The Daily Show broadened the Miley Cyrus/Vanity Fair photo hullabaloo story on Tuesday night's show, and did a segment on teen sex. Jon and the correspondents offer a humorous public service message to the kids about a third option to sex or abstinence, because after the fortune spent by the government on abstinence programs, "teenagers still want to do it."
Watch:
About 20 students, faculty members and others gathered yesterday for an evening of independent films that revolved around the same issue: the daily struggles of members of the LGBT community.The sixth annual One in Ten Film Festival, which began last Tuesday and ends tomorrow, showcases films that bring awareness to issues surrounding the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
“Not many people get exposed to these topics,” said the festival’s co-director Tom Koerber (graduate-biochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology).
One film, Camp Out (pictured above), is a documentary about 10 high school-aged kids who attend a bible camp for gay Christians. The film deals with the struggle the teens go through both as members of the Christian faith and the LGBT community.
One of the girls from the documentary had a sticker on her door that read, “God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts.”
Film festival examines gay culture
The Daily Collegian Online, PA
On his church’s website today Rev. Ken Hutcherson posted the following:
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Praise for the Day of Silence outcome! Whether they blame me or credit me, the fact of the matter is over 600 students, almost half the student body at Mt. Si were kept home by their parents on the Day of Silence. The school officials must realize they have some very unhappy parents.
Last night I met with the NAACP. Please pray for wisdom for them as they discuss what their move will be in response to the Mt. Si MLK Day debacle.
Please pray for me as I travel to Southern California today and as I return home on Saturday.
Pastor Hutch
Like most braggarts, Hutch assumes that his actions are larger than they are.
See Hutcherson brags about disrupting school
Box Turtle Bulletin
Democrat Christian Chiari, who is challenging state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, is criticizing her for voting against an amendment that would have added added mental disabilities, physical disabilities, and sexual orientation to a list of categories required in school anti-bullying policies contained in House Bill 669.
But the Anti-Defamation League is pleased with the product because of a commitment that the bill covers all students, even though the categories aren't spelled out, falling short of what the organization sought.
As adults, we might be a little jaded by the upcoming gay pride season. We may go to a parade, have a beer or two, hang with some friends, and that’s pretty much it. But it’s important for teens, especially teens who are just realizing they are gay, to actively take pride in who they are. Here are some easy ways for them to do just that.
School is still in session now, so why not use this time to take some action in making school a more queer-friendly place to be? Consider creating a GLBT club or a gay-straight alliance. If you see there are practices which are unfair to gay students, fight against them.
Definitely attend a gay pride parade. The parade may seem like just a big party, but it is much more important than that. It is the one day when groups of gay people can celebrate who they are in a very public fashion. As such, it is extremely important, and it’ll make you feel good too.
So gather up some gay or gay-friendly friends to cheer the groups as they walk on by. Or even better, participate in the parade. Get together with a teen gay group that is taking part. As someone who has marched in a local gay pride parade, I can tell you it’s an exhilarating, amazing experience, and one every gay person should do at least once in their life. See How Teens Can Celebrate Gay Pride
Gay Wired
Day of Silence Observed in 8,500 Schools
Resistance by the nation's most vehemently antigay groups could not keep the National Day of Silence from garnering a record number of participants this year. More than 8,500 middle schools, high schools, and colleges in the United States participated in the 12th annual day of action on April 25, which is coordinated by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network to promote safe school environments for LGBT and ally students. Read the full story
Jacob Reitan of the Harvard College LGBT Political Coalition, announced at a forum on the electability of GLBT people to office at Harvard on Tuesday, April 22 that his organization will launch "Right to Serve," "a ground-breaking" bus tour protesting "Don't ask, don't tell." From May 24 through May 31, students from Harvard College will embark on a week-long journey "to highlight the injustice of 'Don't ask, don't tell'," according to information at the Harvard College of Democrats Web site (harvarddems.com). Harvard Students Poised to Protest DADT
Proctor and gamble is giving you the opportunity to vote to keep the gay storyline on As The World Turns.
Just call 800-331-3774...it's option (2) two to get to the poll and 1 (one) to keep the Gay Storyline.
And as a more formal announcement says,
In response to heat they're getting from the American Family Association, P&G is conducting a phone poll to see if people are for or against the Luke/Noah storyline on As The World Turns. Even if you don't watch the show, please consider taking a quick moment to support boy kissing and thwart homophobic bigotry. The poll is completely automated. You don't have to talk to anyone. And it really does take all of a second to register your opinion.
Just call 1-800-331-3774 and press #2 to get to the ATWT poll, then press 1 to continue the storyline.
Royal calls gay sex claims "spurious"
The Royal at the centre of the gay sex blackmail trial has declared the accusations of his sexuality as "spurious". The Royal, referred to only as witness A told the court in a statement: "As far as these comments about my personal and professional life are concerned, I can only say they are spurious and without foundation."
Luke & Noah, the young gay couple on CBS' daytime soap As The World Turns, finally kissed last week after 7 action-free months and it didn't take long for hatemongering religious groups to come out of the woodwork to complain about it. The American Family Association (AFA) has issued an action alert to get their members to contact P&G, the show's producer, to stop future gay affection on the soap:
"Procter & Gamble has resumed using explicit, open-mouth homosexual kissing in their soap opera, "As the World Turns." P&G decided to include this type of content as a commitment to "diversity." P&G stopped showing such scenes some months ago, but has now decided to again help promote the homosexual agenda which includes homosexual marriage.
Attack on Luke & Noah's Gay Kiss
Bgay.com, FL
Gay rights groups across America have breathed a sigh of relief after the homophobic ‘Day of Truth’ failed to make an impact on American schools.
Gay news group, GoodasYou.org described that events failure:
"The so-called "Day of Truth" went by yesterday with less than a whimper.
"While last Friday's pro-acceptance, anti-bullying 'Day of Silence' attracted considerable attention, there was barely a mention of Monday's anti-gay endeavour on either mainstream or "pro-family" news sites, and none of the usual social conservative groups issued so much as a press release celebrating the event.
Anti-gay 'Day of Truth' fails to make its mark in US schools
PinkNews.co.uk, UK
MEMPHIS – A public high school principal who posted the names of two boys on a list of students believed to be couples, revealing their relationship to their parents as well as other students and teachers, violated the students’ constitutional right to freedom of association, the American Civil Liberties Union charged today. In a letter to school board officials in Memphis, Tennessee, the ACLU demanded today that the school reprimand the principal and take steps to ensure such actions never happen again.
In September of 2007, the principal at Hollis F. Price Middle College High told teachers she wanted the names of all student couples, “hetero and homo,” because she wanted to monitor them personally to prevent students from engaging in public displays of affection. The two students now represented by the ACLU, Andrew and Nicholas (who have asked that their last names not be revealed), were two A students who had been seeing each other for a short time and were attempting to keep their relationship quiet and private. The principal heard about them through another student, then wrote their names on a list she posted next to her desk, in full view of anyone who entered her office.
One of the boys’ mothers personally witnessed the list when she met with the principal a few days later. “I couldn’t believe it when I went to meet with the principal and that list was right there by her desk where anyone could see it,” said Andrea, Andrew’s mother. “African American people face enough obstacles to succeeding in this world and I want my son to have every opportunity he’s worked so hard for. Our schools should be helping our children do well, not tearing them down for something like this.”
Although the boys had never been observed by any school staff engaging in any sort of display of affection, the principal called Nicholas’s mother Nichole. According to Nichole, the principal said things like “Did you know your son is gay?” repeatedly and went on to say that she didn’t like gay people and wouldn’t tolerate homosexuality at her school.
Both students say they’ve had to deal with verbal harassment from both teachers and students since word got out around the school about their principal’s actions. According to Nicholas, he also suffered another consequence of the principal’s discrimination. He had submitted extensive paperwork and several recommendations from teachers for a school trip to New Orleans to assist in rebuilding efforts. Having a long history of community service, he was considered a shoo-in to be selected to go before the incident, but then a teacher told Nicholas some faculty were afraid he might “embarrass the school” or engage in “inappropriate behavior.” A few days later, another student who hadn’t even applied to go on the trip was selected in his place.
“We never bothered anyone or did a single thing at school that broke any of the rules,” said Nicholas, a junior and honor student. “Every day I feel like they’re still punishing me, and I’m worried that this is going to hurt my chances to get into a good college.”
“The principal’s outing of these two students to their families, classmates, and teachers is unacceptable. Its only purpose was to intimidate not only these students but all gay students at Hollis Price,” said Hedy Weinberg, Executive Director at the ACLU of Tennessee. “Educators should be focused on educating their students and not on harassing them because of their sexual orientation or the people with whom they associate.”
School officials have already confirmed the existence of the list to the ACLU in prior meetings held in an attempt to resolve the matter privately. In today’s letter to the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners, the ACLU points out that the principal ordered the boys not to even walk or study together at school.
“This is a public high school that runs on taxpayer dollars. As such, it is part of the government and must obey the Constitution in dealing with the students entrusted to its care each day,” said Bruce Kramer, a partner at Borod and Kramer in Memphis and cooperating attorney on the case. “This school has no business singling these boys out and taking away educational opportunities against them simply because they were dating.”
The students and their mothers are represented by Kramer as well as Christine Sun of the ACLU’s national Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project.
Today’s demand letter can be found online at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/35092lgl20080429.html.
ALLAHASSEE — On the day that would have been Ryan Skipper's 26th birthday, his family and gay rights activists gathered in the Capitol on Monday to urge lawmakers to strengthen an anti-bullying bill that is moving through the Legislature.
Skipper, who was openly gay, was killed last year in Polk County and two men have been charged with the murder, which has been declared a hate crime.
Skipper's parents, Lynn and Pat Mulder of Auburndale, were in Tallahassee on Monday to ask lawmakers to add a provision to the anti-bullying bill (HB 669) that would specifically ban the harassment of gay or transgendered students in schools.
Pat Mulder, Skipper's mother, said she wants to use the circumstances of her son's death to help others.
"Last year I was in way too much pain to do anything like this," she said "The pain is still there but the motivation to make a difference is so much stronger."
Lynn Mulder, Skipper's stepfather, said his son was "a good and valuable member of society" who faced harassment in school and later at work and who was "ultimately murdered."
"That shouldn't happen to anyone," he said.
The Mulders' appearance was part of what organizers called the first-ever "gay and transgender hate crimes awareness day" at the Capitol.
Gay man's parents
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL
It’s time to explore your inner Viking as registrations for the 2009 World Outgames in Copenhagen open online. Whether you aspire to be a Little Mermaid in the pool or a Hamlet at the human rights conference, this is your opportunity to revel under the midnight sun. Denmark came out early, legalising homosexuality in 1933. As such it was an obvious choice for the 2nd World Outgames, which will run over eight days from Jul 25 to Aug 2, 2009. The program includes sports, human rights and cultural events and is overseen by GLISA, the Gay and Lesbian International Sports Association. world outgames copenhagen 2009 registrations open
The Bishop of Nottingham Malcolm McMahon says his diocese will cut its ties with an adoption agency because it cannot accept the government’s new laws on homosexual rights.
Bishop Malcolm McMahon said he and the trustees of the Catholic Children’s Society adoption agency felt that they had been forced into the decision by the Sexual Orientation Regulations which bans discrimination against gays in the provision of goods and services.
The law would compel the diocese in certain circumstances to place children in the care of same-sex couples.
“We have been coerced into this, I am not happy about it at all,” Bishop McMahon said. “The regulations have coerced the children’s society into going against the Church’s teaching, and we don’t wish to do that.”
A Vatican directive issued in 2003 said it was morally wrong to place children in the care of same-sex couples.Diocese ends adoption service after gay rights legislation
Total Catholic, UK
American talk show host Larry King made an emotional plea to viewers that Americans must demand tolerance for LGBT students.
The statement comes as thousands of American students took part in a 'Day of Silence'.
The yearly event was particularly poignant after the homophobic murder of a gay teenager
Fifteen year old Lawrence King was gunned down by 14-year-old Brandon McInerney earlier this year in Oxnard, California because he was gay, and had allegedly
American talk show host Larry King sends out message of support for LGBT students
New publication provides invaluable ‘how-to’ advice to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations seeking to become fully transgender-inclusive
WASHINGTON, DC - April 28 - The National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force today released a joint publication titled Opening the Door to the Inclusion of Transgender People: The Nine Keys to Making Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organizations Fully Transgender-Inclusive, geared toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations.
“Transgender inclusion has been an important issue in the LGBT community, particularly in the past year. Yet, many organizations struggle with how exactly to become fully transgender-inclusive. We are excited to offer this free new resource,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE).
Opening the Door, which is based on years of personal and professional experience within LGBT organizations, makes the case for full inclusion at every level of an organization. It examines the need for genuine, consistent advocacy for inclusion of gender identity and expression in policies, programs, legislative stances and public positions, and explores critical issues such as understanding the transgender experience and the role of an ally, how to address staffing issues, dealing with prejudice and ways to further outreach. The voices of LGBT leaders discussing real-life experiences with transgender inclusion are found throughout the guide.
“Our movement needs this publication right now and we are pleased to have co-produced it and make it available to all. We are proud of the growth the Task Force has made over the years in regards to inclusion and it continues to be a priority. We hope that this guide will illuminate the process of becoming fully trans-inclusive,” said Rea Carey, acting executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
“The Equality Federation was thrilled to contribute to this guide, and I believe it should be required reading for all board members, staff members and any type of leader in an LGBT organization. I am asking everyone I know to read it because I believe it will better prepare our movement’s organizations to do what we set out to do,” said Equality Federation Executive Director Toni Broaddus.
The guide is co-authored by Justin Tanis, program manager of the National Center for Transgender Equality, and Lisa Mottet, an attorney with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Transgender Civil Rights Project. Mottet works on transgender-related legislation and policy and is the co-author of Transitioning Our Shelters: A Guide to Making Homeless Shelters Safe for Transgender People. Tanis, Ph.D., has a 20-plus-year career in LGBT nonprofits and is the author of Transgendered Theology, Ministry and Communities of Faith.
Download Opening the Door from our Web site or at www.nctequality.org.
The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. We do this by training activists, equipping state and local organizations with the skills needed to organize broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and building the organizational capacity of our movement. Our Policy Institute, the movement’s premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., we also have offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Cambridge.
Q I DON'T like any of the boys I know. They are so immature. You can't have a proper conversation with them about anything serious such as global warming or world poverty.
But without boasting, I am quite good looking so loads of them ask me out.
I don't want anyone to think I am gay or anything, so I sometimes go out with them anyway.
Now I've met my soulmate online.
I can talk to her about everything and we share so many ideas it's spooky.
But now she's told me she's gay so I don't know if I should go on talking to her.
See answer @ Chatroom Pal Revealed She's Gay
Glasgow Daily Record, UK
SANTA CRUZ - You might be able to talk, but can you really speak?
If you're gay, lesbian, transgendered, intersex or questioning your sexuality - and you're young - maybe not. So, do you stay quiet, instead of talking about it or living in the open out of fear of harm or ridicule?
Several dozen youth and their allies came together Friday at the Santa Cruz Town Clock to rally for ending the silence society has long demanded of people who love differently than others. Many had remained silent all day to honor the struggle of young people like eighth-grader Lawrence King, the 15-year-old Oxnard boy who was shot and killed by a classmate in February after acknowledging in school that he was gay.
"People are people and love is love," said Nick Jacque, coordinator of Breaking the Silence, an event organized by the national Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. "It's that simple."
The rally is a jump-start for today's 11th annual Queer Youth Leadership Awards, which honor efforts to keep schools safe from sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. The awards are sponsored by the Santa Cruz County Task Force for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Intersex and Questioning Youth.
Considering LGBTQI people often report first acknowledging their sexual orientation during their youth, the coalition of youngsters and straight allies said Santa Cruz must continue to be a place where youth can come out as themselves safely. But advocates say work still needs to be done to educate young people not to intimidate or harass peers based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or even a perception about those qualities.
"There is a huge silence of queer people in schools that needs to be addressed," said Jacob Breslow, a UC Santa Cruz junior who works to build bridges of support between the LGBT community on campus and those in secondary schools.
Sarananda Osheim, a 17-year-old Harbor High senior who will win an award Saturday, wrote with a marker during morning classes instead of talking. When she didn't respond to teachers or friends, they looked at her puzzled until they read her accompanying card that explained why she was staying silent.
Breaking the Silence rally brings attention to challenges faced by gay teens
When I saw the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine this week, I groaned. Beaming out from the pages in ridiculously campy, 1950s-style photos reminiscent of June and Ward Cleaver were two perfectly domestic gay men.
The Newlywed Gays! the text read and I just knew that we were going to get yet another installment about how perfectly normal gay marriage is. I’ve complained before about the “We’re perfectly normal and boring” meme that all reporters use when describing, say, polygamous families or gay parents and their genetic material donors forming multi-parent families. I don’t want sensational coverage, but it always smacks of advocacy. It also subtly denigrates others’ views as opposing, say, polygamy only because it’s not “normal.”
Well, Benoit Denizet-Lewis’ story might be advocacy, but it completely surprised me. It’s long, but really interesting and it feels no need to present readers with 5,000 words claiming that young gay marrieds aren’t just normal, they’re better than normal. Not that I would expect him to, having read his rather provocative pieces on men on the down low and the teen hook up culture.
Instead, Denizet-Lewis used the piece to satisfy a curiosity. He’d heard about a bunch of young gay men getting married in Boston and he was curious how they might choose to construct and maintain their unions, particularly with no model for how to build a gay marriage. Much of the article deals with whether young gay men expect monogamy, as is a normal expectation (even if not always the reality) with straight couples who marry.
Denizet-Lewis pulls no punches.
See Young, gay, married
GetReligion, DC
Groups against gay education are trying to send a louder message than those in support of it.
"I feel gay, lesbian and transgender advocates are using the recent and former hate crimes to push the promotion of gay education in schools," former educator and family value activist Dan Rush said. "They are crying 'equal rights' and 'stop the hate,' but in reality hate in this world, sadly, is an ongoing thing, in all areas.
"We can't target every area of hate individually in school, so we teach tolerance. Tolerance covers all the bases without coming out and saying, 'Let's teach the kids about the gay way of life and how it's OK to be gay.' The problem is, not everyone agrees with that, but they do agree with tolerance."
