.

Incoming Point Scholars receiving a Named Scholarship are noted with an asterisk (*).

Making California Classrooms SaferIn

2007, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the California Student Civil Rights Act into law. The new law reinforced existing antidiscrimination protections in publicly funded schools and updated the Education Code in order to better protect students. The following year, a right-wing group sought to undo the statute and filed suit, objecting specifically to protections for transgender students. In March, Lambda Legal and a group of our sister organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the California state superintendent’s motion to dismiss the case, and this month, a Sacramento Superior Court rejected the lawsuit. According to a 2001 California survey, nearly 30 percent of California youth in grades 7 to 11 report experiencing harassment or bullying based on their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.

Philadelphia Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division to Award Five Area Law Students Diversity Scholarships at Annual Diversity Happy Hour, June 16

PHILADELPHIA, PA  -- The Young Lawyers Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association will award its Diversity Scholarships to five local law students at its annual Joint Diversity Happy Hour and Scholarship Ceremony, Tuesday, June 16 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Mexican Post, 1601 Cherry St.

Those receiving the scholarships are: Priya De Souza of Temple's Beasley School of Law, Earthen Johnson of Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, Samea Lim of Temple's Beasley School of Law, Maricruz Melendrez of Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, and Jennifer Supplee of Temple's Beasley School of Law.

The event is co-hosted by the Barristers Association of Philadelphia, the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia, the Hispanic Bar Association of Philadelphia, the Asian-Pacific American Bar Association of Philadelphia, the National Bar Association Women Lawyers Division, and the South-Asian Bar Association of Philadelphia.

Both Bar Association members and non-members are welcome. There is no fee to attend, but pre-registration is encouraged as the first 200 to RSVP will each be given two complimentary drink tickets. Appetizers will also be available throughout the night.

James DeCrescenzo Reporting LLC and Trial Technologies, Inc. are sponsoring the event. To pre-register, go to philadelphiabar.org.

The mission of the Young Lawyers Division is to promote the interests of young lawyers, improve the quality of the legal system, provide a forum for the exchange of views among young lawyers, encourage the professional development of young lawyers through educational and service programs, participate in the growth and advancement of the legal profession, and encourage young lawyers to represent deserving clients on a pro bono basis.

Girl gives class her report on gay-rights advocate Harvey Milk to all her classmates.

RAMONA — In the last few hours of the last day of school at Mount Woodson Elementary, Natalie Jones finally was able to give her report on gay-rights advocate Harvey Milk to all her classmates.

When Natalie did so yesterday, it ended a disagreement with Ramona Unified School District officials over free-speech rights and the school's sex-education policies.

As a result of the dispute, the district will change those policies so they comply with state regulations, Superintendent Robert Graeff said.

The new policies, which the school board will discuss next week, include more instruction about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Moreover, they will require parents to “opt out” if they don't want their child to get the instruction. Parents would have to notify the district they don't want their child receiving the instruction.

Currently, Ramona's policy is the opposite. It requires parents to “opt in,” or to affirmatively say they want the instruction, Graeff said. That opt-in provision was one of the issues in Natalie's case.

In April, the school said she could make the presentation only to students in her sixth-grade class whose parents had signed permission slips.

The district said the subject matter fell under the school's sex-education policy, and that meant parents had to approve any instruction in advance.

In her PowerPoint presentation, 12-year-old Natalie largely recounts Milk's biography in straightforward terms. “She just states the facts of who he was and what happened,” her mother, Bonnie, said.

Milk became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States when voters chose him in 1977 for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was assassinated in 1978 by Dan White, who had resigned as a supervisor but wanted his job back. White also killed then-Mayor George Moscone.

See Girl gives class her report on gay leader San Diego Union Tribune

Right Wing Launches Campaign Against Alameda Schools

Those right wing nuts (led by groups that are really only it it for the money) have launched a campaign against the school board in Alameda CA.

Here's the latest headlines from these nattering nabobs of negativism:

• Homosexual curriculum pushed on students without letting parents ... WND.com - ‎Jun 9, 2009‎ (Ed note: Last time I checked the good people of Alameda elected their school board - Oh wait that only works when the board agrees with WND.com, an infamous right wing smear site)
  

• Schooling in the Third Millennium: Bible Out, Sodom In The New American
  

  (Ed note: Actually I don't think the division of church and state is exactly new - I don't recall the Bible being taught in public school in the 50s or 60s, but then again I didn't go to an all white, I mean Christan, School)

• Alameda Unified Violates Federal Law Christian News Wire (press release)

  (Ed note: Um, there's a claim by a pseudo-Christan group that makes this claim but that claim has yet to be tested in court. )

