Gay-Straight Alliance clubs e unr attack at schools natnwi - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANC
• GAY-STRAIGHT/GENRS & SEXUALI ALLIANC
• GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANC SCHOOLS
• GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE SU INDIANA SCHOOL OVER UNEQUAL TREATMENT
• SOME US CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS BELIEVE RELIG EEDOM MEANS THEY N FIRE GAY TEACHERS
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• GAY ISSU, SCHOOLS, AND THE RIGHT-WG BACKLASH
• MOSW COURT UPHOLDS 100-YEAR BAN ON GAY PRI EVENTS
• MOSW GAY PRI MARCH BANNED FOR 10TH STRAIGHT YEAR, BUT ORGANIZERS PLAN TO 'HOLD SOME KD OF ACTN'
• RSIA BANS MOSW GAY PRI CELEBRATNS FOR 100 YEARS

GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANC

Your rights to ee speech and associatn clu formg a gay-straight alliance at your a feral law lled the Equal Accs Act (EAA), sendary schools that receive feral fundg and allow meetgs of other non-curricular stunt clubs (clubs that don’t directly relate to class at your school) are prohibed om discrimatg agast any stunt group based on s sendary schools are vered by the Equal Accs Act if they allow even one non-curricular club to meet at the school. 2009: A Yulee, FL school rejected stunts’ applitn for a GSA, objectg to the word “gay” “Gay-Straight Alliance” as well as an unrelated past cint volvg one of the club members before she was at the high school. "Rather than opposg , they began to say, 'Well, if we're gog to teach teenagers about HIV, then we have to make sure that we're not teachg them how to be gay or how to have gay sex or thgs like that, ' " Rosky says.

"Here are five stori that scratch the surface of the Fox Ci' LGBTQ muny and Lambda Lounge: Appleton's first gay barThroughout the late 20th century, gay people primarily found muny through the bar scene, often seen as a safe space for LGBTQ people to socialize. Appleton's first gay bar, the Lambda Lounge, opened downtown 1977 by partners Pl DeB and Gene DeB, Pl's sister, said the two bought the bar om Claire Kempky who ran Doris' Super Bar, a bs wh a reputatn as a hangout spot for gay people. " The bar opened 1977 and was Appleton's first gay the bar wasn't openly advertised as a gay bar for the safety of s patrons, people knew of through word of mouth and natnal gay bar guis, such as the Damron Gui.

Rearcher for the Universy of Wisns-Green Bay's "Our Voic: LGBTQ+ Stori of Northeastern Wisns" Dennis Jab said bar patrons often experienced backlash om Appleton rints who believed homosexualy was wrong and didn't like havg a gay bar patrons were safe to be themselv si the bar, Jabs said people knew to not enter or leave the bar alone as they faced vlence om straight people and many fights took place outsi the bar. However, the Lambda Lounge's prence Appleton paved the way for other LGBTQ bars, such as The ReMixx Neenah, Rasls Appleton and the now-closed Pivot A Neenah LGBTQ club is creatg a growg love for drag shows the Fox CiMore: Rasls has long been a gay refuge AppletonBook clubs allow gay people to fd munyBook clubs have often been a place for people wh shared inti to fd muny while discsg lerature pertag to their liv and provi a safe space for gays and lbians to socialize, Appleton Public Library llectns ordator Michael Nz and Lawrence Universy Profsor Dick Wslow found a book club named the Lavenr Salon 15 years, the group met each Sunday members' hom wh potluck meals and discsns on books and club was exclive to gay people, so members — whether they were openly gay or not — were able to be themselv and safely meet other people the LGBTQ muny.