When GroundSpark -- formerly Women's Educational Media -- recently released "It's STILL Elementary, Talking About Gay Issues In Schools," to help elementary and middle school teachers lead age-appropriate classroom discussions about gay and lesbian people, many parents were outraged.
Among those against the idea was Castalia parent Brian Taylor, who was interviewed for a March 3 Register story about the issue.
Battle lines drawn over 'teaching gay'
Sandusky Register, USA
EAST GRAND RAPIDS -- As the Triangle Foundation prepared for Saturday's open house, one local politician said there are two ways of looking at the opening of a gay-rights organization center to serve West Michigan.
"It's unfortunate to me that an organization like Triangle feels it needs to be here," said East Grand Rapids Mayor Cindy Bartman, noting that Triangle Foundation works to stop violence against gays.
The other way of seeing things is more hopeful.
"West Michigan is at least willing to open the conversation we need to get to know each other," Bartman said. "Through the identification of the things we have in common as people, we're going to find our way through this issue."
Bartman will be on hand at the open house at the Triangle Foundation's new field office at 343 Atlas SE.
Gay rights group opens West Michigan center
MLive.com, MI -
LAST NOVEMBER IN BOSTON, Joshua Janson, a slender and boyish 25-year-old, invited me to an impromptu gathering at the apartment he shares with Benjamin McGuire, his considerably more staid husband of the same age. It was a cozy, festive affair, complete with some 20 guests and a large sushi spread where you might have expected the chips and salsa to be
“I beg of you — please eat a tuna roll!” Joshua barked, circulating around the spacious apartment in a blue blazer, slim-fitting corduroys and a pair of royal blue house slippers with his initials. “The fish is not going to eat itself!”
Spotting me alone by a window seat decorated with Tibetan pillows, Joshua, who by that point had a few drinks in him, grabbed my arm and led me toward a handful of young men huddled around an antique Asian “lion’s head” chair. “Are you single? Have you met the gays?” Joshua asked, depositing me among them before embarking on a halfhearted search for the couple’s dog, Bernard, who, last I saw him, was eyeing an eel roll left carelessly at dog level. (At the other end of the living room, past a marble fireplace, the straights — in this case, young associates from the Boston law firm Benjamin had recently joined — were debating the best local restaurants.)
As the night went on, the gays and the straights — fueled, I suspect, by a shared appreciation for liquor — began to mingle, and before long the party coalesced into a boisterous celebration. Joshua looked delighted. And in a rare moment of repose, he sidled up to his taller, auburn-haired mate.
“Honey,” Joshua said, “we may be married, but we still know how to have a good time, don’t we?”
Benjamin, sharply outfitted in green corduroys and an argyle sweater over a striped dress shirt, smiled. “Josh is extremely social, and he keeps us busy all the time,” he told me. “I think we may be proof that opposites do attract.”
“If it were up to him,” Joshua said, “we’d barely leave the house! We’re actually a terrific team. He calms me down, and I get him out at night. I’ll say: ‘Honey, this is what we’re doing. Now put this on.’ ”
“I think a lot of straight married couples start hibernating at home once they get married,” Benjamin said.
Joshua kissed Benjamin on the cheek. “No, honey, that’s just your parents.”
“No, that’s a lot of people,” Benjamin insisted. “I think. . . .”
“And I love your parents to death,” Joshua interrupted, “but it scared me senseless to think that if anything were to happen, if you ended up in the hospital, your mother would get to make the decisions.” Joshua looked at me with a devilish grin. “I dare her to try! I’d say, ‘Woman, get away from my man!’ I’m 24, I’ve been with Ben for a long time and we’ve been married for three years. I think I’ve earned the right — the responsibility — that comes with that.”
Benjamin chuckled. “You’re 25.”
“Oh, God,” Joshua said, looking as if he’d just been sucker-punched. “I keep forgetting that I’m 25. I think I’m probably having some issues around that number. Am I desperately trying to hold onto my youth?” He grabbed Ben’s arm. “Honey, am I a gay cliché?”
Benjamin shook his head. “You can’t be a gay cliché when you get married to a man at 22.”
JOSHUA AND BENJAMIN had each only recently come out of the closet — and certainly didn’t have marriage in mind — when they became friends seven years ago during Benjamin’s freshman year at Brown University.
Benjamin first realized his attraction to men his senior year of high school, but at Brown he tried to put it out of his mind. He flirted with female students and played beer pong with his straight friends. When that became too tedious to bear, he slowly began coming out to friends. Soon he was dating other male students.
Joshua, who was a freshman at Curry College, about 40 miles north of Brown, had also recently acknowledged to himself that he was gay. But unlike Benjamin, he had long experimented sexually with boys. In high school, he was a gregarious presence who was beloved — and protected — by the school’s popular girls. While many students assumed he was gay, Joshua insists he was “the last to know” about his orientation, even though he spent an hour or two each night in AOL gay chat rooms and, he says, occasionally had furtive sex with members of his high school’s football team.
Joshua broke through his denial before graduation, but he was in no mood to settle down with Benjamin when they fooled around their freshman year of college. “I was like, ‘Well, that was fun, but I’m going to the gay club to find someone to do that with again!’ ” Joshua said.
More of Young Gay Rites
New York Times, United States
Benoit Denizet-Lewis, the reporter who says “dude” and hangs out with frat boys, writes about black men on the down low (PDF), fawns over Jake Gyllenhaal, and drools over Abercrombie & Fitch’s man-boy chief, delivers a lengthy article about young gay men getting married at such an early age, even the gays are a bit surprised. See Benoit Denizet-Lewis Comes Out in 8000 Words
Jossip -
Many students nationwide will stay silent Friday to raise awareness of bullying against gays.
Participants are likely to include 300 to 500 students at Gilbert Public Schools' Desert Ridge High School where a group leading the Day of Silence observance said staff and administrators initially barred promotion of the event.
But some parents who disagree with the annual observance are keeping their kids at home — a form of protest recommended by a national conservative coalition. Some students staying home to protest gay-support effort Arizona Republic
Lack of funds slows school district's diversity lessons
A lack of money has been blocking curriculum designed to make San Francisco's public elementary schools safer for all students from being fully implemented. (read
Supporters and opponents of a Day of Silence for gay and lesbian students faced off outside Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie and exchanged angry words.
Police kept both sides apart Friday and tried to control the crowd with yellow tape.
A protest organized by the Rev. Ken Hutcherson of the Antioch Bible Church in Redmond drew about 100 followers. Hutcherson, who has a daughter at the school, says any gay rights demonstrations should have been before or after classes.
Gay, anti-gay demonstrators face off at Snoqualmie school
Seattle Times, United States
Three men holding anti-gay banners at Lincoln East High School Friday morning prompted 10 to 15 students to stage their own impromptu protest of the demonstrators.
One student ran through the demonstrators’ banner that read “homosexuality is a sin.” “Our goal was just to go out and make sure there wasn’t an argument,” said acting East High School Principal Gene Thompson.
The gathering ended shortly after 8 a.m. Police didn’t arrest or cite anyone but documented the disturbance, said Officer Katie Flood. No students were suspended.
The incident took place during an annaul Day of Silence, promoted by Gay Straight Alliance groups across the nation.
The purpose of the day is to bring awareness to acts of harasment againt gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender students.
Ironically, East’s group has not been active this semester, said the group’s sponsor, Kim Glathar. See Gay rights event leads to scuffle at high school
Journal Star
A San Francisco high school counselor wants everybody to wear pink Friday, April 25, in order to show support for LGBT students and others who get bullied and harassed, as well as to recognize this year's Day of Silence. (read more)
By Ken Schram
SEATTLE -- One-thousand "prayer warriors."
That's the word from Rev. Ken "God told me to smite homosexuals" Hutcherson.
The pastor of Redmond's Antioch Bible Church wants "1,000 prayer warriors" out at Mt. Si High School in Snoqualmie Friday.
He's going after all the kids taking part in the Day of Silence, held in support of gay and lesbian students. (Listen to Hutcherson talk here.)
I guess Hutcherson figures God wants him to teach all those tolerant students a lesson in the finer points of prejudice and discrimination.
Such teachings are right up Hutcherson's alley.
He's all gung-ho when it comes to keeping gays and lesbians under the heel of society's boot.
Given his fight against any and all gay rights laws, Hutcherson obviously has no problem with high school kids being harassed for being homosexual, and no issue whatsoever with them being denied jobs and housing when they grow up.
It doesn't surprise me that he plans a protest in response to teenagers trying to turn back that tide of hate and intolerance.
Reassuringly, it doesn't seem as if the Mt. Si students are even a little intimidated by the blustery Hutcherson.
Good for them.
Not so good for all those prayer warriors.
Have something to say to Ken? E-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com.
And be sure to join Ken, along with John Carlson, on "The Commentators", which airs every weekday from 3-6 p.m. on AM 570 KVI.
It's a lively exchange of information, insight and perspective with two guys who don't agree on much, but still manage to enjoy each other as they tackle issues of the day. Even better, callers are invited in on the verbal action.
Some parents and students are speaking out in support of the National Day of Silence at Desert Ridge High School — in contrast to a group of parents who are letting their children skip school today in protest of the non-school sanctioned event.
The National Day of Silence asks students to take a vow of silence either all day or part of the day to bring attention to bullying, name-calling and harassment. The day is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN).
Elizabeth Lenz, whose son is a freshman at Desert Ridge High in Mesa, a school in the Gilbert Unified School District, said she doesn’t feel it’s right that some parents are keeping their kids from attending school. She said she think the petitions and fliers opposing Day of Silence circulating on campus Wednesday incited a “type of rebellion.”
“I think some of these parent’s aren’t using this as a teachable moment,” said Lenz, a member of the school’s site council. “Peer pressure is a fact of life. You better get used to it. I think this is an opportunity to talk to your child.”
Some students are also upset about the protests, and are in support of the day.
Student Kaileigh Sandberg stressed that, “Day of Silence is not a Gay Pride Day. The Day of Silence is a day of protest against discrimination and harassment.”
Her friend, Kaysi Carroll, said she doesn’t “think it’s very fair that we’re being, like, segregated by straights and gays. I think that we’re all people, and basically what we’re standing for is to be treated equally.”
Zss Protests spur support of Day of Silence East Valley Tribune
As a full-fledged member of the gay culture, you are fluent in the rich language of your heritage. But sometimes you forget that you are bilingual, and you lapse into your gay language at home. This can cause great consternation for your straight children who are listening and don’t understand.
Second-language acquisition research has shown that idiomatic expressions pose the biggest challenge for second language learners. Your children desperately want to share your special language, but like all second language learners, they take your idioms literally.
Let’s examine the gay idioms your little second language learners will need to learn and the confusion these expressions might cause @ Way Out Parenting: Gay Idioms You’ll Need to Teach Your Straight ..., Proud Parenting -
GRAND RAPIDS -- If gay relationships involve consenting adults and bring meaning to people's lives, "it sounds like the sort of thing we'd want to encourage," philosophy professor John Corvino said.
So what's all the fuss about homosexuality, he wanted to know.
In his hourlong talk that drew a standing ovation Wednesday at Fountain Street Church, the gay-rights advocate argued against proclamations that homosexuality is a "moral abomination." Instead, society has a moral imperative to treat gay people justly, he said.
"Gay and lesbian relationships make some people happy. And I don't just mean that they make people feel good. They are an important avenue of meaning and fulfillment in people's lives," said Corvino, who teaches at Wayne State University.
"If we're going to deny that experience to an entire group of people, we better have a darned good reason."
An elite school’s ban on gay partners is motivated by image, say activists. Iain Clacher reports.
A prestigious Brisbane private school allegedly told a gay student its policy banning same sex partners from the end-of-year formal would be “quietly changed” if he didn’t “cause too much trouble”.
The student, whose family does not want him to be named, said he had approached the Anglican Church Grammar School (“Churchie”) to request permission to take a same-sex partner to the formal.
"(They) said to me, 'if you start a political movement this is going to get blown out of proportion. If you go quietly about this and if you don't cause us too much trouble, we will just quietly change the rules so they're allowed and no one gets hurt'," the student told the Courier-Mail newspaper.
"At the start of 2006, there was no one at the school who was openly gay in Churchie but now there are dozens. You could say it's the changing times but it's been brought about by the efforts of a few brave individuals.”
He said the school, which was “generally accepting”, faced a possible boycott of the formal if same-sex couples were barred.
He also called on his fellow gay pupils to confront the school administration.
Headmaster Jonathan Hensman said he would consider taking the issue to the school council if any of the students approached him directly.
"We don't intend to change our practice. As well as being a social occasion, it's an education forum and to that end the school decides what is appropriate behaviour and what is not. Churchie boys challenge formal gay ban
Queensland Pride, Australia
Government of Bahrain seeks to punish 'homosexual children'
The government of Bahrain is taking action to stamp out homosexuals in the country.
In a wide ranging set of proposals MP's have set out a number of initiative designed to rid the country of homosexuals.
Government of Bahrain seeks to punish 'homosexual children'
The government of Bahrain is taking action to stamp out homosexuals in the country.
In a wide ranging set of proposals MP's have set out a number of initiative designed to rid the country of homosexuals.
211 days, 14 hours, 45 minutes, and 45 seconds.
That’s how long it had been since As the World Turns had shown its two gay teen characters, Luke Snyder (Van Hansis) and Noah Mayer (Jake Silbermann), kissing.
But in an episode airing today, the CBS soap opera caught viewers off guard with surprisingly steamy kisses between the two. News of the kisses had not been previously leaked.
“As The World Turns remains committed to telling the story of Luke and Noah,” said the producers of the show in a statement to AfterElton.com. “We continue to tell this and all our stories based on what we think is best creatively. This kiss is the natural evolution of the relationship between Luke and Noah.” Lots more of Gay Teens Finally Kiss Again on "As the World Turns" @ AfterElton.com -
Last month 15-year-old Lawrence King was shot to death in his Oxnard classroom by a classmate after recently telling other students he was gay. Students told the Los Angeles Times that he was often teased, and he’d had a confrontation about his being gay with the suspect a day before he was killed. His 14-year-old classmate was arrested and charged with murder in his death. A recent California Healthy Kids Survey said that every year in the state more than 200,000 students are harassed because they are gay or lesbian or someone thought they were. We asked the teen writers at L.A. Youth if their schools are safe and accepting places for gay students, and how to make schools more tolerant. Read responses from five students. Is your school accepting of gay students? @ LA Youth, CA
The third time was the charm for a Neuqua Valley High School student who wants to express his sentiments on homosexuality by wearing a “Be Happy, Not Gay” T-shirt to class.
Neuqua sophomore Alex Nuxoll had twice filed for an injunction that would suspend “the school’s policy that allows speech in favor of homosexual conduct, but bans speech critical of homosexual conduct,” according to his attorneys at the Alliance Defense Fund.
And twice courts had denied that request.
But on Wednesday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed the lower courts’ rulings against Nuxoll, saying the district court must order Neuqua to suspend its ban on the shirt while the civil rights lawsuit filed by Nuxoll and Neuqua grad Heidi Zamecnik proceeds.
“We cannot accept the defendants’ argument that the rule is valid because all it does is protect the ‘rights’ of the students against whom derogatory comments are directed,” states the court’s opinion, authored by Judge Richard Posner. “Of course a school can – often it must – protect students from the invasion of their legal rights by other students. But people do not have a legal right to prevent criticism of their beliefs or for that matter their way of life.”
The court’s ruling comes two days before the annual Day of Silence, during which students are allowed to choose not to talk throughout the school day unless doing so interferes with their grades. Sponsored by the school’s Gay/Straight Alliance, the day is intended to “echo” the silence that students who are gay face all the time. During the Day of Silence, students often wear written messages on shirts, buttons and stickers showing their support of peers who are gay.
More of Judge: Teen can wear anti-gay T-shirt
Sun Publications Chicago, IL
The Gay-Straight Alliance in Janesville's high schools will be allowed to keep posters up for the Day of Silence scheduled Friday.
Craig High School Principal Mike Kuehne says No Child Left Behind legislation allows groups equal opportunities to have clubs and activities in high schools. All posters are approved before they're put on the walls.
A citizen at Tuesday's school board meeting says she's seen girls kissing girls and boys kissing boys at Craig and Parker.
Craig High School will not remove Gay-Straight Alliance posters
WCLO, WI -
An elite school’s ban on gay partners is motivated by image, say activists. Iain Clacher reports.
A prestigious Brisbane private school allegedly told a gay student its policy banning same sex partners from the end-of-year formal would be “quietly changed” if he didn’t “cause too much trouble”.
The student, whose family does not want him to be named, said he had approached the Anglican Church Grammar School (“Churchie”) to request permission to take a same-sex partner to the formal.
"(They) said to me, 'if you start a political movement this is going to get blown out of proportion. If you go quietly about this and if you don't cause us too much trouble, we will just quietly change the rules so they're allowed and no one gets hurt'," the student told the Courier-Mail newspaper.
"At the start of 2006, there was no one at the school who was openly gay in Churchie but now there are dozens. You could say it's the changing times but it's been brought about by the efforts of a few brave individuals.”
He said the school, which was “generally accepting”, faced a possible boycott of the formal if same-sex couples were barred.
He also called on his fellow gay pupils to confront the school administration.
Headmaster Jonathan Hensman said he would consider taking the issue to the school council if any of the students approached him directly.
"We don't intend to change our practice. As well as being a social occasion, it's an education forum and to that end the school decides what is appropriate behaviour and what is not. Churchie boys challenge formal gay ban
Queensland Pride, Australia
An anti-bullying bill named after a Cape Coral teenager has made it to the Florida Senate floor for a vote after three years. The “Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up For All Students Act” was withdrawn today from the Senate Education Pre-K-12 Appropriations Committee. That paves the way for it to come to the full Senate for a vote. After three years, 'Jeff's Law' cleared for Senate vote
News-Press
It's a question posed to some parents, and especially — in one form or another — gay parents. I was asked this question during an interview with Slovenian television (of all things). The question got cut from our segment of the interview, which instead included a short clip of me talking about gender roles (or the lack thereof) in our household. But when I saw that Details magazine has tackled the question, it seemed like a good time to address it.