• Schools Should Not Mandate Pro-Gay Teaching Opposing Views

  (Ed note: Right: better to teach the "Christan" kids it is OK to bully and beat up gay kids than to teach that gay kids have aright to exist. )

California School Apologizes For Illegally Banning Sixth Grader’s Presentation On Harvey Milk

RAMONA, CA –  A California school has apologized to a sixth grader for illegally censoring her classroom presentation about Harvey Milk last month, and school officials promise they won't engage in unconstitutional restriction of similar free speech in the future. The apology comes after the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter on May 30 to the Ramona Unified School District about its violation of the student's free speech rights when it refused to allow her to give the presentation in class. Wrongly citing a school policy on sex education, the school had improperly required classmates to get parental permission to see the presentation during a lunch recess.  The student was allowed to give her presentation in class this morning.
 
"Harvey Milk always stood up for his beliefs and what was right, so I felt like I should do the same thing when my school told me they wouldn't let me do my presentation," said Natalie Jones, a sixth grader at Mt. Woodson Elementary School. "I worked really hard on my presentation and I'm glad I'm finally going to get to share it with all of my classmates like everyone else got to."
 
The assignment, part of an independent research project class, was to prepare a written report on any topic. Natalie, who was inspired to write about Harvey Milk after watching Sean Penn win an Academy Award for portraying him, got a score of 49 out of a possible 50 points on the written report. Students were then told to make PowerPoint presentations about their reports, which they would show to other students in the class. The day before Natalie was to give her 12-page presentation she was called into the principal's office and told she couldn't do so.  When her mother spoke with the superintendent about the presentation, she was told Natalie couldn't give her presentation because of a district board policy on "Family Life/Sex Education."  A few days later, the school sent letters to parents of students in the class, explaining that her presentation would be held during a lunch recess on May 8, and that students could only attend if they had parental permission due to the allegedly "sensitive" nature of the topic.
 
"Instead of quaking at the mere mention of an LGBT person's existence, schools must understand that talking about someone who happens to be gay is no more sexual in nature than talking about a person who happens to be heterosexual," said David Blair-Loy, Legal Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties.  "Censoring Natalie's presentation violated the First Amendment and the California Education Code, and we're pleased she will finally get to give her presentation on a historical figure who was such a fierce advocate for the rights of not just LGBT Californians but of all people."

 

The school district has agreed to all the demands the ACLU made on Natalie Jones's behalf:
    * The school has apologized in writing to Natalie and sent a letter about that apology to all the parents who were sent the school's letter about the presentation.
    * The school allowed Natalie to give her presentation to all the other members of her independent research project class.
    * The school has agreed to bring its "Family Life/Sex Education" policy into compliance with state law, and acknowledged that the mention or acknowledgement of a person's sexual orientation is not sufficient to invoke the statutes and policies on sex education.
 
"If the school had taken a moment to consider its legal obligation to respect and uphold its students' free speech rights instead of jumping to erroneous conclusions and trying to justify its actions by wrongly conflating Natalie's historical presentation with sex education, this would never have happened," said Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU national LGBT Project. "There's a tremendous difference between sex education and writing or talking about someone who happens to be gay, and we're glad we were able to help the school finally understand that."
 
"I'm always proud of my daughter, of course, but I'm even more proud of her for the way she stood up for her rights," said Bonnie Jones, Natalie's mother. "We've also heard from many people in town and other parents at Natalie's school who have been amazingly supportive.  I think if Harvey Milk were still here today, he'd be happy about how this all worked out."
 
Harvey Milk, one of Time Magazine's "Time 100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century" in 1999, has been the subject of several books, an opera, a documentary film that won the 1984 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, and a feature film released last year that won two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. Milk's birthday is the subject of a bill pending in the California legislature that would make it a state holiday.
 
For additional information, including a video featuring an interview with Natalie, copies of the school's apology to Natalie and its letter to parents of students in her class, Natalie's presentation on Harvey Milk, the school's letter to parents, and the Ramona U.S.D. "Family Life/Sex Education" policy, can be found online at www.aclu.org/milk

Alameda does not equal Alameda County

AUSD

Alameda Unified School District Board of Education

After the Alameda Unified School District Board of Education voted 3 - 2 in favor of the "Safe Schools" curriculum (aka LGBT curriculum)there has been much internet chatter about how Alameda is going to be teaching Kindergarterners about gays and lesbians, and I suppose, the extension of that is that they will be forced to learn the mechanics of how that works with boy bits and lady parts

Nothwithstanding the ridiculouness of that assertion from folks who clearly have not bothered to read the curriculum, the kookiness is compounded by folks who don't even know where the hell Alameda is.