GAY-STRAIGHT/GENRS & SEXUALI ALLIANC

Participatn the club grew om seven members to over 60 at a time, brgg people om Marette and Sheboygan for the weekly stunts' fight for gay-straight alliance clubDurg the turn of the century, stunts Madison and Milwkee high schools started creatg gay-straight allianc, or GSA clubs, to provi supportive environments for LGBTQ word about the clubs grew, a number of stunts at Neenah High School 2001, cludg Nick Ross — a current Appleton School Board member — wanted to create an official club for LGBTQ stunts to discs experienc and issu they were gog of the stunts were already LGBTQ support groups at the school and the muny, but Ross said was important for them to create an official group to give visibily to LGBTQ stunts and let other stunts know there was a safe space the school to discs their, when the stunts applied for club regnn, Neenah High School Prcipal Mark Duerwaechter nied them, sayg a GSA has polil goals and would go agast district policy, acrdg to Post-Crcent archiv. "It was extremely terrifyg and sry for all the reasons of beg out public as LGBTQ, but also super excg bee we put ourselv out there and ma thgs happen, " Ross Neenah stunts' ph for a GSA and the attentn gathered the Fox Ci spired other stunts to create the club their own schools and a year later all three Appleton high schools had a High School Gay Straight Alliance club om an Oct. "In the last 15 years wh the cy of Appleton, we were dog some pretty active support of LGBTQ folks bee we were tired of seeg teens harmed and havg hate crim our parks, " Flor, who also prevly served as Appleton's diversy ordator, told The first time Appleton got volved LGBTQ issu was 2012 when the cy passed domtic partnership protectn for gay cy employe and their a time when same-sex marriage wasn't legal, domtic partnership benefs allowed cy employe and their partners the same benefs as spo, such as health surance and sick next time the cy got volved LGBTQ issu was Augt 2013 when the cy passed fair hog based on genr inty and exprsn, beg the third cy the state to ban hog discrimatn for transgenr people.

A recent US study found that one five gay and lbian high school stunts reported attemptg suici the prev year — five tim more than straight I was troubled to hear about schools and school boards that do not support stunts who want to start November 2010, the Halton Catholic District School Board near Toronto) banned GSAs. Equy clubs aren’t gog to cut signed to nont homophobic bullyg sound good, but by flectg the purpose away om acceptg GLBT stunts and avoidg the e of words like gay and lbian group nam, the msage to kids is clear: Non-straight inti are not tly accepted by the key rponsibili of schools are flouted when GSAs are not allowed.

The study referred to above found that suici attempts by straight youth were ne percent more likely muni that were unsupportive of gays; the prence of GSAs was one ditor of muny schools that don’t allow GSAs will have a hard time nvcg me — and more importantly their muni — that they are dog everythg possible to ensure the safety and acceptance of non-heterosexual, I’m optimistic.

GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANC SCHOOLS

(Jenn Ackerman /for The Washgton Post)Last year, Cas Elementary School got s first LGBTQ stunt middle and high schools Marysville, Wash., a nservative slice of the state, had long offered Gay-Straight Alliance, or GSA, clubs. One stunt member, who is gay and spoke on the ndn of anonymy out of fear of harassment, said membership temporarily halved as timidated stunts stayed stunt, who said others at school have threatened to ph her down the stairs for beg gay, said that after the drag show ntroversy, other stunts started a mor that the GSA club hir prostut and nicknamed “The Prostute Club. A Gay-Straight Alliance Indiana is sug s school and school district after the club says the school's prcipal banned the group om publicizg s activi or fundraisg for self on lawsu, filed by the Amerin Civil Liberti Unn of Indiana on September 22, claims that Pendleton Heights High School has put unequal burns on Pendleton Heights Gay-Straight Alliance, acrdg to a prs release.

\u201c\ud83d\ua8 BREAKING \ud83d\ua8\n\nWe\u2019re sug on behalf of Pendleton Heights High School stunts who were nied the right to promote their Gay Straight Alliance club on the school's bullet boards or on the school\u2019s rad statn.

GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE SU INDIANA SCHOOL OVER UNEQUAL TREATMENT

"The ACLU of Indiana said that the treatment that the Pendleton Heights Gay-Straight Alliance pared to other stunt groups vlat the Equal Accs Act, the First Amendment, and the Equal Protectn Clse of the Fourteenth Amendment. " The lawsu is askg the urt to require the school and school district "to allow w the Pendleton Heights Gay-Straight Alliance to have the same accs to school facili and avenu of munitn, cludg fundraisg opportuni, provid to curricular and official clubs. Instead, he was terrogated wh a seri of vague, leadg qutns that attempted to get him to adm he was had been out for years – and knew his ntract never stated he uldn’t be gay and teach at Valor – but shame-filled memori of his closeted years as a young man rose up that moment, as his job slipped away.