Of course, Details didn't ask this question of gay parents, but focused instead on heterosexual men. And not just any heterosexual men, but heterosexual men who have gay friends and are "okay" with gay people. To a point. See What if your kid is gay (or not)? By TERRANCE HEATH @ The Bilerico Project
Staceyann Chin broke the silence with a bang yesterday.
The Jamaican activist, poet and playwright showcased her fiery and candid oratory while speaking on issues of sexuality and identity in the capping event of the LGBT Center's Day of Silence.
An acclaimed agitator for women's rights, Chin spoke frankly about a variety of issues and performed several poems.
"I believe 'whore' is a word we came up with for women who like f-king as much as men," she said. "I believe there will always be something to fight for."
Chin spent the session providing biographical insights into her life, including her exodus from her home country of Jamaica, where homosexuality is illegal. She read portions of her memoir, performed poetic pieces and sought to challenge the boundaries of what many people consider sensitive, taboo or shameful topics.
"I like to push the buttons about race and sexuality and all of that," Chin said. In response to the quiet crowd in Cabot Auditorium, she joked that students today have become so serious that they have lost "nuance and irony and sarcasm and all those wonderful things that allow you to say so much with your body, with your voice. See LGBT activist breaks silence with talk
Tufts Daily, Massachusetts
With LGBT Awareness Month under way, April is a busy time for the college. Lis Maurer, coordinator of the Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services, said that during this month, commonly known at Ithaca College as Gaypril, the college will coordinate many different activities for students.
“Every year, we’ve had everything from performances to speakers to art exhibits to awareness raising things on the academic quad,” Maurer said. “You name it, it has happened in April on this campus.”
LGBT Awareness Month, which Maurer said has been held at least since she arrived at the college in 2001, provides opportunities for students to listen to speakers, see films and participate in activities celebrating sexual and gender diversity.
One of this year’s highlights is Monday’s visit by Alex Sanchez, author of gay-themed books for adolescents and adults, such as “Rainbow High.” Sanchez has won an award from the American Library Association, and his talk is being coordinated through a partnership with the Tompkins County Public Library. He will speak at 3 p.m. in the Klingenstein Lounge and 7 p.m. at the Tompkins County Public Library.
Filmmaker Josh Aronson, whose visit was originally scheduled for last February but was cancelled due to weather, will come Tuesday. His film “Beautiful Daughters” documents the first all-transgender production of “The Vagina Monologues.”
Other events this month include a Career Services presentation for LGBT students Wednesday, a Rainbow Reception for graduates April 19, a talk by sex educator Jay Friedman April 23, the annual Day of Silence April 25 and a new campus-wide collaboration held by the Unity Council April 29.
The Day of Silence is observed across the country, but Ithaca’s observance contains a unique twist: prism is sponsoring a “breaking the silence” event called the Night of Noise.
“Some of us struggle with the idea of purposely remaining silent because we know that people are remaining silent the other 364 days of the year,” Maurer said.
See College honors LGBT month
Ithaca College The Ithacan, USA
In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, social scientists have found that many lesbian and gay youth have expectations of spending their adult life in a long-term relationship raising children. More than 90 percent of females and more than 80 percent of males expect to be partnered in a monogamous relationship after age 30. Two thirds of females and more than half of males expressed likelihood that they would raise children in the future.
“These findings, while appear to be representative of urban lesbian or gay youth’s aspirations, are a glimpse into the future of the LGBT community,” said Robert-Jay Green, PhD, executive director of the Rockway Institute, a national research and public policy center located at Alliant International University. “If these young people realize their expectations, the LGBT community will be a vastly different place in 20 years, with many more families and children. The implications are staggering for how the lesbian/gay community will be different in the 21st century than in generations past, when it was mainly a secret society of singles.”
The study was conducted by Anthony R. D’Augelli, H. Jonathon Rendina and Katerina O. Sinclair of Pennsylvania State University and Arnold Grossman of New York University and published in the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling (Vol. 1, No. 4, 2006/2007, pp. 77-98). The researchers interviewed 133 young people from the New York City area who said they were “almost totally” or “totally” lesbian or gay. The participants were age 16 to 22, and they were asked about their future relationship and parenting plans.
One-third of males and one-half of females in the study reported being in a relationship. Males reported fewer and briefer relationships than females. In both genders, approximately 70 percent of participants expressed satisfaction with their relationship.
When asked about expectations of future relationships, 66 percent of males and 80 percent of females rated future long-term relationships as “extremely important” or “very important.” Eighty-two percent of females and 61 percent of males hoped to be partnered during the next five years. Ninety-two percent of females and 82 percent of males expected to be monogamously partnered after age 30, and 79 percent of females and 73 percent of males expected to live with their partner. Sixty-four percent of females and 37 percent of males said it was “extremely likely” they would marry if allowed by law.
When asked about expectations of child-raising, 36 percent of females and 20 percent of males said it was “extremely likely” they will raise children. Overall, 67 percent of males and 55 percent of females expressed some degree of likelihood that they would raise children. Of those who expressed some likelihood, 58 percent of males and 54 percent of females expect to be raising their own biological children. Forty-two percent of males and 32 percent of females expect to adopt. Sixteen percent of males and 14 percent of females expect to be foster parents. Thirty-six percent of females and 17 percent of males expect to help their partner raise her or his biological children.
D’Augelli and colleagues cautioned that the participants in this study may not be representative of all lesbian and gay youth in the U.S. Because these participants lived in or near a major urban center, they likely were more aware of lesbian and gay community resources and more likely to be connected to support programs and services. The researchers suspected that because they might not be exposed to same-sex relationships or to social services directed to lesbian and gay youth, youth in rural areas might have different responses, although no data were collected to test for such urban/rural differences.
Dr. Green of the Rockway Institute commented: “We seem to be witnessing the mainstreaming of lesbian/gay youth, with many of them wanting exactly what heterosexual youth have always wanted - the whole American dream complete with kids and the minivan. This should not be surprising when one considers that most lesbian/gay youth also have been raised in very mainstream heterosexual families with similar values and parental models.” He continued, “Although some lesbian/gay adults may prefer less conventional lives, most agree that the primary issue is whether these youth will be given the equal legal rights to realize their couple and family aspirations just like their heterosexual peers.”
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) population at California State University, Long Beach, is changing.
These days, the campus has more LGBT people of color, more LGBT people with disabilities, more transgender people and more LGBT women, according to Kirstyn Chun, staff psychologist at CSULB’s counseling center and faculty advisor to the LGBT Resource Center. Over the last two years, Chun said she also has noticed growing visibility among LGBT students and faculty in general.
These changes and others are what the LGBT Resource Center hopes to address when it sponsors LGBT Diversity Week 2008 from Monday through Thursday (April 14-17). The series of events are aimed at highlighting diversities among the LGBT community, such as gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, spirituality, immigration status and socio-economic status.
“A lot of times when people talk about diversity, they’ll focus on racial and ethnic diversity and not other kinds of diversity,” Chun said. It is the second year that the LGBT See Campus To Celebrate LGBT Diversity Week
Gazette Newspapers, CA
Cleveland--The Cleveland LGBT Center will take the Day of Silence out of schools and into the Tremont neighborhood with a Breaking the Silence celebration at Pilgrim Congregational UCC on April 25.
The Day of Silence began 12 years ago as a way to protest the silencing of LGBT students through violence, harassment and intimidation. Since then, observance has spread to students at thousands of schools across the country, ranging from middle schools to universities.
This year’s Day of Silence is in honor of Larry King, a 15-year-old student in California who was slain earlier this year by a classmate. It is believed his murder was due to his sexual orientation and gender identity.
While there is always controversy surrounding the Day of Silence, this year promises to take that to the next level, as a coalition of religious right organizations is advocating that parents keep their children home from school on that Friday if they believe the school will participate in the Day of Silence. They are also promoting an anti-gay “Day of Truth” the following Monday.
Mission America of Columbus, one of the groups in the coalition, issued a list of schools that will be participating, as well as one of those that will not. See See Student ‘Day of Silence’
Gay People Chronicle, OH
For many students, the month of April radiates stress from cramming for AP tests in early May. However, for Paly's Student Diversity Coalition, April brings the excitement of setting up the annual celebration of Not In Our School Week to promote identity safety and acceptance of diversity in race, sexual orientation, gender expression, religion and culture from April 14-18.
This year's celebration will feature a barbeque and several performances from many musical and cultural groups to draw in participation from all students, according senior GSA co-president Alex Rose-Henig.
"We have added a lot of fun activities that all students can be part of," Rose-Henig said. "We have student entertainment groups [performing]. Hopefully Hipnotik will join us and be doing a performance for us, [and] different ethnic groups are doing presentations that relate to their own history."
Students will also get the chance to work on a mural project that is specifically being created for NIOS Week.
"It [the mural] shows the diversity of all the different groups of Paly," junior GSA co-president Alex Coblin said. "The cool thing about the mural is that it can be taken apart and put back together in many orders"
The mural will be made up of six different canvasses put together, and each of the pictures individually is its own portrait, according to Coblin. Once it is put together, it will form a larger picture.
Contrary to tradition, Paly will hold its Day of Silence the week after NIOS. This year's National Day of Silence occurs on April 25 and will be held in memory of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old from Oxnard, Calif. who was shot and killed on Feb. 12 because of his sexual orientation and gender expression.
As for funding, Paly's SDC has held multiple car washes and a Chevy's night last Tuesday to raise funds. Rose-Henig estimates that NIOS Week will require about $4000 in order to prepare many lunchtime activities for students.
"It has been especially difficult for us [to fund the event] because a lot of people are stigmatized by the fact that the GSA is involved," Rose-Henig said.
See Paly to observe Not In Our School Week
Paly Voice, CA
CHARLOTTE -- Students who stay home from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on the April 25 National Day of Silence won’t receive an excused absence.
Tuesday night, CMS board members voted not to approve the excused absences.
See CMS board denies Day of Silence plan
News 14 Carolina, NC -
A small group of students gathered in Burlington's City Hall Park on Wednesday by a rainbow-colored banner and clusters of balloons. They exchanged hugs and laughs, but the gathering was not a party -- it was a protest.
The teen-agers who showed up were assembled for a so-called Night of Noise to protest bullying and harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.
The Burlington event followed observances at some schools of a statewide Day of Silence designed to bring attention to the problem.
Elizabeth Thompson, a member of the Pride Alliance at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, came to the Burlington gathering with two other students from her school. All three participated in the Day of Silence at BFA, wearing stickers and handing out small pieces of white paper that explained their intent: To stop the silence about anti-gay bullying and to advocate for respect.
"It's looked down upon, being open with your sexuality if it's different," said Thompson, a 16-year-old who says she is bisexual.
At BFA, at least 540 stickers were handed out, and 22 people came to a meeting on the topic. Although Thompson has not felt harassed, she often hears the words "gay" and "fag" used in a disparaging way in the hallways. The support from students and faculty at Wednesday's day of silence was heartening, she said. See Students speak out against bullying
BurlingtonFreePress.com, VT
Sometimes, silence speaks louder than words.
This is the foundation for the Day of Silence, a student-led nationwide event created by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network to help promote solidarity and support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Day of Silence will take place on April 25 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The event helps illustrate the silence that members of the LGBT community feel they are forced into every day.
"Our society is not really at the point where it is OK to talk about everything. Day of Silence is a way to show support during which everyone bands together and is silenced together," said Michaela Graham, co-chair of the Day of Silence committee.
Ian Sullivan, the other co-chair of the Day of Silence committee, feels that the use of silence as a tool to make a point is very effective.
"Silence can make an even larger statement than speaking," Sullivan said. "A yelling match has never helped anyone win an argument. This event specifically shows the massive number of people who recognize or have felt silenced."
This year's Day of Silence is in memory of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old boy who asked his male friend to be his Valentine. The next day, King's friend came to school and shot him. The killing received virtually no national press as both a school shooting and a hate crime.
While participants range from grade school to college, the event is most prevalent in high schools and colleges. Day of Silence is growing in participation, especially in high schools as they increasingly become more aware of their LGBT population. See The Sound of Silence
WCAX, VT
Even before 15-year-old Lawrence "Larry" King came out to the few friends he had at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, Calif., the sweet-faced, slightly built boy endured taunts and anti-gay slurs spewed at him daily across campus, from cafeteria to classroom. As one friend was quoted in the Los Angeles Times: "You'd hear, 'Faggot! Hey, faggot!' That was happening in every class. A lot of teachers knew stuff was going on ... I guess they just didn't want to get involved."
However, the taunts and slurs didn't engender the desired reaction of fear and silence, but instead seemed to have had the opposite effect. Larry gained the courage to come out to the few friends he had, and he began to wear make-up and girl's boots with his school uniform. He also started to flirt with boys who taunted him, as a way to get back at them.
Larry told one boy, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, that he thought he was cute. Brandon hated that, and the fact that the remark caused his friends to rib him for being gay.
After the incident, early one morning in February, Brandon walked into Larry's eighth-grade computer lab class and shot him twice in the head. As those two shots rang out, Larry's voice was silenced forever.
As horrific as the final result was, if you think the daily harassment Larry received in school was an aberration, think again.
A nationwide study on bullying by Harris Interactive found that actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender expression are two of the top three reasons why students are harassed in school, and that within the 12 months prior to the survey, 90 percent of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students had been harassed or assaulted.
The survey also found that just seven out of 10 secondary school teachers felt a strong obligation to ensure a safe learning environment for GLBT students; that GLBT students are more than twice as likely to not report being harassed or assaulted because they doubt anything would be done; and three times as many GLBT students as non-GLBT students do not feel safe at school.
Is it any wonder why?
On top of that, while most bullied teens can find support at home, many gay teens don't have unequivocal family support. Instead, at the most critical moment of their lives, many of these kids are abandoned. One study noted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in collaboration with the National Coalition for the Homeless found that 26 percent of youth who come out to their parents or guardians were told to leave home. A friend of Larry King was quoted as saying he would never discuss his family or the reason he had become a ward of the state of California, living in a shelter for abused and neglected children, in the months before he was shot.
On April 25, hundreds of thousands of students in more than 5,000 schools across America will participate in the 12th annual National Day of Silence to call attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. For these students, it will be a day of silence to encourage schools to adopt and implement comprehensive anti-bullying policies that include sexual orientation and gender expression/identity along with race, gender, ethnicity and religion. For these students, it will be a day of silence in honor of the memory and silenced voice of young Larry King.
Participating students will be handing out cards that read: "Silent for Lawrence King: Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement bringing attention to the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment. This year's DOS is held in memory of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old student who was killed in school because of his sexual orientation and gender expression. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward building awareness and making a commitment to address these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today." See Day of silence calls attention to bullying, harassment of GLBT ...
Sun-Sentinel.com, FL
Sometimes, silence speaks louder than words.
This is the foundation for the Day of Silence, a student-led nationwide event created by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network to help promote solidarity and support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Day of Silence will take place on April 25 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The event helps illustrate the silence that members of the LGBT community feel they are forced into every day.
"Our society is not really at the point where it is OK to talk about everything. Day of Silence is a way to show support during which everyone bands together and is silenced together," said Michaela Graham, co-chair of the Day of Silence committee.
Ian Sullivan, the other co-chair of the Day of Silence committee, feels that the use of silence as a tool to make a point is very effective.
"Silence can make an even larger statement than speaking," Sullivan said. "A yelling match has never helped anyone win an argument. This event specifically shows the massive number of people who recognize or have felt silenced."
This year's Day of Silence is in memory of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old boy who asked his male friend to be his Valentine. The next day, King's friend came to school and shot him. The killing received virtually no national press as both a school shooting and a hate crime.
While participants range from grade school to college, the event is most prevalent in high schools and colleges. Day of Silence is growing in participation, especially in high schools as they increasingly become more aware of their LGBT population.
In the 2005 National School Climate Survey, four of five LGBT students reported physical, verbal or sexual harassment at school. Thirty percent reported missing a day of school out of fear for their personal safety.
"To have climates like that be standard or average is unacceptable and it creates this atmosphere where silence is more tolerated than talking," Graham said. "The exaggerated silence [of Day of Silence] helps illuminate the silence that is standard for the LGBT students across the country." See Students use silence to show support @ Bulletin (subscription), WA
Reported by: Bret Lemoine - WMBD/WYZZ TV
Tuesday, Apr 22, 2008 @09:27pm CST
WMBD/WYZZ TV – NORMAL – You go to school to get an education, not to be called names or bullied. The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance is working to make sure our schools are a safe place for all students, but particularly for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students in public schools. That was the focus of a meeting tonight in Normal.
Many schools offer support groups like a Gay-Straight Alliance. But the real question is: What protection is available for gay students who are being harassed? Sexual identity and gender identity harassment cases are protected by state law. The problem is many school districts haven't added those clauses to their school policy handbooks. Bloomington - Normal superintendents spoke about the need to have open dialogs to make schools safe for LGBT kids. The State Superintendent of Education, local teachers, parents and students were all on hand to talk openly about problems facing gay youth.
Click here to take action, and help students all over the state.
See Dragging Issues of Harassment & Bullying Out of the Closet
Central Illinois Proud, IL
The drag ball on Saturday. The mute students in black shirts on Wednesday. The round of couples locking lips in Red Square today. For students on campus, this may have looked just like GU Pride’s annual Pride Week to raise LGBTQ awareness and heighten solidarity on campus. For GU Pride members, though, this week has a distinctly different feel to it.
“What I really think was beneficial is that our efforts have really had long-term effects that have brought the community together in ways it wasn’t before,” said GU Pride Co-President John Harrison (SFS ’09). “GU Pride used to have the stigma that it was all white, gay men, and now we have international students … and just a lot more diversity and a lot more unity. And a lot of it is because we have had to respond to [alleged hate crimes].”
When an alleged hate crime against a gay student garnered national attention in September, GU Pride led a movement for several reforms to better integrate LGBTQ students on campus. A little over a month later, another gay student was assaulted while being called homophobic slurs. GU Pride again demanded university action, and the university responded with the promise of the LGBTQ resource center slated to open this fall.
For Ellen Greer (SFS ’11), GU Pride secretary and treasurer, the actions taken on the part of the university have marked the beginnings of a shift towards dialogue and integration.