The latest trangression was made by Sonja Eddings Brown, who, according to her own commentary was a school board president in LA. She leads off with:

...if you live in Alameda County in California, which encompasses the East Bay area of Oakland, Fremont, notorious Berkeley, and some of the poorest neighborhoods of the state, your kindergartners, 1st graders, and on up, are going to begin to learn about gay parenting and sexual orientation, ostensibly to keep the children from becoming bullies...

Hey lady, it's not Alameda County Office of Education, it's the Alameda Unified School District. Similar names, big difference. If you are going to unleash your righteous indignation on all the denizens of the internets, try to at least redirect the rage to the right location. From: Alameda Blog.

18 and Under: At Last, Facing Down Bullies (and Their Enablers)

By PERRI KLASS, M.D.

Back in the 1990s, I did a physical on a boy in fifth or sixth grade at a Boston public school. I asked him his favorite subject: definitely science; he had won a prize in a science fair, and was to go on and compete in a multischool fair.

The problem was, there were some kids at school who were picking on him every day about winning the science fair; he was getting teased and jostled and even, occasionally, beaten up. His mother shook her head and wondered aloud whether life would be easier if he just let the science fair thing drop.

Bullying elicits strong and highly personal reactions; I remember my own sense of outrage and identification. Here was a highly intelligent child, a lover of science, possibly a future (fill in your favorite genius), tormented by brutes. Here’s what I did for my patient: I advised his mother to call the teacher and complain, and I encouraged him to pursue his love of science.

And here are three things I now know I should have done: I didn’t tell the mother that bullying can be prevented, and that it’s up to the school. I didn’t call the principal or suggest that the mother do so. And I didn’t give even a moment’s thought to the bullies, and what their lifetime prognosis might be.

In recent years, pediatricians and researchers in this country have been giving bullies and their victims the attention they have long deserved — and have long received in Europe. We’ve gotten past the “kids will be kids” notion that bullying is a normal part of childhood or the prelude to a successful life strategy. Research has described long-term risks — not just to victims, who may be more likely than their peers to experience depression and suicidal thoughts, but to the bullies themselves, who are less likely to finish school or hold down a job. See 18 and Under: At Last, Facing Down Bullies (and Their Enablers)

LGBT Studies Chair to be Endowed at Harvard

Harvard University announced the formation of the first endowed and named chair of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) studies in the nation last week. The F.O. Matthiessen Visiting Professorship of Gender and Sexuality will be funded by a $1.5 million gift from the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, reported the New York Times. The Chair is named after gay former Harvard professor F.O. Matthiessen, who, according to the university, "lived his sexuality as an 'open secret' in the mid-20th century" and produced groundbreaking scholarship in American Studies.Mitchell Adams, Harvard Overseer, said in a press release: "this is an extraordinary moment in Harvard's history and in the history of this rapidly emerging field…And because of Harvard's leadership in academia and the world, this gift will foster continued progress toward a more inclusive society."Candace Gingrich of the Human Rights Campaign told Reuters: "Any time a university as renowned as Harvard feels it is important and sees it is important to have an endowed professorship in LGBT studies is recognition that it is an important issue."

Settlement near in dispute over lesbian's talk

CASTRO VALLEY — A June 16 court hearing in a public records lawsuit filed by 31 parents against the Castro Valley school district has been vacated and a settlement appears to be close, officials involved with the case have confirmed.

Concerned parents filed the lawsuit last month in response to a lesbian pastor's on-campus talk during Castro Valley High School's annual Days of Diversity program.

"We're in the midst of working through the process and are looking forward to getting this resolved," said Jerry Macy, interim schools superintendent.

The 31 parents are being represented by the Pacific Justice Institute, a Sacramento-based legal firm that says it specializes in the defense of religious freedoms and parental rights.

The district has loosened up its initial stance after receiving the lawsuit filed on May 5. Parents wanted to know more about what Arlene Nehring said when she discussed her life as a lesbian pastor during the Castro Valley High program. Nehring is the pastor of Eden Church of Hayward.

The suit asked for any and all writings — including e-mails and PowerPoint presentations — received and sent by employees to and from Nehring and the Eden Church of Hayward that she heads. Macy called the public records request "overly broad."

But after talks between the district's legal counsel and the legal firm, district officials were able to provide an updated response May 19. ...Parents are now asking for handouts, brochures and bookmarks that apparently were given to students during Nehring's presentation. In addition, they are still demanding a copy of the PowerPoint program, which the district has yet to provide, said Kevin Snider, chief counsel for the legal firm.

See Settlement near in dispute over lesbian's talk Contra Costa Times