”The offer they ma was for Tonga to attend some form of “nversn therapy”, and when he returned to announce he isn’t gay, cut off ntact wh his fiance, scb his social media of any support for the LGBTQ muny, and nounce his support for them before the school. Outrage on the part of stunts, parents, alumni and alli over Tonga losg his job for beg gay is part of a s-long battle between anti-discrimatn laws and the right of private Christian schools (of which there are approximately 34, 500 the US alone) to relig sce the 1964 Civil Rights Act threatened the tax-exempt stat of Christian schools who refed to racially tegrate, relig schools the US have tangled wh social jtice activists seekg equal protectns for mory stunts and employe.

A nearly intil scenar volvg a gay mic teacher fired om a Catholic school played out only a short distance away at the same issue is further plited stat like Florida – where the le between public school and private relig school is sometim blurred. Steven Arz, a sixth-gra history teacher, found himself fired om a Seventh Day Adventist school – which is publicly fund wh $1m a year tax dollars and creds – after he was featured a Gay Wh Kids article where he discsed his adopted son. ”Block and the ACLU have found some succs ligatg the month, a feral judge led that the firg of the North Carola teacher Lonnie Billard om a Catholic school for beg gay was a vlatn of the Civil Rights Act, shuttg down the school’s attempt to argue that they had a relig exemptn om the law.

SOME US CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS BELIEVE RELIG EEDOM MEANS THEY N FIRE GAY TEACHERS

”This laid the groundwork for the followg generatn of evangelil lears such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Tim LeHay, who partnered wh the Republin party to stir up anger around issu evangelils prevly red ltle about, like abortn, dgs and the rights of women and gays. Campaigns to overturn gay rights legislatn like “Save Our Children” Florida (led by evangelil superstar Ana Bryant), or California’s Prop 6, which sought to ban gay men and lbians om teachg public schools, both equated homosexualy wh pedophilia and acced gay teachers of beg sexually motivated their reer the villas were new, the tactic of gng up basels fears had been the rnerstone of whe flight to Christian schools a Jon Universy’s lack of black stunts was rooted s ban on terracial datg.

When the universy eventually tegrated 1971, allowed only married black stunts to attend, and 1975 allowed sgle black stunts but nied “admissn to applints engaged an terracial marriage or known to advote terracial marriage or datg” openly opposg racial tegratn eventually beme an effective tool for galvanizg evangelil voters – replaced by racist dog-whistl – gays tegratg themselv to the Amerin fay remaed a potent touchstone for the Christian right.

“In 2004, evangelil lears were nng out of money and their voters had been fallg away, so they all got a room together to ci what issu would brg their flock back to the fold, and they cid on gay marriage, ” says Fzgerald. “And so they flood the natn wh anti–gay marriage ballot measur, and that not only helped get Gee W Bh elected to a send term, but the ballot measur sometim performed better than he did … They were agast gay people prciple, but they also thought gay teachers were a bigger threat to kids than anythg.

'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

Through their Gay Straight Alliance (which has to meet off mp) and a list of mands for school learship, the group aims to make their school a place where all stunts n feel safe and Guardian reached out to Valor high school to ment on Tonga and Valor for Change, but did not receive a ’s a mister?

”So if Valor Christian high school wanted to say that bee Inoke Tonga, for example, led his stunts a prayer before a volleyball game, or spoke of the holy spir guidg them durg a game, uld his firg for beg gay fall unr a misterial exemptn om discrimatn laws? By llectg film footage of young children makg sense of homosexualy and grapplg wh the discrimatn and bigotry faced by lbians, gay men, and bisexuals, the filmmakers provi a powerful refutatn to the right’s “children n’t al wh homosexualy” rhetoric.

Yet most tors gay, lbian, bisexual, or heterosexual who are grapplg wh the issue do not teach the large urban centers (New York and San Francis) or liberal llege towns (Cambridge or Madison) featured It’s Elementary. In rponse to the formatn of a gay-straight alliance to provi peer support to lbian, gay, and bisexual youth at Salt Lake Cy’s East High School, the school board banned all stunt clubs and associatns not formally tied to school curricula. Inspired by a “pro-fay” rolutn drafted by Beverly LeHaye, print of Concerned Women of Ameri, the school board of Elizabethtown, Penn., adopted a rolutn nmng var fay forms cludg sgle-parent fai, extend fai, and lbian and gay fai.