“While the university’s original response to the hate crime — waiting until D.C. news picked it up several weeks after it actually happened to address it — was, frankly, unacceptable,” she said. “Their response to students’ requests and concerns, and the ultimate decision to create a resource center, indicates to me, personally, that they are at least working towards improving the systems that are in place.”
Greer added that Pride Week also serves as a reminder for the changes and progress that has been made.
See LGBTQ Events Take Pride in Inclusion
Georgetown University The Hoya, DC
Various local high schools, including Highland Park, Deerfield and Stevenson High Schools, will participate through student-led groups in the annual "Day of Silence" which will take place nationally tomorrow April 25.
This annual event is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and is intended to highlight perceived or real discrimination suffered by homosexuals. Participating students remain silent for the school day as an act of protest.
Student driven
Township High School District 113 officials said they do not officially sponsor any activities related to the "Day of Silence," but students involved in the Straight And Gay Alliance (SAGA) student group at both schools will be holding various events.
Superintendent George Fornero communicated with staff members at both schools earlier this month that the "Day of Silence" is sponsored by student organizations, making it necessary that all activities be planned, initiated and directed by students. He directed staff participation be minimal, according to Carol Votsmier, the district's director of communications and grants.
In Deerfield, students will hand out informational brochures at lunch time describing the "Day of Silence" and give away rainbow ribbon pins and peace signs to students.
A Night of Noise is planned between 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. as an opportunity for students who participated in the activities to get together and reflect about how the day went. See Deerfield students to observe Day of Silence
Pioneer Press Online, Illinois
This Friday, April 25, students across the nation will be recognizing the Day of Silence, a day devoted to raising awareness for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual issues. However, the day has incited much controversy among national and local groups.
The Day of Silence is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a national education organization working to ensure that schools are safe for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The annual day is designed to be a "student-led day of action," when students can bring attention to mistreatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their allies, according to GLSEN.
GLSEN encourages students who would like to participate to observe a daylong silence during school hours, to wear stickers and to pass out "speaking cards." See Day of Silence:
Watauga Democrat, NC -
After their first event was canceled early Monday evening, the Queer Students Alliance began its second annual Awareness Week with a Town Hall Meeting in the Student Services Building.
The alliance is holding the week of events in conjunction with MBA OutSource's Unique Week, as well as the National Day of Silence on April 25. MBA OutSource is the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender business students' association. This week's events will include activities ranging from a creative writing workshop to a "Rent" sing-a-long, said Eli Oldham, a radio-television-film sophomore and public relations director for the alliance.
"This year we expect a higher turnout due to all the other events going on around campus," Oldham said. "There is going to be a lot of queerness around these next few days."
The theme of the week, "Live Out Loud," will focus on building pride within the gay community. The Queer Students Alliance chose the theme because the event falls close to the National Day of Silence, in which participants take a vow of silence for part of the day. The national event is held in memory of Lawrence King, a junior high student in California who was murdered at school by a fellow student because of his sexual orientation.
The alliance held its first Queer Texas Conference last year after attending a similar national event in Kansas City, Missouri.
While the Creating Change conference in Kansas City does a good job of keeping queer activists informed on current issues and creating a sense of community, Oldham said, the UT students who attended the conference felt that a similar event should be offered to the Austin community.
The application process for Creating Change can also be selective and expensive, Oldham said. See Queer Students Alliance kicks off Awareness Week
UT The Daily Texan, TX -
CLARE, Mich. -- A group of Clare students are speaking out against bullying, especially against people who live alternative lifestyles, by holding a day of silence.
Now a church group is at odds with the students because of their views on homosexuality.
This will be the second time they are doing a silent protest. Last year about 30 kids participated.
| The Day of Silence was created in 1996. The project, led by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), was created at the University of Virginia. |
See Clare Students Go 'Silent' Over Bullying
WNEM, MI -
High school students support gay and lesbian classmates
The silence is spreading.
Donning colourful masks, pins and armbands, hundreds of secondary students across Greater Victoria kept silent in support of their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered classmates on Wednesday.
The movement started last year by Devon Matthews, then a Grade 9 student at Mount Douglas secondary school.
She inspired her classmates to wear gags for the morning to take a stand against the silence students with different sexual orientations face when they are confronted with homophobic treatment.
“I saw a huge difference (after last year’s Day of Silence),” Matthews said. “I heard very rarely people yelling out hateful words or bullying (but) with new kids coming to the school, it kind of started up again and this is why we need to do it every year.”
Matthews worked with the gay-straight alliance groups at other schools to help them hold their own Day of Silence this year.
Spectrum, Reynolds and Esquimalt joined the action on Wednesday. Lambrick Park and Oak Bay will hold their own day in the coming weeks. See A Day of Silence
Victoria News, Canada
NEW YORK — Lance Bass doesn’t want others to stay silent as he did.
So he’s made a public service announcement for the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. The spot, which is being distributed today, debuts in advance of the 11th annual National Day of Silence April 25, when students take a vow of silence to protest bullying, harassment and discrimination in schools.
“I think it’s time for me to stand up ... and help educate, because I’m lucky enough to have been given a voice to be able to talk and grab the attention of people,” said the 28-year-old singer, who is gay.
“Every day, thousands of students are silenced. They’re silenced by fear, they’re silenced for being who they are. ... They’re brothers, they’re sisters, they’re gay, they’re straight, they’re you, they’re me.”
Bass, who recently completed a stint in the Broadway musical “Hairspray” and released a memoir, said the PSA is meant to honor Lawrence King, a 15-year-old student who was shot and killed in February in Oxnard, Calif., by a younger boy because he arrived at school in feminine attire.
“I heard about Lawrence on the news, and it was just incredible to me that kids that age would have such an issue ... with the subject of being gay,” said Bass, who was part of the boy band ’N Sync. “It also shows me that these kids don’t — they don’t learn (bigotry) on their own. ... They’re being told by older siblings or family members or other fellow students.” See People, Places and Things
Worcester Telegram, MA
More than 100 students at Lewis-Palmer High School will be as quiet as they can be April 25 to observe the "Day of Silence," a national event to call attention to bullying of gay kids.
Organizer Jennifer Teevens, a senior at Lewis-Palmer, said she doesn't consider her school unsafe for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. But that doesn't mean there are no problems.
"There is a lot of discriminatory terms towards gays being thrown around in school, which I don't think is right, but there are people who are very accepting," she said.
Students at other schools in the Pikes Peak region also observe the Day of Silence. The annual event is organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a New York-based group that says on its Web site more than 500,000 students nationwide have participated in previous years. See ‘Day of silence’ for bullied gays
Colorado Springs Gazette, CO
In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth 
See all Editorial Reviews
Attorneys are awaiting word from a panel of federal judges who will decide if the civil rights of students banned from wearing shirts opposing homosexuality at Neuqua Valley High School have been violated.
They hope that ruling comes this week as the April 28 Day of Truth approaches - a counter event to Friday's Day of Silence, during which students may elect not to speak unless doing so interferes with their grades, in support of their homosexual peers.
Although a national movement, Neuqua's Day of Silence is sponsored by the school's Gay/Straight Alliance and is intended to "echo" the silence that students who are gay face all the time. During the Day of Silence, students often will wear written messages on shirts, buttons and stickers showing their support.
Working for change in the classroon
PFLAG Blog
This week, as students across the country observe the annual Day of Silence in solidarity with their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender classmates and friends, it is imperative that the rest of us speak up and support their efforts to make our classrooms safer and more welcoming for every student, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Making schools in our nation safe for all youth, particularly LGBT young people, has long been among PFLAG’s top priorities. That’s why PFLAG is so proud to work alongside other organizations, such as GLSEN (the sponsor of the Day of Silence), to ensure that our schools are safe, welcoming and respectful of every child. As the recent, tragic murder of Lawrence King in Oxnard, California, shows us, we have a long way to go in making our schools safe. It is up to each of us - whether we are a parent, family member, teacher or ally - to educate school administrations about the important of making our classrooms welcoming for LGBT students.
That’s why, this year, PFLAG is asking you to support the Day of Silence by speaking out.
If your child’s school is observing this year’s Day of Silence, call school administrators and thank them for supporting this important day. Or, if your child’s school is not participating, call and ask school officials to consider joining the Day of Silence and supporting their LGBT students.
And, for more information on other steps you can takle to make schools in your community safer, click here.
Nearly two-thirds of LGBT students report being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation. About half are harassed because of their gender expression, and nearly 20 percent hear homophobic remarks from staff. That’s simply unacceptable, and each of us owes it to our children to speak up and work to end harassment and homophobia in our schools. So this week, as so many students go silent, join PFLAG families as we speak up and demand change in the classroom.
P.S.: On Wednesday, PFLAG executive director Jody Huckaby will join the Los Angeles Unified School District, and producers of the upcoming film Tru Loved, as they salute 850 LAUSD students who are observing this year’s Day of Silence. For more information on this incredible event, click here. Then, work in your own community to make our schools safer, and more welcoming, for everyone!
A Truman High School senior's art project caused controversy Friday. Senior Amy Burrow affixed the words "love conquers all" to the front of a glass case filled with anti-gay posters designed to look like the ones used by protesters from Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church. "I'm happy actually, because at least it involved thought," Burrow said. "At least it got them to stop and look at it." She spent two weeks working on the project for her 3D art class. She was at the school until 10 p.m. Thursday, keeping the project a secret from students until Friday morning. See Mo. high school student fights homophobia with art project
KCTV-5
NEW YORK, -- Students from a record 6,000 middle and high schools have registered as participants in GLSEN's 12th annual National Day of Silence on Friday to bring attention to anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. The event is being held this year in memory of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old from Oxnard, Calif., who was shot and killed in school on Feb. 12 because of his sexual orientation and gender expression.
Hundreds of thousands of students from middle school to college are expected to participate.
"Young people from across the country have heard about this horrible tragedy and are coming together on the Day of Silence to show their support for safe schools for all students," said Kevin Jennings, executive director of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the event's national sponsor. "The Day of Silence brings hope to hundreds of thousands of students that their schools and their world can be safer and more tolerant places."
Students from the University of Virginia created the Day of Silence in 1996. GLSEN became national sponsor in 2001.
Lawrence King's murder has brought renewed attention to the bullying problem in schools, prompting former 'N Sync singer Lance Bass to film a PSA about the Day of Silence.
"I am honored to help raise awareness about the National Day of Silence on April 25," Bass said. "This year's event is particularly important because of the recent murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King. Every student deserves to feel safe in school, and I hope my name and voice can help inspire others to support this cause."
Learn more at www.dayofsilence.org.
About GLSEN
GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established nationally in 1995, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. For more information on our educator resources, research, public policy agenda, student organizing programs or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org.
Attorneys for the ACLU have asked a judge to reconsider his decision to toss out a lawsuit involving a Gay-Straight Alliance at Okeechobee High School. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore didn't know that students were denied the right to hold club meetings at the school this month, and if he had, he likely wouldn't have dismissed the lawsuit, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union said in a court document filed Friday.
See ACLU pushes for lawsuit over Okeechobee High gay club
Palm Beach Post, United States -
Straight Parents, Gay Children: Keeping Families Together See all Editorial Reviews
AYER - She did her best to ignore them. But it was hard. Eleven-year-old Caroline Noonan shook her head as she recalled the ridicule she was put through last year for being friends with boys: Her peers catcalled on the bus and threatened to give her a lie-detector test to "prove" nonexistent love connections.
"It made me angry," said the fifth-grader, a student at the Page Hilltop School in Ayer. "I have lots of friends who are boys."
But since Ayer Public Schools launched an extensive antibullying campaign for grades kindergarten through 12, "I've learned ways I can deal with it," she said.
Ayer is one of several school districts across the state that have integrated a day-in, day-out antibullying program. The initiative incorporates a strict behavior rubric, attempts to empower bystanders, urges bullies to reflect on their actions, and engenders relationships between students and adults.
And so far, it's worked. Page Hilltop, which has 600 students, has seen a 31 percent decrease in verbal bullying and a 27 percent drop in physical bullying.
See Hey, school bully, this is war, and you're losing
Boston Globe
Strings Attached
The House Ways and Means Committee’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) contained no increases for LGBT programs and a small increase for HIV/AIDS services, but advocates spent the past three days working with allies in the House to file amendments that would grant more funding for LGBT youth programs, domestic violence programs, elder services and HIV/AIDS services. It is unclear whether those amendments will pass when the House begins debating the budget the week of April 28. With state revenues down, Ways and Means made more than $100 million in cuts to the FY09 budget, and advocates expect that it will be an uphill battle to squeeze any more money out of the House.
Advocates lowered their requests for HIV/AIDS and LGBT youth programs. Mary Ann Hart, lobbyist for Project ABLE (AIDS Budget Legislative Effort), the lobbying arm of a coalition of state HIV/AIDS groups, said that while they originally requested an additional $6 million in the state AIDS budget line item, Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Somerville) filed an amendment this week asking for an increase of only $2 million. That new funding would be focussed primarily on overcoming HIV/AIDS-related health disparities in communities of color, but Hart said it would also focus on other communities hit hard by the epidemic, including the gay male community.
Yet despite lowering their request, Hart said advocates are unsure whether they will be able to get the extra funding. See LGBT advocates press for reduced funding for HIV/AIDS, youth programs
Bay Windows, MA -
Students in a record number of schools have signed up to participate in the Day of Silence on Friday to protest the bullying of gay students, which this year is being held in memory of a 15-year-old Oxnard student shot to death at school in February.
But conservative organizations are stepping up their opposition to the national observance, saying that bullying is wrong but schools should not support homosexuality.
Two groups -- Mission: America and the American Family Association, both Christian organizations that oppose homosexuality -- are leading an effort to urge parents to keep their children home that day if they attend a school that allows students to participate in the event.
Day of Silence organizers say the protest is misguided. Students have the right to speak -- or not -- and don't need school approval to hold the event, said Daryl Presgraves, a spokesman for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a national group that advocates for gay students and safe schools. The group promotes the annual Day of Silence, now in its 12th year, and asks students to register their schools if they plan to participate.
This year, students in 5,400 middle schools and high schools and about 1,000 colleges plan to participate, Presgraves said. In past years, students at nearly 4,000 schools and colleges participated in Day of Silence events.
See Students in many Inland cities will join Day of Silence to protest ...
Press-Enterprise, CA
In recent news we have seen the murders of two different members of the LGBT community. For those of you unfamiliar with the acronym, LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. It is heart rending to read about these slain youths; people should not have to face violence and hatred for simple expression of their gender and sexuality. People have become complacent about gay rights and have pushed harder to dehumanize us as of late.
Lawrence King was a 15-year-old student in Oxnard, California.
On February 12th, another student shot him while he was at school. King was declared brain dead on February 13th; his family opted to donate his organs saying that he would have wanted it that way. By his family’s account he was a caring young man with an affinity for animals. He was also a gifted singer whom a friend of the family thought should try out for American Idol. However, his life was ended. I’m forced to wonder whether the student who shot him knew all of this about him.
Or was his focus only Kingbeing gay? According the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, King was harassed on a daily basis for his gender and sexuality expressions. The Task Force also noted that the adults at his school “did not stop it.” Now one of my brothers is dead.
Simmie Williams was a 17-year-old cross dresser in Florida. On February 22nd he was seen arguing with three men on a street corner in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Shots were fired and the men took off running. Williams was transported to Broward General Medical Center where he later died. There has not been a great deal of news coverage on his murder. I for one mourn his loss; I hurt every time a member of my family is taken.
When this type of hatred happens I am forced to look for a cause. Hatred is not innate, it is learned. But who is teaching it? There are obvious answers. Even though it may not seem like it is time for finger pointing, there are sources that need naming.
The Task Force released a report on Hell Houses run in America. According to the Task Force these houses originated at Jerry Fallwell’s Liberty University in the 1970s. Later, these houses were, essentially, packaged and sold to religious groups around the country; to date 800 have been sold. One of these houses exists in Cedar Hill, Texas. “Operated primarily by evangelical Christian church youth groups, Hell House tour guides dress like demons and bring participants to rooms where youth depict scripted scenes of damnation for a variety of ‘sins,’ including homosexuality.” These houses often depict gay couples getting married while a demon presides over the ceremony. A later scene will involve one of the men dying of AIDS in a hospital room followed by another scene towards the end showing him burning in hell with other sinners. These houses also depict a woman dying after having an abortion. The Task Force found that this type of attraction “literally demonizes LGBT youth, fueling the harassment and violence many experience on a daily basis.”
LGBT youth also have very high suicide rates. In addition to the harassment that they face by their peers and ignorance by administrators, they have to deal with their religious officials and their families. The Task Force reported: Anti-LGBT rhetoric from the religious right can also have a powerful effect on young people’s emotional well-being. When he was 16 years old, gay high school student Bobby Griffith wrote in his journal: I can’t let anyone find out that I’m not straight … And my family? They’ve said they hate gays, and even God hates gays, too … Am I going to hell? ... Please don’t send me to hell. I’m really not that bad, am I?” Four years later, Griffith committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. His mother later realized that her efforts to save her gay son from “hell” were a factor in his suicide.
The groups that put on Hell Houses hope to dispel the “myth” that people are born gay. However, they are causing severe harm to gay youth because they convince their congregation that being gay is a choice. Therefore, in the mind of their congregants, gay people choose to live a “life of sin.” This can have terrifying consequences. “For example, a 2001 study published in the Journal of Psychology found that “the belief in an active Satan [is] directly related to intolerance toward gay men and lesbians.”
This article is not meant to be a diatribe against religion or people who do not like LGBT individuals. Rather, it was written in the hope that people would stop and ask themselves, “What is the true motivation of my prejudice?” Before judging someone try and find out who they really are. More of The State of Things @ Proud Parenting
VANCOUVER — They've been bombed three times, received death threats and stood before the red-robed justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.
No, Jim Deva and Bruce Smyth are not killers or terrorists.
The soft-spoken Vancouver men sell books.
And in some peoples' eyes, Deva says, that made the gay owners of Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium dangerous.
"Because we were (openly gay) and we were very, very blatant about being open . . . we were threatening to homophobes," Deva says.
Only two years after the store opened in 1983, the owners took on a fight that bolstered and exhausted them, lasting until just last year and challenging Canada's censorship laws.
After 23 years of fighting Canada Customs' seizures of books bound for the gay and lesbian bookshop, the partners have put Little Sister's up for sale.
It's time to do something else, Deva says as he plans to get a choir booked for the store's 25th anniversary celebrations.
"It's probably time to pass on the torch hopefully to some younger, energetic people who are willing to work with our store," he says. "I'm not in a rush. We're going to take our time."
The fight against Customs put the store at the forefront of the battle against censorship in Canada.
Among books seized were Jean Genet's Querelle, Quentin Crisp's The Naked Civil Servant, Joe Orton's Prick Up Your Ears, The Joy of Gay Sex and The Joy of Lesbian Sex.
See Feisty Vancouver gay bookstore that challenged Canada Customs up ...
The Canadian Press
The Day of Silence is about safer schools, tolerance and positive change. Some organizations misrepresent these facts. Here are 4 Truths about a day that has brought hope to students experiencing anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment
4 Truths - READ HERE
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See Parents of gay children
Salt Lake Tribune, United States
While they recognize the Bay Area is known for its progressive politics, local advocates say many Mountain View students questioning their sexual identity still feel disconnected from traditional high school rituals such as prom and homecoming.
These feelings of isolation often lead to destructive and dangerous behavior, said Shannon Turk, director of Outlet, a Mountain View advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth.
Outlet, which is part of the Community Health Awareness Council, or CHAC, provides a place for these students to hang out, watch movies and attend dances with other LGBT youth. Turk spoke about the group last week during a meeting of the Challenge Team, a group of educators and youth advocates who meet every month to discuss issues facing at-risk students.
According to a national survey, 5 to 7 percent of teenagers will realize they are gay by the time they graduate, which means "300 students walking our halls identify this way," Turk said.
"Most of us walk through the world expecting the people we interact with are straight, and they will grow up to have 2.5 kids, a minivan and a white picket fence," Turk 'said. But LGBT students "are afraid their life will not have a happy ending."
According to an Outlet survey of nearly 50 local LGBT youth, 60 percent answered "yes" when asked whether they have "had thoughts about suicide to the point you had a plan in mind," Turk said.
See A safe haven for gay youth
Mountain View Voice, CA -
North Texas’ beloved punk-folk rebel disputes her former lesbian status, comes out as an evangelical gospel singer and sides with the Bible about the immorality of same-sex love. But hey, she’s a sinner too. Michelle Shocked already knows how horrible the headline for this article sounds. And she’s concerned about how it will impact her LGBT fans in Dallas — her hometown.
Two weeks ago, Shocked called Dallas Voice, not realizing it was a gay publication.
“I’ve been avoiding interviews with gay press,” she says from her home in Los Angeles. “I’m going to kill my publicist.”
For those of you who have lost track of Michelle Shocked, she became an international sensation in 1986, when her first album, “The Texas Campfire Tapes” — a field recording of Shocked as the American vagabond — became a hit in England. See Michelle Shocked believes being gay is a sin
Dallas Voice, TX
Azariah Southworth’s suddenly a very public figure.The Nashville-based Christian-television host caused a national stir this week when he came out of the closet, telling the world, “I believe by me living my life honestly and authentically now, I am able to be a better person and a better Christian.”
Obviously we couldn’t resist reaching out and having a chat with Southworth, who graciously agreed to talk shop with our editor. Those Christians sure are generous!
Read what the Indiana-born Southworth has to say about becoming an overnight celebrity, why the church should stay out of politics and whether his parents think he’s going to hell - @ Gay Christian TV Host Lets It All Out
Queerty, NY
Lesbian media wiz Ann Canas wants the Illinois senator to know that when he references religion in discussing why he can't support gay marriage, he sends a subtle message that being gay and being Christian are mutually exclusive. Read this Advocate.com exclusive @ Open Letter to Barack Obama, Advocate.com, CA
For a protest based on quiet symbolism, the Day of Silence in schools generates a lot of conversation.
The annual event is meant as a show of support by students and teachers for gay young people. Participants remain silent throughout the school day, and some wear T-shirts or buttons with messages about gay rights or against bullying. See ‘Day of Silence’ in Schools Brings Unity, Controversy
Education Week News, MD
Ryan Tauriainen
Last week a gay student wrote a scathing op-ed ("Counter-productive Gaypril event baffles," April 10) to reveal to the campus that (gasp) there was a "gay party" the previous weekend. There were a few mistakes or misinterpretations that I will correct rather quickly. First off, it wasn't a "Gaypril" event (that is, one put on by MOQA) but rather a party that merely took place in April. I admit MOQA members came, but it was not limited to them. The party also wasn't exclusive to just "queers" though, admittedly, the e-mail list was strictly GLBTQ. Part of the e-mail suggested bringing open-minded straight people and there were certainly a good amount of them there.
Here is my real issue - why is there all this talk of self-segregation when it comes to the GLBT community? There are countless parties on this campus, taking place at any moment of the year, in which the partygoers are either all straight or mostly straight. Does anyone ask where all the gay people are at them? I doubt it. There are parties that are either all white or mostly white. Do people wonder why our students of color are missing from them? Maybe, but I still doubt it. As it turns out, a large number of my friends at Middlebury are students of color or international students. At least half of my best friends are Asian. Two of the students whom I live in a Voter Suite with are international students. And I know first hand that there are parties for which the invite list is strictly international with the suggestion to invite interested American students. I'm not an outcast at these parties even though I wasn't on any invite list and am American. I applaud international student parties, and I think they are a lot of fun.
I think it's problematic when we scrutinize functions that are geared toward minorities and never bat an eye towards ones that are for the majority culture. I was constantly frustrated during the creation of the Queer Studies House (QSH) because people kept thinking it was a means to segregate gay students from straight students, when it was anything but that. As it turns out, only two of the students living in the QSH next year identify as "gay." When gay students come here, there are many different sentiments. In some cases they have been alienated or victimized while in high school. Some students can only be "out" at Middlebury and never to their parents. Some gay students come from countries in which homosexuality is punishable by prison time or even death. We forget about these students all the time when we talk about how easy it is to be "out" here.
Continued... See op-ed: Factcheck: the gay experience at Middlebury
Middlebury Campus (subscription), VT -
The ‘Are We There Yet? From Homophobia to Equality’ DVD is being sent to schools and youth clubs across Liverpool and includes an array of personal accounts with one student being subjected to “inappropriate names” from a teacher and another forced to switch schools after being subjected to daily taunts.
GYRO support worker Kieran Bohan said that schools are only now starting to take homophobia seriously.
He commented: “It is now being addressed, but in the past there has been a tendency to brush the issue to one side.”
The students behind the DVD who form a Liverpool city centre support group called Gay Youth ‘R’ Out (GYRO) are also planning to open a drop-in after-school club later this year for teenagers questioning their sexuality.
They currently run a centre in Bolton Street for 16-25 year-olds every Thursday but hope to try and target children as young as 13 in a bid to stamp out homophobic bullying from the city’s schools.
GYRO’s drop-in-centre should open by the close of the year and will offer one-to-one advice. For a copy of the DVD visit gyro.org.uk. See Anti-homophobic bullying DVD launched
The Lesbian and Gay Foundation, Manchester
A new report released by the Council of Europe this week has acknowledged that suicide rates among young LGBT people are "significantly higher" than the general young population.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council (PACE) is now appealing to European Union (EU) member states to take a series of measures aiding risk detection and prevention of child and teenage suicide, including repeat attempts.
The document, Child and teenage suicide in Europe: A serious public health issue reaffirms "the importance the PACE attaches to respecting sexual and physical differences and emphasises its commitment to combating homophobia and the stigma attached to all sexual behaviours, including transexualism."
Times Slide Show: Gimme Shelter
A new book of documentary photographs, “Shelter,” examines a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender young people living, off and on, at a homeless shelter in Hell’s Kitchen — a group for whom growing up could hardly be more difficult. That the book is the product of a 27-year-old photographer who is gay, grew up in poverty and once lived in a homeless shelter himself explains its empathetic tone and morally urgent message.
The photographer, Lucky S. Michaels, shot roughly 4,000 images over three years, 2003 to 2006, while he worked as an overnight counselor at the shelter, Sylvia’s Place, which is run by the Metropolitan Community Church of New York, at 446 West 36th Street, between Ninth and 10th Avenues.
The 120 images in the 192-page book — at once intimate, stark and unsparing — are interspersed with first-person accounts and a brief narrative written by Mr. Michaels with Tanino Minneci, a social worker at the shelter. The book portrays a cast of characters, but four young people referred to only by their street names — are its center:
In the introduction, the Rev. Pat Bumgardner, the pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York, whose church is part of a spiritual movement that ministers to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, writes that some studies have estimated that as many as 30,000 young people are homeless in New York City — and that about one-third identify themselves, in some way, as “queer.” Such youths are more likely to become victims of violence, abuse drugs, get infected with H.I.V. or become mentally ill than homeless youths who are straight, according to the Empire State Coalition, an advocacy group for homeless and runaway youngsters in New York.
Much more of Giving Them Shelter: Portraits of Young Lives in Limbo @ New York Times, United States
NB:
A few other programs also serve homeless gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youths, including the Ali Forney Center on West 35th Street, founded in 2002, and Green Chimneys, a longstanding charity based in Brewster, N.Y., with locations in New York City.
Sylvia’s Place has inspired other documentary projects; in 2005, The Times published images and narratives of young people at the shelter by the photographer Willie Davis.
Civil liberties groups demanded radical reform of family law after a gay man, who donated sperm to a lesbian couple, was refused rights to his biological son. Dublin's High Court ruled that the man, who had been friends with the women, should have no guardianship or access to the child and the toddler would be better off with the couple. The landmark ruling is the latest case to expose serious gaps in family law, fathers' rights and a lack of legislation on same-sex couples. See Gay sperm donor denied son access @ The Press Association -
Lance Bass doesn't want others to stay silent as he did.
So he's made a public service announcement for the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The spot, which is being distributed virally Friday, debuts in advance of the 11th annual National Day of Silence on April 25, when students take a vow of silence to protest bullying, harassment and discrimination in schools.
"I think it's time for me to stand up ... and help educate, because I'm lucky enough to have been given a voice to be able to talk and grab the attention of people," said the 28-year-old singer, who's gay.
"Everyday, thousands of students are silenced. They're silenced by fear, they're silenced for being who they are. ... They're brothers, they're sisters, they're gay, they're straight, they're you, they're me."
Bass, who recently completed a stint in the Broadway musical "Hairspray" and released a memoir, said the PSA is meant to honour Lawrence King - a 15-year-old student was shot and killed in February in Oxnard, Calif., by a younger boy because he arrived at school in feminine attire.
"I heard about Lawrence on the news, and it was just incredible to me that kids that age that would have such an issue ... with the subject of being gay," said Bass, who was part of the boy band 'N Sync. "It also shows me that these kids don't - they don't learn (bigotry) on their own. ... They're being told by older siblings or family members or other fellow students."
See Lance Bass speaks out against discrimination
The Canadian Press, NEW YORK
BUSINESSMAN and gay celebrity David Graham has revealed he was a "suicide risk" for six years while he came to terms with his sexuality at school.
Mr Graham admitted to the City North News he had a gun in his hand several times with the intention of killing himself. The revelation comes as debate rages in the wake of a decision to ban same-sex partners at Anglican Church Grammar School’s formal. For the full story see the City North News
Leading LGBT rights groups are appealing as a 27-member coalition to the Ventura, California district attorney to try Brandon McInerney, 14, who on February 12 shot and killed his gay classmate Larry King, 15, as a minor. McInerney has been charged as an adult. A statement from the group said, "One boy killed another in a climate of intolerance and fear about sexual orientation and gender expression." While they acknowledge the horror of the crime and want McInerney held accountable, their appeal said, "We support the principles underlying the juvenile justice system that treat children differently than adults and provide greater opportunity and hope for rehabilitation."See Calls to Try Killer of Gay Teen as Minor @ Gay City News -
DANVILLE — Students at San Ramon Valley High School are ready to teach their classmates and the community that saying something is "so gay" is so uncool.
Members of the school's Gay-Straight Alliance, which has been on campus for about 10 years, have designated this week Gay Pride Week on campus.
Students will be spreading awareness during the week about accepting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
As co-presidents of the Gay-Straight Alliance, seniors Nick Pittarides, 17, and Sammy Brenner, 18, have been passing out rainbow ribbons on campus, telling classmates about National Day of Silence and preparing for this weekend's photography exhibit.
Photographer Jeff Sheng, a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is bringing his "Fearless" exhibit to San Ramon Valley High School to encourage people to open their eyes and minds to people who are gay.
Pittarides found Sheng's artwork online and saw the exhibit had visited many colleges across the country, including Yale and Columbia universities.
The nearly 100 photos in the exhibit are all of athletes — mostly college students with a few high school students — who are openly gay. By having athletes in the photos, Pittarides said, sends the message that homosexuality is just one part of someone.
See Exhibit of gay athletes displayed at San Ramon Valley High @ Tri-Valley Herald, CA
Two principals in the Gilbert Unified School District have asked that their schools not be listed as participants in the National Day of Silence by an organization opposing the event.
MissionAmerica.com's Web site listed Desert Ridge High and Gilbert High schools as participants in the Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. The schools' principals asked that MissionAmerica.com, a Christian group, remove the school names after pressure from the family members of some students.
Desert Ridge's name has since been removed, although Gilbert High was still on the list as of Monday.
Students at those schools as well as Gilbert's two other high schools have signed up with the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network to participate. Students in 97 Arizona schools have signed up.
The Day of Silence asks students to be silent on April 25 to bring attention to bullying and harassment in schools based on sexual orientation. The students who participate hand out "speaking cards" explaining why they are choosing not to talk.
See Gilbert schools want off Day of Silence list East Valley Tribune
Kent State’s most remembered for the May 4th massacre, but Harry Jackson’s hoping to change that. The Ohio businessman just gave the Akron-area university $2 million to boost students’ gay rights activism. See Kent State Gets Gay Boost
Queerty, NY
Students from at least one Fairbanks high school, West Valley, will be participating in the “Day of Silence,” an event sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. The national event is scheduled for April 25.
The organization’s Web site states the purpose of Day of Silence “is to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment and effective responses.”
But an e-newsletter sent out by The Alaska Family Council states the organization has received concerns that Day of Silence is portraying people who oppose homosexuality as “hate-filled bigots.” The Family Council recommends keeping children out of schools that day if the school has confirmed they are allowing a Day of Silence to happen on their campus.
The Family Council also advocates an alternative event, “Day of Truth” sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund. According to the Day of Truth Web site, the event “was established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective.” Day of Truth is scheduled for April 28.
Wayne Gerke, assistant superintendent of secondary schools at the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, said he has received more inquires than complaints about the Day of Silence. The event is not an official school activity and is not sponsored by the school district but is a way for students to express their freedom of speech. Gerke said he believes the purpose of Day of Silence is not to promote homosexuality but rather to stand against bullying. See Controversy escalates over ‘Day of Silence' Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Eric Hegedus, Class of 1984, is a former photo editor of The Daily Collegian and also a gay journalist who is "out" in the newsroom.
Hegedus, president of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalist Association (NLGJA), addressed a crowd of about 300 people at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel yesterday, touching on the impact LGBT journalists are having on the field.
The NLGJA, according to its Web site, nlgja.org, is an organization of journalists, media professionals, educators and students that works within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues.
In his speech, Hegedus stressed many different ideas, including the importance of diversity in the newsroom and using correct terminology when referring to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
The most common error is the use of "sexual preference," Hegedus said. The correct phrase to use would be "sexual orientation."
See Alumnus speaks of being 'out' in the newsroom
The Daily Collegian Online, PA -
With only four months to go until the Beijing Olympics, China is already showing itself to be a world leader, for all the wrong reasons. Recent figures have shown them to be number one for executions and now it would seem they lead the planet in the race to see who can pollute it the most. As the Olympic torch relay and Tibetan crackdown have proven, China is no slouch when it comes to long marches to silence dissent. It's record against it's GLBT population is also atricious. Like most Chinese homosexuals, Han Yue strives to keep his secret from all but a close circle of gay friends. Like others, his biggest fear is that someone, someday, might find out he is gay.
See And the winner is China?
GenerationQ, Australia
A small group of students gathered in Burlington’s City Hall Park on Wednesday by a rainbow-colored banner and clusters of balloons. They exchanged hugs and laughs, but the gathering was not a party — it was a protest.
The teen-agers who showed up were assembled for a so-called Night of Noise to protest bullying and harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.
The Burlington event followed observances at some schools of a statewide Day of Silence designed to bring attention to the same problem.
Elizabeth Thompson, a member of the Pride Alliance at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, came to the Burlington gathering with two other students from her school. All three participated in the Day of Silence at BFA, wearing stickers and handing out small pieces of white paper that explained their intent: To stop the silence about anti-gay bullying and to advocate for respect.
“It’s looked down upon, being open with your sexuality if it’s different,” said Thompson, a 16-year-old who says she is bisexual. See Night of Noise held to fight bullying
BurlingtonFreePress.com, VT
Gay lobbyists have begun a nation-wide push to make schools less homophobic in a bid to stamp out discrimination.
The term husband and wife could soon be banned from the classroom, with gay lobbyists seeking to have the term replaced by the more generic word "partner".
The new push to inject more political correctness into education is an attempt to make schools more gay friendly. See Gay friendly schools
LIVENEWS.com.au, Australia
Over at the Huffington Post, Ryan J. Davis has a piece about the impending ruling on gay marriage due from the California court, and it's creating quite a stir on the internets. The court has until June 2 to hand down their decision, but according to "sources wishing to remain anonymous in the California Court System," they may just say "We do what we want" and issue the ruling on May 28, against anti-gay marriage Prop 22.
The Family Research Council, which is one of those innocuous sounding groups that wants religion back in the classroom and the ladies back in the kitchen, is worried enough to have launched a ballot initiative for a constitutional amendment against gay marriage in California. Schwarzenegger reportedly openly panned the FRC's actions when addressing the Log Cabin Republicans, saying "I will always be there to fight against that." Which is interesting, because Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed bills that support gay marriage.