GAY ISSU, SCHOOLS, AND THE RIGHT-WG BACKLASH

In October, 1996, the Palmer High School newspaper clud two stunt-iated articl about gay issu, a ont-page story on the trials facg lbian and gay youth a hostile culture, and an edorial supportg same-sex marriage. Issu span a broad spectm: openly gay and lbian teachers and prcipals, out-of-the-closet stunts who are anizg for their rights, lbian mothers leadg PTAs, explic sex tn and AIDS preventn curricula which al head-on wh gay male sexualy. In Idaho, the state supertennt of public stctn threatened this wter to return $80, 000 feral fundg for HIV/AIDS tn, sistg on an “abstence only” policy which effectively wr off gay male youth as an expendable populatn.

MOSW COURT UPHOLDS 100-YEAR BAN ON GAY PRI EVENTS

In Mosto, Calif., anti-gay anizers lnched an attack on teachers planng to attend a regnal nference on gay issu schools the sprg of 1996 and sisted that no district funds be ed for this kd of staff velopment.

A few weeks after an Arkansas youth was harassed and vicly attacked an anti-gay mpaign by his peers last fall, Jamie Nabozny, a young gay man om Wisns, won nearly $1 ln damag om his high school for failg to protect him om years of peer abe.

Durg a time when 52% of school board members the Uned Stat intify themselv as relig nservativ, the Harvard Edutnal Review, arguably the natn’s leadg journal on amic rearch, published a special issue (Summer 1996) foced on gay, lbian, and bisexual issu schools. Th ’s not surprisg that as gay issu have moved om visible (1960), to socially margal (1970), to part of a “liberal agenda” (1980), to a central place mastream polil bate (1990s), the anti-gay right wg has shifted tactics and re-energized and revented s attacks. In the 20 years sce Ana Bryant and California Senator John Briggs first brought gay issu schools to the public bate, both the right wg and the gay and lbian movement have creased sophistitn, rourc, and anizatnal know-how.

MOSW GAY PRI MARCH BANNED FOR 10TH STRAIGHT YEAR, BUT ORGANIZERS PLAN TO 'HOLD SOME KD OF ACTN'

“The mpaign to teach school children and teens that ‘gay is OK’ benefs om the ual ordatn of a uned ‘gay’ movement which has the advantage of prsg for a sgle radil goal, vers s pro-fay opponents who face a multiplicy of challeng. Parents who simply want a good tn for their children are creasgly nonted wh the prospect of seeg prec tnal rourc spent on talkg about homosexualy, and they are drawn to time-nsumg and divisive bat over this issue.

RSIA BANS MOSW GAY PRI CELEBRATNS FOR 100 YEARS

Suzanne Pharr, her powerful new book, In the Time of the Right: Reflectns on Liberatn, argu that the issue of homosexualy “provid a major source of fundraisg for the Right’s anizatns as well as their bt vehicle for changg the untry’s thkg about civil rights.

Pharr shows how homophobia is ed to divi and agment muni of lor, “stroy the potential for multi-issue movement buildg, ” and allow the right wg to ga a toe-hold new spher where n then lnch mpaigns for s broar and more far-reachg agenda. They’ve succsfully done this circumstanc rangg om a gay teacher gettg “married” to a same sex partner, to the troductn of Gay, Lbian, and Bisexual History Month as a curricular feature, to AIDS groups offerg preventn tn for youth schools. Skillful anizg by right-wg activists ploys stereotypg and spegoatg as weapons tend to enurage cizens to channel a range of anxieti and misgivgs about their lol schools but even about extraneo non-school issu to triggerg the gay issue.

Lbians and gay men ntue to be margalized and spegoated, but broar philosophil and pedagogil qutns swiftly emerge: elimatn of all sex tn, opposn to pedagogi tend to strengthen cril thkg, attacks on the teachg of whole language, nsiratns of expand privatizatn of schoolg, challeng to multicultural history uns.