SF Weekly Blogs - San Francisco,CA,USA
A Christian couple in the U.K. has been barred from serving as foster parents because they will not tell children that homosexuality is acceptable. Eunice and John Johns, who have four children of their own, have cared for 18 foster children over the past 12 years. The government council in Derby declared them unfit because of a British law that precludes from public service anyone who discriminates based on sexual orientation. John said he didn't "understand why sexuality is an issue when we are talking about boys and girls under the age of 10."
Both Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday night appeared at a CNN "Compassion Forum" at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.
Messiah College describes itself as embracing an "evangelical spirit rooted in the Anabaptist, Pietist and Wesleyan traditions of the Christian Church."
As such, its "community covenant" states that members of the Messiah College community "avoid such sinful practices as drunkenness, stealing, dishonesty, profanity, occult practices, sexual intercourse outside of marriage, homosexual behavior, and sexually exploitative or abusive behavior."
In the past, Republican presidential candidates have been criticized for speaking at universities where certain religious beliefs are considered bigoted, most notoriously when then-Gov. George W. Bush in 2000 spoke at Bob Jones University, where anti-Catholic dogma was taught and inter-racial dating banned.
Messiah counsels its gay and lesbian students to seek the help of controversial organizations that use Scripture and behavioral exercises to coach them to stop acting on gay feelings and impulses.
See Hart district, rights group clash on gay, lesbian issues
Signal, CA -
Q I WOULD like a nipple ring. It is something I have wanted for a long time.
But my girlfriend is totally against it. She says it is only gay guys who get their nipples pierced and, if I do it, she says we are finished.
She says she's not going to sit on a beach with me with people thinking I am gay.
I don't know why I want it done. I just do.
I also love my girl and I don't want to lose her. So maybe you could put this on your page and she will see it and you can tell her lots of non-gay men have nipple rings. Thank you.
See Answer to 'She Says Only Gay Guys Get Nipple Rings But I Really Want One'
Glasgow Daily Record, UK
Close to 150 students crammed into a large classroom at Santa Barbara City College on Tuesday, April 15, to hear a lecture about gay life from Penny Patterson, who writes The Santa Barbara Independent’s popular Gay Girl/Straight World column. Speaking as part of SBCC’s “Diversity Dialogues” series of symposiums — which also featured talks from immigrants, black politicians, and women leaders — Patterson held the audience’s attention for more than an hour, telling her own story and answering numerous questions from the mixed crowd of students and faculty.
Coming from a “very religious and very conservative” family in southern Orange County, Patterson graduated from Westmont College, a devoutly Christian university in Montecito, before starting to work in the editorial department of The Independent a couple years ago. She launched her column in October 2007 with a story about coming out to her parents, who did not take the news well. Since then, every other week Patterson, who still considers herself a practicing Episcopalian, has discussed gay politics, culture, and news in her column. See The Indy’s Gay Girl Hits SBCC
The Santa Barbara Independent, CA
Both Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday night appeared at a CNN "Compassion Forum" at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.
Messiah College describes itself as embracing an "evangelical spirit rooted in the Anabaptist, Pietist and Wesleyan traditions of the Christian Church."
As such, its "community covenant" states that members of the Messiah College community "avoid such sinful practices as drunkenness, stealing, dishonesty, profanity, occult practices, sexual intercourse outside of marriage, homosexual behavior, and sexually exploitative or abusive behavior."
In the past, Republican presidential candidates have been criticized for speaking at universities where certain religious beliefs are considered bigoted, most notoriously when then-Gov. George W. Bush in 2000 spoke at Bob Jones University, where anti-Catholic dogma was taught and inter-racial dating banned.
Messiah counsels its gay and lesbian students to seek the help of controversial organizations that use Scripture and behavioral exercises to coach them to stop acting on gay feelings and impulses.
See Clinton and Obama Appear at Religious College that Equates ...
ABC News
Brown University water polo player Hank Weintraub is setting an example for gay athletes on campus everywhere See Gay athlete at Brown diving into leadership role
Outsports.com, CA -
State schools in Victoria must allow gay students to bring their partners to formals and functions, the State Government has said.
The directive comes after a Year 12 student at an Anglican school in Brisbane was outraged after his request on behalf of eight classmates at the all boys' school to bring their partners to a formal was met with a lukewarm response.
The boy claimed the school told him it might change regulations requiring formal partners be of the opposite sex if it was done with a minimum of fuss.
He and his friends are now likely to boycott the event, claiming they have been discriminated against.
See Schools must let gay students bring their partners
LIVENEWS.com.au, Australia
After putting his sexuality in the spotlight earlier this year, Degrassi's Adamo Ruggiero made a conscious effort to involve himself in the gay community, through comedy, TV work and social outreach.
Ruggerio's range of projects include:
"My whole coming out was a huge step and an important movement for me," Ruggiero tells CTV.ca during a telephone interview.
Earlier this year Ruggiero publicly confirmed his homosexuality with an exclusive interview on eTalk with Tanya Kim and a cover story in "FAB", Toronto's gay magazine.
Ruggiero's character on "Degrassi," Marco Del Rossi, revealed his homosexuality during a story arc in 2003.
"Everyone has been so excited for me," says Ruggiero.
"Coming out helped prove that we underestimate some of the people in our community. Everyone in Toronto was so supportive and I feel so lucky."
See Ruggiero goes GLAAD
CTV.ca, Canada -
The show tells the story of a gay high school student and the homophobia he encounters. It's based on the experiences of young people who seek support from the nonprofit Stonewall Youth organization.
"It's a parody - it's outrageous , flamboyant, sparkly," said Heather Lenox, director of Stonewall Youth. "It's very fun. It's very loud. It's very gaudy.
"But the content came from the youths' real-life experiences, and they've been getting support from each other about this. Our youth have had very adult, very hard experiences."
Timothy Carbry, who plays the lead character Adrian, is a Stonewall Youth staff member and was part of the program when he was in high school in Tenino.
"High school can be a really hard place to be when you're a gay youth," he said. "I channel some of the things that I encountered in high school." See Stonewall Youth show is anything but a drag
The fair, organized by Campus Pride, a national nonprofit organization that assesses the gay-friendliness of university campuses, was held in San Diego, Calif. A similar fair took place in December on the Penn campus.
“The fair is a way for colleges to come out and show how gay-friendly they are,” Campus Pride Executive Director Shane Windmeyer said.
“It’s significant for people in high school to know what Princeton has to offer them,” LGBT Center Director Debbie Bazarsky said. “This provides an opportunity for students to find colleges that fit their needs as well as find out how they support LGBT students.”
See U. delegates attend high school LGBT fair in California
After putting his sexuality in the spotlight earlier this year, Degrassi's Adamo Ruggiero made a conscious effort to involve himself in the gay community, through comedy, TV work and social outreach. Ruggerio's range of projects include:
"My whole coming out was a huge step and an important movement for me," Ruggiero tells CTV.ca during a telephone interview.
Earlier this year Ruggiero publicly confirmed his homosexuality with an exclusive interview on eTalk with Tanya Kim and a cover story in "FAB", Toronto's gay magazine.
Ruggiero's character on "Degrassi," Marco Del Rossi, revealed his homosexuality during a story arc in 2003.
"Everyone has been so excited for me," says Ruggiero.
"Coming out helped prove that we underestimate some of the people in our community. Everyone in Toronto was so supportive and I feel so lucky."
One of Australia's top private schools says it is happy for its students to bring gay partners to the end-of year formal following news that a leading Brisbane school will enforce a ban on the practice.
Scotch College in Adelaide said it had no restrictions on students who want to take same-sex partners to college events and they support openly gay students. Deputy principal Craig Rogers said the school promotes student freedoms and the students themselves are very supportive of same sex couples.
"We've had students who are openly gay and it hasn't had an effect on their happiness in the school," he said
"It's a non-issue to be honest."
Mr Rogers said the co-educational mix of boys and girls makes their school environment a lot more like real-life.
"People co-exist quite happily in the real world, and at our school having boys and girls together I think brings a degree of normality to the way things operate," he said. See Private school opens arms to gay partners Ninemsn
The Ontario minister of education has appointed a special team to look at homophobia and sexual harassment in the province's schools.
"What I have asked them to do is to go back to stakeholders in the community and ask about sexual assault, gender or attacks on the basis of sexual orientation," says Kathleen Wynne. "We haven't tackled that as deeply as we'd like."
The Safe Schools Action Team — led by Liz Sandals, the Liberal MPP for Guelph and the former president of the Ontario Public School Board Association — was originally formed in 2004 to rewrite the province's Safe Schools Act. The committee was disbanded before the October 2007 election and reformed in February of this year.
Sandals says the group is not seeking evidence of homophobia in schools.
"We don't need to be convinced there's an issue," she says. "We don't want to waste our time demonstrating there's a problem. What we're trying to identify is people who have solutions." See Bullying in Ontario schools
Those involved in the project say the report should finally give both public officials and service providers a point of reference on the issue of youth homelessness, and hope the new information will lead to improved services for homeless youth. Previous estimates, after all, had put the number of homeless young people at more like 20,000.
“This study answers a lot of questions we had and confirms a lot of what we were thinking,” said City Councilman Lewis A. Fidler, the Youth Services Committee chairman who was responsible for allocating funding for the report. The difference, Fidler added, is that now the information is there in black and white for everybody to see.
One of the report’s most striking findings, say youth service professionals, is the significant overrepresentation of certain marginalized populations among the ranks of homeless youth in the city—particularly those who identify themselves either as black, or as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), or those who have experience in the foster care and criminal justice systems. Almost half of respondents identified as black and close to a third identified as homosexual or bisexual. More than a quarter reported time spent in foster care, jail or prison.
“The doors are opened and they’re let out without any preparation for living the next day,” said Margo Hirsch, executive director of the Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services.
Additionally, half of the young people interviewed for the report did not have a high school diploma or GED. “Many of these young people haven’t been in school past the third or fourth grade,” said David Nish, associate vice president of youth programs at Safe Horizon, a city-based nonprofit that operates a homeless and "street-involved" youth program. The average age of respondents was 20, and their average duration of homelessness was over two years.
See A GROUP PORTRAIT EMERGES OF THE YOUNG AND HOMELESS
CityLimits.org
Q I AM gay, which is not what I want to be but I have known since I was eight and I can't change it.
I am now 14. There is no one else my age I know who is gay. There are a couple of boys who are two years above me and everyone says they are gay.
But if anyone saw me talking to them, they would know I was gay and my life wouldn't be worth living.
I have a girlfriend and I would like to tell her, just because it would be nice to tell someone and she is a really good friend. But if I did, she might tell someone and then I would have to kill myself.
See answer @ I can't tell anyone I'm gay
Glasgow Daily Record, UK
ROME — "Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in the World," the R-rated animated comedy series produced by Canada’s Cuppa Coffee Studios for Viacom’s Logo cable net, took the top prize at Cartoons on the Bay, Italy’s post-Mip TV toon fest.
Cult hit half-hour show depicting the lives of three gay couples in the fictional “gay ghetto” of West Lahunga Beach, took event’s Pulcinella nod for television series of the year. The jury praised “Rick & Steve” for “pushing social boundaries and tackling stereotypes in a wicked and irreverent way.” See 'Gay Couple' top toon fest
Variety, CA -
A group of students at South Huron District High School in Exeter is starting its own Gay-Straight Alliance designed to tackle the issues surrounding being gay in a rural community.
Appearing on Ontario's West Coast Today on 104.9 the Beach in Goderich -- Teacher and Guidance Councillor Chuck Mallette says it all started with three male students at S-H-D-H-S.
Mallette says all three felt alone and frozen out of the school mainstream.
Mallette says he realized that there were more than just three students struggling with their orientation and who feel isolated because of it. Students start Gay Alliance
Bayshore Broadcasting News Centre, Canada -
THE head of the Anglican Church in Australia has backed gay and lesbian students taking same-sex partners to school formals.Anglican Archbishop Phillip Aspinall yesterday said he had no "personal objection to a school deciding to allow boys to take friends who are boys, or girls to take friends who are girls to school formals".
His comments came after it was revealed that a prestigious Brisbane school had insisted students take a member of the opposite sex to their school formal.
Several students at Churchie - the Anglican Church Boys' Grammar School - had wanted to escort their same-sex partners to the event in June, and approached a senior member of staff to raise the issue.
Despite his apparent support for the gay students, Dr Aspinall, who is president of the school's council, said the school had a right to enforce a ban on same-sex partners if it felt the move was necessary.
"I understand that in this particular instance the school has decided that its approach is to emphasise the interaction of young men and young women and provide them with an opportunity to do that in this kind of formal setting and I have no objection to that either," he said.
"I think that's a reasonable and legitimate approach for a school to take."
See Church support for gay school formals
NEWS.com.au, Australia
POOFTERS. Yuk. Let's be blunt here, are they anything but vile and perverted creatures, an abomination in the eyes of God?
In fact, there's an argument that they are worse than the likes of (insult pejorative term about ethnic and religious groupings here) when it comes to cancers eating away at the very moral fabric of society.
And don't even get me started on what people think of the politically correct basket-weaving leftist lezzo greenie vegetarian douchebags who bleat about rights and sexual identity and discrimination. May your tofu-burgers give you genital herpes, your dole cheques bounce and your (in-vitro) children all join One Nation.
Honestly, what has become of this once-great country?
Apparently one of the better (boys only) private schools in Brisneyland is at the vortex of a storm over media reports it doesn't want its senior students to bring any same-sex partners to the school formal.
Damn straight. What next? Will we be allowing 18-year-old polygamists to bring three dates to the dance? What other fetishists are there out there we need to be accommodating about?
I mean to say, if you're a straight bloke there's nothing wrong with looking at a bit of lesbian action – the bits of the Bible I read said nothing about that. Nudge, nudge . . .
But strewth, two men? That's just icky.
The rot started with giving women the vote. They're soft, and don't understand that the weak and the mentally sick need to be weeded out if the human species is to prevail.
What happened next? We had them demanding things like equal pay and the right to challenge their husbands. They forgot their place.
We had them at the civil rights demonstrations bleating about equal rights for all races, creeds, religions and some such palaver.
I have learnt much of this by going on to the internet thingummy and reading the postings on a story about "poofters" not being allowed to corrupt a boys' school formal in Brisbane.
Enough of the ethnic cleansing. Let's resume normal programming and be serious for a moment.
If you want to be truly astounded at some of the bigoted lowlifes you share our corner of the world with, just have a quick skim through the hundreds of on-line responses to the story about the Anglican Church Grammar School and same-sex dates at the school formal.
More of Brave boys and the bigots Courier Mail
An innovative new website from the activist organization Truth Wins Out (TWO) will enhance the gay community’s ability to fight the myth of so-called “ex-gay” therapy and counter right-wing propaganda. The site will be highlighted by an extensive and unprecedented video catalog of ex-gay survivors and sexual orientation experts.
For years, the ex-gay industry has dominated the flow of information on “conversion” therapy. With the establishment of its multimedia site, launched March 26, TWO staffers feel the gay movement has gained the means to counter ex-gay lies and reach vulnerable people with messages of truth and hope.
“TruthWinsOut.org is a one-stop-shop for information on the ex-gay myth and an action center for those who want to fight back against this insidious industry,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We believe this site will help people come out, keep families together and even save lives. This is a great day for those who have long wanted to stop the spread of ex-gay misinformation and help people escape the ex-gay trap.” See New website refutes the ‘ex-gay’ myth
In the Mar. 22, 2008, edition of Q-Notes, Editor Matt Comer did an excellent job capturing the struggle faced by LGBT youth in rural North Carolina (“Rural gay youth struggle for acceptance”). I’m certain the same struggle is representative of other areas of the country as well.
Having grown up in rural North Carolina, I live a pretty simple life. My childhood memories are filled with visits to the farm, outdoor church services and snipe hunting. But when I came out at age 21 I faced similar issues as the youth featured in the article.
When I came out my parents kicked me out. My mom emptied my bank account, leaving me with no money. She called my employer (I worked for the state) and told my supervisor about my “lifestyle.” In the end that resulted in me resigning because of the constant harassment.
I was “fresh out of the closet” and I didn’t know about Lambda Legal, HRC and PFLAG. I had one friend who was gay and he introduced me to an LGBT support group in Hickory called Catawba Valley Time Out Youth (CVTOY), the satellite group of its Charlotte-based parent organization. See A call for rural queer youth support. Contact Brandon Greeson at brgnrh@gmail.com. His website address is www.brandongreeson.com.
ROME, Italy — While the Boy Scouts of America continue to hold to right-wing ideologies of banning gay youth members and leaders, other Scouts around the world are professing their decidedly more liberal views. In a 2006 survey conducted at a Scout conference, or jamboree, in Italy, more than one-quarter of European Girl Guides and 12 percent of European Boy Scouts said they would consider same-sex experiences. Nine in 10 also reported they expected to have sex before marriage. See European Scouts take liberal stance on sex, drugs
Dear PFLAG Family & Friends,
Margaret Mead once famously reminded us to "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Every day at PFLAG, we see big change happening when even small chapters step up, speak out and defend our families. This past week, we saw firsthand the evidence of Mead's truth as our chapter in Oklahoma City again made waves with their response to Representative Sally Kern. We couldn't be more proud of Rev. Loyce Newton-Edwards and her small but mighty "band of sisters and brothers" on the ground in Oklahoma, and I couldn't wait to share their news with you.
On Wednesday, PFLAG released the full, 40-minute audio of Kern's meeting with our local chapter. After she accused PFLAG of spinning her words, and misrepresenting her views, we thought it was important that we allow Sally to speak for herself. We knew Rev. Newton-Edwards was truthful in her characterization of her meeting with Kern, and we simply were not going to stand by and allow Kern and her supporters to call our allies "false prophets" and "phoney clergy." Silence, in this case, simply was not an option.
We knew our response had to be bold, and we knew it may be provocative. But it also had to be powerful - an unmistakable reminder that we will never doubt our families and never abandon our friends. That, after all, is what PFLAG is all about.
Thousands of you responded, logging onto YouTube to listen to our "What Did Sally Say?" campaign and joining the debate about the audio recording on blogs all over the internet. You stepped up with us, and called Kern out on her dishonesty. And, by Thursday morning, she was acknowledging to the media that, of course, PFLAG "did not intentionally misrepresent her statements."
Together, we made sure that Representative Kern - and all the other Kerns of the world - will never doubt the power of PFLAG again.
Now, we have to make sure that we have the resources to step up again, and support our chapters again, whenever anyone like Kern defames, dismisses or disrespects our loved ones. The national office was proud to stand by Rev. Newton-Edwards and give her advice, resources and support as she took on Sally Kern. Our field and policy staff was instrumental in advising her about how to put together the most constructive meeting possible with Kern. And our communications department was instrumental in making sure our chapter's voices were heard. But we couldn't do any of that without your steadfast support, and we need you to stand with us, too.
You can make sure PFLAG is ready when prejudice rears its head again by making a contribution in honor of our friends in Oklahoma City. Your support will be put to immediate use, supporting our chapters and standing up for our friends.
By now, most of the country knows "What Sally Said," and that's because of your support for the work we do. With your help, we will make sure even the smallest group of PFLAG friends will never be doubted again.
Thank you,
Jody M. Huckaby,
Executive Director
P.S.: You can also log onto PFLAG's blog and leave a message of support for Rev. Newton-Edwards and all of our allies in Oklahoma. Just click here to send a note.
The Massachusetts Senate passed 38-0 S2630, a MassEquality-supported anti-bullying bill on Thursday April 10, that would protect students in legally-protected classes, including gay and lesbian students, from harassment.
The bill, "An Act Relative to Bullying," would require public school departments to develop a bullying prevention plan, to prevent "any unwelcome written or verbal expressions, physical acts or gestures directed at a student or another member of the school community to intimidate, frighten, ridicule, humiliate, or cause physical or emotional harm to that person, and where the conduct is not related to the person's membership in a legally protected class and is not considered harassment under federal or state laws."
David Lammy, the Member of Parliament for Tottenham in London and Minister of Skills at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, was to have been the keynote speaker at the launch of the UK’s International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) last month. He had to pull out of attending at the last moment because of family reasons. No one was more disappointed than Mr. Lammy himself. He has released the text of what he would have said at the event.
“Holding an event like this is especially timely because of the current media focus on these issues at home and abroad. I passionately believe that whether in school, college, university or the workplace, people have the right to study and work without fear or prejudice – anything less not only fails and damages the individual but also puts at risk the loss of their talents to society as a whole.
So in the UK we must kick homophobia out of our classrooms and places of work. The use of language for instance where ‘gay’ is becoming the most common synonym for uncool or rubbish must be challenged, not swept under the carpet. Tackling the growth of extremism on campus and in schools must also be a key objective if we are to ensure that future generations are not subjected to the prejudices of the past. And there is the still tragic prevalence of suicide and self-harm especially amongst young LGBT people.
However, I believe we can succeed – over the past 11 years we have made great strides in the UK and I am proud to be a member of a party and Government which repealed section 28, equalised the age of consent, legislated to stop discrimination in goods and services, brought in the gender recognition bill, created civil partnerships and is now legislating on hate crime.
I am proud of this record, but not complacent. I strongly support the ideas behind IDAHO. Having a day that focuses the mind on what is happening beyond our borders is vital and we must use this opportunity to be as ambitious on human and LGBT rights abroad, as we have been at home.
From the use of the death penalty in Iran, to homophobic attacks in the Caribbean and Africa, to the recent horrific killing in America of Lawrence King - the need for IDAHO and global action could not be clearer. Yet these headlines are only the tip of an ice berg, harassment continues around the world with same-sex relationships are still outlawed in over 70 countries and in many places punishable by long prison sentences, torture or death.
From Eastern Europe to Israel and even the US, politicians have targeted the gay community as moral scapegoats, and in recent weeks we have again seen the dangers of allowing homophobia to develop unchecked in schools, with the tragic shooting of Lawrence King. ‘Larry’ was a 15 year old boy brutally killed for expressing himself at school.
Let’s think about that for a moment, about the sort of society we want to live in and set a clear challenge to everyone, especially those who have opposing or more conservative views. King’s killer like all those who commit hate crimes had his views shaped by our society. If we create and tolerate a climate where hate, prejudice and bullying is acceptable, then sadly the chances of extremism taking root and leading to such tragic events increases.
Can it ever be right that someone is killed in school for the clothes they wear; put another way where does such violence end if we allow a climate of prejudice and fear to develop. LOGO a gay channel run by MTV has released a powerful celebrity endorsed video entitled ‘Be a voice against violence’ in an attempt to create a wider coalition against all violent prejudice and hate.
It is a powerful statement that should inspire us all to action. I’m glad we are now making this an issue in schools and we should be clear in all walks of life at home and abroad that violence directed against someone for who they are, what they wear or what they say is totally unacceptable.
It is clear we aren’t going to be able to shift deep seated cultural views over night; after all it took decades of pressure here to reach today’s equality in the UK. However, I think we can and do need to say more – especially where violence and torture are endemic.
I wanted to finish by reiterating the need to promote the universal values of tolerance and freedom, and why we should be proud and unashamed to extol them. For these are the same values that inspired the fight for gender equality, the same values that inspired the fight against segregation and apartheid and the same values that brought democracy to vast swaths of the post-colonial and communist world.
Yet to my mind this work is only half done if we don’t continue the fight for universal human rights. These rights are indivisible and we should say so, working alongside our colleagues in Europe and elsewhere we should keep banging the drum at the UN and in our bilateral relations with other countries reiterate that all human beings have a basic right to a private life free of harassment and a right to form relationships with fellow adults of their own choosing free from prejudice.
I hope that tonight’s event will continue this struggle, increase the profile of IDAHO and build the networks and coalition required to embed and inspire the fight against homophobia both at home and abroad. As the LOGO video concludes: "None of us are safe until all of us are safe”.
This message was sent as David was originally due to speak, but had to cancel for family reasons. By all accounts the evening was a fantastic success and David looks forward to taking part in future IDAHO events.
LINKS
David Lamy's website
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Life Gets Tougher For Runaways
This morning, Jeanine and I were treated to a fourth grade presentation on the civil rights movement in the southeast region of the country. It was a timeline of PowerPoint presentations, from slavery to the civil rights movement.
Our son Zachary presented the book he read with a classmate. Excellent work.
What struck me though, was the two parents that came up to me and mentioned that Zachary had told their son that he was going to be silent one day at school. That it was a protest.
I was surprised. We had talked about the Day of Silence and what it was for over dinner the other night. Jeanine is organizing the students at Berklee who want to participate.
See Day of silence By SARA WHITMAN @ The Bilerico Project
Logan Shepard, the younger brother of Matthew Shepard, is boosting his profile as a straight ally. (Photo courtesy of the Matthew Shepard Foundation)
Judy Shepard is a well-known activist with a national reputation. The Wyoming mother has been a public advocate for hate crimes legislation since her gay son Matthew Shepard was brutally killed in Laramie, Wyo., 10 years ago. She’s lobbied Congress, started the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and speaks around the country about Matthew’s life and death.
Few people, however, have heard of Logan Shepard, Judy’s other son and Matthew’s younger brother who was a teenager when his brother died. Over the past year, Logan has slowly begun to step into the public eye, starting with a web and office assistant position at the foundation last June. Now he’s launched a blog for the foundation’s new youth-oriented web site, Matthew’s Place. See At his brother’s ‘Place’ @ DC Blade
On April 4 several University of Utah students gathered on the stairway overlooking the Student Union’s patio to observe an event designed to draw attention to the silencing and oppression of gay and transgender people.
The event is called the Day of Silence and was started in 1996 by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, a group dedicated to ending bullying and violence in America’s schools. Although the day will be held on April 25 this year, the U observed it early because the semester ends April 23.
The students wore tape over their mouths to symbolize their silence. When assembled, they removed the tape, shouted and waved noisemakers to indicate the end of their silence.
Owens also mentioned that schools in the Provo District will not be participating in the Day of Silence because the event might “disrupt” classes.
Provo District Assistant Superintendent Ray W. Morgan previously told the Deseret Morning News: “Our purpose is education. Anything that disrupts learning and instruction would not be supported by our school district.”
See Day of Silence Observed at U, Banned in Provo
Like many employees every year, Heidi Borjesson lost her job in the University of Utah’s physics department because of a reduction in force in 2005.
But unlike most “RIFed” employees, who are demoted, reclassified or let go because of departmental restructuring or a lack of money to pay them, Borjesson says her ‘RIFing’ had nothing to do with a budget shortage and everything to do with a supervisor’s dislike for her and a gross violation of the university’s employment policies.
“I’m not calling it a reduction in force,” said Borjesson, a former associate-level accountant of fifteen years’ standing in the physics department. “I’m calling it a firing because I believe that’s what it was.”
In her suit against the university, Borjesson alleges that she was wrongly and involuntarily terminated from her position because her supervisor at the time, Roberta McCormick, disapproved of Borjesson being bisexual and taking personal preference days to care for her animals.
“It was irksome to [McCormick], for example, that Heidi’s former husband would come and have lunch with her in spite of the fact that it was known in the office that Heidi had a girlfriend,” said Reed Pruyn Goldstein, Borjesson’s attorney.
But Goldstein said that Borjesson’s suit is not about being targeted because of her lifestyle and sexuality. Rather, he said it is about McCormick violating university policy in preferring a less experienced employee over his client when the possibility of a reduction in force was brought to her attention.
In a complaint filed in Third District Court in February, Borjesson alleges tha
See Is the UofU's Sexual Orientation Job Policy a Bunch of Hot Air?
When Dana Clark settled in Salt Lake City last year, he expected to find a gay ski group in the state claiming to have the Greatest Snow on Earth. He searched high and low, but by the time the great snow covered the mountains, the former Vermont resident hadn’t found one. His solution? Start his own group.
“When I couldn’t find a group at the Pride Center, I decided to see what I could do about it,” he said.
The following summer, Clark discussed forming a gay ski group with friends from the Lambda Hiking Club who also wanted to hit the slopes after the hiking season’s end. In October, Ski Out Utah, their brainchild, was born.
“I had such a great ti
When Phd candidate Jennilyn Merton put Dykes to Watch Out For creator Allison Bechdel’s autobiographical graphic novel Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic on her course syllabus, she hoped to challenge and enrich her students. “I felt like the story of a young girl and her father exploring the idea of coming out as gay from two very different generational perspectives was an important topic right now,” said Merton, a candidate in the English Department’s American Studies Program. “It’s important politically and has always been important.”
While the novel – which centers on Bechdel’s coming out process and her life with her closeted gay father – was a hit with most of the students in the English 2600: Critical Introduction to English Literary Forms class, Merton said one student objected to the book’s content. As per the university’s religious accommodation policy, which allows students to take an alternate assignment, Merton said she offered to let the student read another book. The U developed the policy in 2004 as part of a settlement with former acting student Christina Axson-Flynn who sued the school in 2000 for being made to take the Lord’s name in vain while performing a scene for class.
Although the student accepted the alternate assignment, a local anti-pornography group soon got word of the story. In mid-March No More Pornography put out a press release calling for the school to ban Fun Home from its curriculum on grounds that the book “depicts accounts of women having oral sex with other women, graphic nudity, and the open account a young woman masturbating.” No More Pornography’s Web site is currently offline, but a Google search engine cache of the press release also revealed that the group accused the university of “creating porn addicts with state tax dollars instead of educating its' [sic] students.”
ANGLICAN Church Grammar School students have been urged to confront the administration over a ban on boys taking gay partners to the senior formal.
A Year 12 student at the prestigious Queensland boys' school, who said he was not gay but that he took up the issue on behalf of his gay mates, told The Courier-Mail: "Let's take this to the administration on the first day back next term. Demand an end to this oppression of the only remaining minority that is still legal to oppress."
The student said when he first raised the subject with a senior teacher, he was told the rules would quietly be changed provided he did not make a big deal about it.
Several students at the school have made it known they want to escort boyfriends to the June 19 formal, but the school is insisting they take a member of the opposite sex.
Headmaster Jonathan Hensman said none of the students had approached him directly, but a staff member had raised the issue on their behalf.
See Pupils urged to fight school's gay ban
NEWS.com.au
SAN MARCOS ---- Josh Lovelace knows firsthand why some Cal State San Marcos students might need a refuge on campus.
"Walking through the hallways, sometimes you'll hear people make homophobic comments," the 29-year-old graduate student and openly gay man said last week. "I'll say, 'Hey, did you know that I'm one of them?' And they say, 'Oh, no, I didn't.' "
Lovelace said he's confident enough with his own sexual identity that homophobic comments typically don't faze him. Even so, he said he welcomed last week's opening of a gay and lesbian center on campus because of the support it will provide to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, as well as to students questioning their sexual identity.
Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays in Commons 201 at the university off Twin Oaks Valley Road, the LGBTQ Pride Center's name reflects the population subgroup it is designed to serve. See SAN MARCOS: CSUSM opens gay, lesbian pride center
North County Times, CA -
Friday, April 25
Breakfast With Scot | MGLFF Opening Night Gala
Breakfast with Scot is a charming, funny and sweet tale of love, family, and embracing who you are.
Rugged and handsome Eric McNally is a former star hockey player with the Toronto Maple Leafs. After an injury forced him to retire, the sexy athlete started a second career, as a successful television sportscaster and things seem to be going pretty well.... more
Director Laurie Lynd and Producer Paul Brown will attend the screening to discuss the film with the audience.
Opening Night After Party.
Join us immediate;y following the Breakfast with Scot screening at the Gusman Center. Capture the spirit of Christmas in April while surrounded by the exotic space and species of Jungle Island... more
Saturday, April 26
First Kisses (Shorts)
The ups and downs of adolescence are highlighted in the dazzling selection of international youth shorts curated for the second year in association with the youth of Pridelines- an educational, supportive and safe environment for GLBTQ teens in Miami-Dade. If you haven't plucked up the courage to kiss the one you want, or you are still unsure about who you are, or which path you want to walk for yourself, then join us. ... more
Friday, May 2
Tru Loved & SHOUT Winning Shorts | HBO and Flamingo South Beach present Movies in the Park
Finally a plucky high school heroine who's neither pregnant nor a cheerleader! In this delightful second feature from Stewart Wade (Coffee Date), Tru is the new girl in a conservative suburban California high school. If she seems a little aloof and way too grown-up, ask her more about her name and you'll find out why. Tru as in Gertrude as in Gertrude Stein, so named by her two overprotective Moms.... more
Director Stewart Wade and Actor Jasmine Guy and Nichelle Nichols will attend the screening to discuss Tru Loved with the audience.
Saturday, May 3
T Is For Tomboy (Shorts)
To stake their identity, the girls in these shorts have to discard pink dresses, long hair and breakdown adult notions of femininity in favor of being who they truly are.... more
Societal rules of right and wrong are explored in this selection of taboo-breaking youth gay shorts. Coming out is complicated when the one you truly love is your best friend, your own brother, and your teacher. Producer Joe Brouilette (Brotherly) will attend the screening to introduce his film.... more
Based on an eponymous yuri manga, director Kôji Kawano's Love My Life features an attractive cast and a pop-driven soundtrack, and follows university students Ichiko and Eri, a couple very much in love - and very much in conflict about their coming out.... more
Sunday, May 4
Were The World Mine | Closing Night Gala & Juried HBO Award Ceremony
As the gay outcast at an all-boys prep school, Timothy (oh-so-cute Tanner Cohen) is of course prone to daydreaming about the handsome jock. But his are no ordinary flights of fancy; they're musical theater extravaganzas, complete with show-stopping songs, dazzling sets, and pirouetting rugby player chorus boys.... more
Director/Writer Tom Gustafson, Writer/Producer Cory Krueckeberg and Actor Tanner Cohen will attend the screening to discuss the film with the audience. Other key actors and crew will also be in attendance.
Closing Night Gala Party & Silent Auction
The final gala event of this year's festival takes place at the Miami Art Space/MAS just recently opened earlier this year and new territory for our LGBTQ community and friends. It's time to kick back for a tasty late bite and one more embrace with our festival family before we call it a year. Stop by after Were the World Mine and stay for the Silent Auction. Valet available.... more
Tickets are selling fast!
Don't be shut out of your favorite movie.
Become a member and you can buy your ticket before the general public and be almost guaranteed a ticket to what is sure to be some sold out movies.
You also get priority seating at the screening.
Check the other benefits.
See Gay film fest announces this year's youth films
MiamiHerald.com, FL
Recruiters from top-notch universities around the country are in San Diego today hoping to attract gay and lesbian students to their campuses. KPBS reporter Ana Tintocalis has more.
Recruiters from Princeton, Georgetown and Penn State visited U-C San Diego to take part in a college fair called Campus Pride. That group also rates how gay-friendly colleges are.
The recruiters handed out information and talked about how their campus is committed to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
See College Recruiters in San Diego Today to Attract Gay Students
KPBS, CA
The gaming site for parents, WhatTheyPlay.com, runs a “Question of the Day” poll that asks visitors to the site (i.e. mostly parents) a question that usually reveals something about people’s general attitudes towards games. Recently, the poll asked “As a parent, which would you find most offensive in a video game?” The results, as you can see to the right, found that more parents would be okay with cursing or even a severed head in video games over hetero-sex and “two men kissing.” Yep, horrific violence just ain’t so bad compared to two adult sharing a passionate moment together. It makes we wonder just how freaky some parents are getting in the bedroom. Interestingly enough, after these results were posted, a Norwegian gaming site decided to run the same poll. Their results were almost the exact opposite, with 65.8% of people saying they’d be most offended by a severed head. Go figure.
See Survey Says: Parents Prefer Violence to Sex and Gay Kissing in ...
Gaming Today, TX -
Next Monday and Tuesday, the transgender community will gather on Capitol Hill to rally for a trans-inclusive ENDA, among other things. The National Center for Transgender Equality will lead the effort, which begins with a day of preparations on Monday and ends on Tuesday with lobbying lawmakers. See Transgender Lobby Day is next week
Michael Bracey
id you walk, cycle or drive past one of Stonewall's recent billboards? If you did then you will probably remember the experience. They were hard to miss. Big, bright red and emblazoned with the uncompromising message: "Some people are gay. Get over it!"
The posters, at some 600 sites across England, Wales and Scotland, were donated by Titan Outdoor Advertising, and continued a campaign aimed at raising awareness of the issue of homophobic bullying. It was developed in collaboration with 150 secondary school pupils and launched back in November last year. A few of the posters were defaced. And more than 50 people found them so unacceptable that they were compelled to make complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) - none of which were upheld. But, on the whole, the public response to the advert has been very positive.
Some people may wonder, then, why we need such a campaign at all. Here's why. According to research carried out by Stonewall, homophobic bullying is almost endemic in schools, with around two-thirds of young lesbian and gay people facing a torrent of abuse.
Nearly all the 1,145 lesbian and gay students who took part in the research reported hearing homophobic insults such as "poof", "dyke", "rug-muncher", "queer" and "bender" at school. For many young people, they have to hear these and other abusive comments every day. And things don't necessarily get any better for them on the other side of the school gates. More than one in five of the young people had experienced bullying via text message.
Too few young people are being told that homophobic bullying is wrong, even though we know that in those schools that have taken a stand and said homophobic bullying is unacceptable, lesbian and gay students are far less likely to be bullied.
Things are changing. Ed Balls, the secretary of state for children, schools and families, has made it clear that homophobic insults should be viewed as seriously as racism, and his department has recently published new guidance for teachers aimed at preventing and responding to homophobic bullying in schools.
But there is still a long way to go. Just last month, a youth worker told me of the abuse they had to deal with when they advertised their lesbian and gay youth group on local buses. They received the first homophobic text messages and calls only two hours after their adverts went up, mainly from young people. It became a daily occurrence.
See Homophobic bullying in schools must stop Guardian
GRAND RAPIDS — After Aquinas College canceled a presentation by philosopher and gay-rights advocate John Corvino, a group of students now is looking for an independent venue to host the speaker.
Corvino's presentation "What's Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?" was scheduled last week at the college, but administrators postponed it until April 22 after receiving complaints.
Aquinas President Ed Balog canceled the event Thursday, saying the Catholic school cannot endorse a program that directly opposes church teachings.
See Aquinas College cancels gay-rights speaker
MLive.com, MI
Also:
· Aquinas's outcry reveals power of Corvino's words, free speech pride source.com
· Corvino cancellation causes chaos at Aquinas pride source.com
Ruling: Gay or straight, it's no business of Roommates.com service
A Web-based roommate-finding service, similar to one operated in person or by telephone, is not permitted under the law to make disclosure of one's a sexual orientation a condition of using the site, a federal appeals court has found. The majority in the 8 to 3 ruling found that, unlike in a search engine, which cannot stop users from typing in a certain query, Roommates.com lost its "immunity" from the law because it permitted the "alleged illegality." Reuters
Mixed-gender college housing goes mainstream
Increasingly, students have the option of sharing a dorm room with a student of the opposite sex. James Baumann of the Association of College and University Housing Officers sees the breakdown of traditional gender lines as a generational issue, saying, "Among Millennial students, whether it's race, gender, or nationality, the borders are coming down. The lines just aren't there anymore." The Boston Globe
Richard Cohen, founder of the International Healing Foundation, made a presentation on “Transitioning from Homosexual to Heterosexual” to an audience comprised of 50-plus gay and lesbian protesters and about 20 supporters of his “Freedom to Choose” theories at Georgia State University April 4, 1991. Cohen’s talk was sponsored by the student group Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles, or CARP, a branch of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church.
Cohen, who claimed to have a male lover for three years, told the audience, “Homosexuality … is the symptom of an emotional problem” and that “the facts do no support this assertion [that gays] were born homosexual.” He presented his own transition from “the pain and suffering of being gay” as support for his thesis.
There were shouts and whistles from protesters throughout Cohen’s talk. Some of the protesters from Queer Nation and ACT UP believed Cohen’s presentation was part of a larger agenda to create a media image of lesbians and gay men as angry, abusive and unwilling to permit free speech. See Protesters disrupt ex-gay speaker at Georgia State
Southern Voice, GA
It's tough enough to be a teenager today, but for Boston teens who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, it can be traumatic. They often deal with homophobic bullying, have alarmingly high school-dropout rates, and many are homeless.
But a unique new program created by Justice Resource Institute (JRI), a nonprofit provider that advocates on behalf of children and adults who experience the greatest barriers to social justice, may give these young people hope.
"A Gateway To Success" was launched today by JRI's Boston Gay & Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (Boston GLASS) Center, with the help of Verizon and IBM.
JRI received a $75,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation and 10 new computers from IBM to support the new initiative, which that will provide workshops to help these young people complete their GEDs.
The program will prepare students by using Thinkfinity.org, the Verizon Foundation's free, comprehensive online portal that features 55,000 educational resources. They include standards-based, grade-specific K-12 lesson plans and interactive tools and materials provided in partnership with many of the nation's leading educational organizations.
"We are grateful for the partnership with the Verizon Foundation and IBM," said Douglas M. Brooks, Vice President of Health Services for JRI. "In many cases, these teens have been forced to leave their homes, and for many of them their education ends when they leave their communities and must devote their time to supporting themselves.
"The support this grant provides will make a meaningful difference in the lives of a diverse group of young people who struggle daily for acceptance and are denied access to basic tools of survival such as a high school education."
Boston GLASS will be the first community-based setting to have a formal agreement with Verizon to use the Thinkfinity program to prepare students for the GED tests to obtain a high school equivalency diploma.
"We understand how important it is for people to have a high school education," said Donna C. Cupelo, Verizon region president of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. "Thinkfinity provides an online platform for students to get the education and training they need to get their GED. We are pleased to partner with IBM, JRI Health and Boston GLASS to use these technology resources to make a difference in the lives of these young people."
"In a global and diverse world, it is important to ensure our young people are educated," said Cathleen Finn, IBM corporate citizenship manager. "Enabling our city's youth to get a basic education can create the foundation they need to build skills and eventually secure meaningful employment."
About Justice Resource Institute
Justice Resource Institute (JRI), founded in 1973, has become one of the Commonwealth's largest providers of services to children and adults with emotional, behavioral, and learning related disabilities. JRI operates a variety of highly regarded educational, residential, and health-related programs, across Massachusetts and in other Northeast states, all aimed at supporting diverse individuals with varying needs. The advent of HIV/AIDS led the institute to create JRI Health in 1991 as a means of expanding its focus to more complex public health issues, including root causes such as homophobia, racism, and economic injustices. For more information, go to http://www.jri.org.
About The Verizon Foundation
The Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, supports the advancement of literacy and K-12 education through its signature program, Thinkfinity.org, and fosters awareness and prevention of domestic violence. In 2007, the foundation awarded more than $67.4 million in grants to nonprofit agencies in the United States and abroad. The foundation also matched the charitable donations of Verizon employees and retirees, resulting in $25.1 million in combined contributions. Through Verizon Volunteers, one of the nation's largest employee volunteer programs, Verizon employees and retirees have volunteered more than 3 million hours of community service since Verizon's inception in 2000. For more information on the foundation, visit http://www.verizon.com/foundation. See GED Program Launches for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Youth
ONE of Queensland's most prestigious boys schools has told final-year students they can't take their gay partners to the senior formal.
Several students at Churchie - the Anglican Church Grammar School - have made it known they want to escort boyfriends to the June 19 formal, but the school is insisting they take a member of the opposite sex.
Churchie headmaster Jonathan Hensman said none of the students had approached him directly, but a staff member had raised the issue on their behalf.
"The senior dinner dance is an opportunity for our young men to escort a young woman in a formal school environment," Mr Hensman said.
"We don't intend to change our practice. As well as being a social occasion, it's an education forum and to that end the school decides what is appropriate behaviour and what is not."
Mr Hensman said the issue had not "formally" arisen in the past, that he could recall, but the question was not unexpected given "the changing times". See Anglican Church Grammar School bans gay partners at formal
NEWS.com.au, Australia -
Since 2006, young LGBT and allied activists engaged in Soulforce Equality Rides have visited 52 colleges and universities with histories and policies of silencing or excluding queer students. The young riders, many of whom come from religious and faith backgrounds, have brought Soulforce's unique style - combining what the group calls a "dynamic 'take it to the streets'" activism with the uncompromising non-violence principles championed by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. - to challenge religion-based and other homophobia, in schools ranging from Bob Jones University in South Carolina to the US Military Academy in upstate West Point.
This fall, roughly 25 activists will embark on a new Equality Ride through the South, and for the first time visit historically black colleges.
As part of its efforts to educate the wider LGBT community about its Equality Ride mission, Soulforce NYC will hold a benefit concert and party next Wednesday, April 16 at 8 pm. at Touch Nightclub, 240 West 52nd Street. The evening's headliner will be Ari Gold, the sexy R&B recording artist, whose own life has been, in part, a story of reconciling his gay identity with a youthful education in an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva.
Two alumni of last year's Equality Ride sat down with Gay City News this week to talk about what their experiences meant to them See 2008's Freedom Riders
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A dispute over a gay student's efforts to donate blood has divided students at a south Kansas high school and prompted plans for a letter-writing campaign against what some consider a discriminatory policy.
The controversy started last fall after Josh Turner, a 17-year-old junior at Winfield High School, was told by representatives from the American Red Cross that he could not donate blood because he was a gay male. When the Red Cross returned Wednesday for another blood drive, some students who supported Turner protested by wearing rainbow patches, a common symbol of gay pride.
Other students who supported the blood drive wore straight pride patches, which showed a picture of a man and woman holding hands. They also printed papers saying gays were not allowed or with such slogans as "Give blood, not AIDS."
Turner said his protest was meant to be peaceful and quiet but the other students, mostly boys, were "very derogatory," causing several verbal fights in school after the blood drive.
The tense atmosphere prompted school officials to invite students to an assembly to discuss the issue, said Superintendent Marvin Estes.
Estes said the point of Wednesday's meeting was to explain that Turner's rejection was based on a U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy that the Red Cross is required to follow.
"This is not a gay-straight issue, although that was the way it was being played out," Estes said. "The student was denied because of the rules in place to screen people who want to give blood."
Turner said he and his supporters want to make the FDA understand that its policy was preventing healthy people from giving much-needed, healthy blood.
Estes said he hoped that Wednesday's meeting, which involved about 250 of the school's 750 students, helped educate the students and calm a divisive situation.
"I'm not going to say that everyone went away from the meeting with a complete, clear understanding of the issues," Estes said. "It was a spirited discussion and we had some kids that are very passionate on both sides of the issue.
"We hope they understand that it wasn't discrimination, it was the rule. If they want to fight the rule, that's fine."
Turner said he didn't think the meeting accomplished much, but he appreciated that Estes and other administrators have offered him their support. He has heard rumors that other students had threatened him but no one has threatened him directly.
"It's always a concern, but I'm not going to let it stop me," Turner said.
The FDA policy excludes males who acknowledge having sex with another male even once since 1977 because they are at an increased risk of carrying HIV, hepatitis and other infections that can be transmitted through transfusions. While acknowledging that improved testing for HIV and hepatitis has greatly reduced the risk of transmitting the diseases, the FDA says its first priority is to protect the safety of the nation's blood supply.
See Red Cross' rejection of gay student sparks protests, conflict
Hays Daily News, KS
A Gilbert high school club that promotes safe schools for gay students says it has been barred this year from spreading the word about the Day of Silence on April 25, an observance meant to raise awareness of bullying.
Students who support or are in the Desert Ridge High School's Gay, Lesbian and Straight club (GLAS) have told the Gilbert Republic they feel the organization is the target of discrimination by the Gilbert Public Schools district and school administrators.
They say they were told three weeks ago by school officials that they couldn't advertise the day's observance or invite students to participate, a right that is given to other school clubs. See Gay support club, school at odds over promotion
Arizona Republic
They've chased star athletes. They've pursued valedictorians. Now colleges and universities are vying for the attention of gay, lesbian and transgender students.
Several Illinois institutions of higher learning Friday will join the likes of Princeton, Yale and other top colleges at the National Gay-Friendly College Fair in San Diego.
Recruiters say the fair and others like it are a budding trend. College and university administrators want prospective students to know their sexuality won't just be allowed on campus, but embraced.
Eric Tammes is among the recruiters planning to attend Friday's fair. Tammes is an assistant vice president for student services at Roosevelt University, which has campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg.
This will be the second fair of its kind Tammes has recruited at. He'll attend a third fair next week at Harvey Milk High School in New York.
See Colleges reaching out to recruit gay, lesbian and transgender students
Chicago Daily Herald, IL
A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit filed by an Okeechobee High School graduate who said she was wrongfully denied the right to start a Gay-Straight Alliance on campus.
The former student, Yasmin Gonzalez, has graduated, so she's no longer affected by the school's decision to ban the club, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore said in a ruling Wednesday. See Judge tosses lawsuit over gay club
Palm Beach Post, United States
Yale, Princeton, Stanford and Penn among the nearly fifty colleges who will be in attendance at the gay-friendly college fair hosted by Camps Pride this Friday, April 11 on the campus of University of California San Diego. The fair is designed specifically for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and straight ally youth and their families who want to find campuses committed to LGBT people. The event is in coordination with the LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index (www.campusclimateindex.org), the only online resource of its kind, which rates LGBT-friendliness at colleges and universities. More information online here.
The event will be held in the Ballroom of the Price Center at University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093 on Friday, April 11 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Nearly fifty colleges and universities from across the United States will be in attendance. In addition, expert presentations will take place throughout the day, which include "Finding Your LGBT-Friendly Campus" by Shane L. Windmeyer, Executive Director of Campus Pride; "The Pros and Cons of Selecting a United States Service Academy: The LGBT Experience" by the U.S. Naval Academy Out Alumni Group, "Navigating the College Admissions Process" by the UC San Diego Office for Admissions and Relations with Schools, "Point Foundation Scholarships" by Point Foundation staff, and "Financing your Education" by the UC San Diego department of Financial Aid. See NATIONAL GAY-FRIENDLY COLLEGE FAIR THIS WEEK
Out In America, OH
AMERICAN FORK — More than 30 people attended a workshop sponsored by the Utah Pride Center Wednesday night, with some saying they wanted to show support for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youths who may find growing up in Utah County difficult.
The workshop for GLBT youths and their families was held in the American Fork Library. It came a little over a week after Stephen Graham of Standard of Liberty addressed parents in the same room of the library about the dangers of same-sex relationships in society.
"I'm here today because I know that there are young people in American Fork that identify as (GLBT), and I am concerned that some of them might not feel safe because of the negative messages they have received," said Rachel McNeil, a youth programs director for the Utah Pride Center. "I want them to know that they are valued and loved, just the way they are."
McNeil, along with Jennifer Nuttall of the Pride Center, gave perspective of GLBT youths who are living in a society that is overcome with what they call heterosexism.
See Gay-youth safety a 'concern'
Deseret News, UT
A middle school principal says he made 'an error in judgment' last week by not more fully discussing a teacher's plan to tell seventh-grade students her sexual orientation during health classes.
South Middle School Principal John Wallace said in a letter to parents of about 125 students in Stephanie Rowe's health classes that parents send their children to school each day 'trusting that we as their educators will make the best decisions as to how to instruct and care for them.'
A high school student won't be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit against his school district for instituting a policy that barred him from expressing his opposition to homosexuality, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 vote, said Boyd County High School student Timothy Morrison failed to show that he was harmed by the policy, which was later changed. See Teen’s lawsuit on his anti-gay opinions tossed
A group of Winfield High School students and a few parents gathered late this afternoon at College Hill Coffee to speak out against the rejection of a gay student by the American Red Cross when he attempted to give blood at a drive held today at the school.
The students are proposing a letter drive to bring the problems to the attention of the authorities, said Michael VanSickle. See Blood drive sparks controversy among WHS students
Winfield Daily Courier, KS
By Daniel Ruth
The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 10, 2008
Only in the parallel universe of the Hillsborough County Commission would the chaplain of this august body take the lead in opposing a daylong student observance promoting the revolutionary concept of (oh, dear) - tolerance.
Yet, there was Commissioner Brian Blair, the Canon of Kennedy Boulevard, issuing his own good ol' boy fatwa to pre-empt a student-led Day of Silence on April 25 to end the homophobic harassment and bullying of gay youth.
This year's Day of Silence is being held to honor the memory of Lawrence King, an eighth-grader from Oxnard, Calif., who was murdered earlier this year because of his sexual orientation.
Students will refrain from speaking for an entire day and hand out cards to explain their brief vow of silence, a gesture, by the way, the commission's archbishop of bumpkins might do well to heed himself.
Clucking Warnings
At the moment, students from at least 25 high schools in the Tampa Bay area are scheduled to participate in the Day of Silence, including Blake, Brandon, Hernando, Pinellas Park and Tampa Bay Tech.
And that has prompted the Chaplain to get into bed with the American Family Association (Let's not push that imagery too much.) to issue hand-wringing, fretting, clucking warnings as to having a Day of Silence to encourage the rather Christian concept of tolerance and love for one's fellow man is really some sort of deep, dark conspiracy of rampant - uh, er, - goodwill?
In an e-mail, the commission's Pope of Podunk, demagogued that: "...no group of citizens should be given a government sanction to promote their social and sexual agenda upon the rest of us and especially, our children."
Lifestyle?
As well, the American Family Association breathlessly alerted parents to incorrectly tell their children: "Homosexual behavior is not an innate identity; it is a sinful, unnatural and destructive behavior. No school should advance a physically, emotionally and spiritually destructive sexual lifestyle to students."
The AFA poppycock is so obtusely wrong on so many levels it rivals the litany of flat-out incorrect predicates for going to war in Iraq. Homosexuality is not a "lifestyle." It is not like voluntarily choosing to become a vegetarian, or a Republican. It is an orientation. It's simply the way people are - born.
And it is precisely this sort of ham-handed ideological ignorance the Day of Silence is attempting to speak to. "Students, gay and straight together, are trying to make their schools safer and more welcoming for students," said Daryl Presgraves, a spokesman for the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.
"People, such as the commissioner, are determined to misconstrue a positive, educational event that brings hope ... the world can be a better place," Presgraves added.
Oh, yeah? Just what about the dark, ominous "sexual agenda," the Chaplain is so pinched about?
"As a heterosexual working for this organization for nearly two years, I guess my gay colleagues don't consider me a true part of the movement," Presgraves, a former Tribune sportswriter, said. "Because I've yet to receive my copy of the homosexual agenda."
See Bishop Blair Issues Fatwa On Silence
Tampa Tribune, FL
