PFLAG Launches First-Of-Its-Kind Safe Schools Initiative & Training Program

FROM PFLAG ONLINE NEWSROOM:

December 10, 2008

Community-Based Program Will Train Local Leaders to Work with Schools on LGBT Issues

Washington, DC – Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) launched a comprehensive, community-based safe schools program today to address a growing epidemic of anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) animus in the nation’s schools. The program, entitled Cultivating Respect, includes training seminars for local parents and allies, empowering PFLAG supporters at the local level to work directly with their community leaders and school administrators to protect LGBT students. PFLAG plans trainings across the country in 2009, following initial training sessions held earlier this year in Ohio and Tennessee.

“Too many students attend school in fear, and too few school administrators and leaders understand just how damaging a hostile learning environment can be for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people,” said Jody M. Huckaby, PFLAG’s executive director. “Cultivating Respect is the very first program designed to identify and mobilize a grassroots network of parents and allies to take an active role in combating anti-gay behavior, policies, information and environments in their local schools. When children do not feel safe, they cannot learn, and their school experience becomes fraught with the long-lasting effects of unchecked hostility. By working with local parents and local administrators, Cultivating Respect addresses community and school-specific concerns. This is a significant step forward in making our classrooms, hallways and locker rooms safer for every student.”

The PFLAG training, which builds on the organization’s prior work in schools across the country, includes insights on fostering on-going dialogues with local school leaders; approaching administrators about implementing safe schools policies; skills building seminars on language, policy and problem solving in schools; identifying and leveraging access points within the school community; and training on three specific programs that can be implemented in local schools. The program is also designed to counter harmful, anti-gay campaigns by conservative advocacy groups, including attempts to infiltrate libraries with anti-gay literature and information on so-called “reparative therapy” practices, which have been condemned by medical experts. A workbook on LGBT school issues, titled The Top 10 Ways to Make Schools Safer for All Students, was also released today in conjunction with the training and outreach program.

“It is critically important that students, teachers, parents and administrators have accurate, inclusive information and materials about sexual orientation and gender identity,” said Huckaby. “Anti-family advocates are pushing an extreme, anti-gay agenda that seeks to mislead adults and ultimately undermine the well-being of the countless LGBT young people who deserve a healthy learning environment, too. This new program asks those responsible for the well-being of our children to listen, think, act and be respectful of every member of our families.”

According to statistics compiled by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 73.6% of LGBT students hears derogatory remarks such as “faggot” or “dyke” frequently or often at school. More than half (60.8%) reported feeling unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation, and more than a third (38.4%) felt unsafe because of their gender expression. An overwhelming 86.2% of students reported being verbally harassed.

“Hostile classrooms and campuses impact every member of the school community.” Huckaby concluded, “From LGBT students, to those perceived to be, and even young people who are denied the opportunity to learn because of the distractions presented by anti-gay behavior, the consequences of not dealing with these issues reach far and wide. Now, at last, parents have the tools they need to work directly with their local leaders to stand up for every young person, including those who are LGBT or are impacted by these behaviors.”

For more information on Cultivating Respect, including .pdf copies of The Top 10 Ways to Make Schools Safer for All Students, visit www.pflag.org.

Media Contact:

Steve Ralls
(202) 467-8180, ext. 214
sralls@pflag.org

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HRC’s “Equally Speaking” Transcript: 12/3/08

Via the Human Rights Campaign Newsroom:

The following is a transcript of HRC’s morning news webcast “Equally Speaking.” To view the current videos visit the main Equally Speaking page.

12/3/2008

Good morning, and thanks for tuning in to Equally Speaking, your morning dose of LGBT news from the Human Rights Campaign for Wednesday, December 3rd. I’m Brad Mayer.

And I’m Frank November. First up, news from HRC.

Earlier this week, HRC announced that it was joining forces with federal employee groups to urge the Office of Personnel Management to support domestic partner benefits for federal civilian employees. The announcement is timed with the federal government’s “open season,” when federal employees and retirees are allowed to make changes to their health benefit plans. Domestic partners of federal civil servants are not extended health, dental, vision and flexible spending benefits.

Now to news from England, where a lesbian soldier has been awarded over three hundred and eighty thousand dollars in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Lance Bombardier Kerry Fletcher was the subject of long-term harassment from a sergeant who wanted her to have sex with him. The payout was the largest ever imposed by a workers’ rights board in Britain, though the amount was half of what Fletcher sought.

Binghamton, New York town council members are considering comprehensive anti-discrimination laws that would include provisions for sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity. Members of the transgender community and their allies spoke out at a town council meeting earlier this week, encouraging town officials to pass the law, which would apply to employment, housing and public accommodations. It would also protect against discrimination based on height and weight, age, race, religion, and national origin.

And on Monday in Kalamazoo, Michigan, members of the city commission made it illegal to discriminate in housing, public accommodations and employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. The measure was similar to one that has already been adopted by fifteen other Michigan cities. The unanimous vote was lauded by LGBT advocates, who said the time has come for more cities to pass similar laws.

In other news, a former police officer in Missouri was convicted on Monday of first-degree murder in the death of a gay college student with whom he was having an affair. Twenty eight year old Steven Rios, a married father, was convicted of killing Jesse Valencia last June. Rios was reportedly concerned that their affair would be made public. He now faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Finally this morning, Cyndi Lauper’s world tour, which was set to end in Caracas, Venezuela, has been cut short. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has reportedly canceled the concert because of Lauper’s support of LGBT rights. In a statement, Chavez said that he feared political protests due to Lauper’s appearance. Lauper, a participant in last spring’s True Colors tour and a friend of HRC, was touring on behalf of her latest album, Bring Ya to The Brink.

That’s the news from us today. Thanks for tuning in to Equally Speaking.

Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow morning.

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Bay Area Reporter: Groups push national AIDS strategy

FROM THE BAY AREA REPORTER:

By Matthew S. Bajko

The United States could have a national strategy for combating AIDS by 2010 under a proposal numerous AIDS agencies are pushing President-elect Barack Obama to adopt. It would mark the first time the country had a coordinated policy in place to combat an epidemic that has ravaged the gay community, in particular, for 27 years.

Along with a national AIDS strategy, the groups are also urging Obama to resurrect the White House Office on National AIDS Policy and appoint a new “AIDS czar” to oversee the office. They also want to see the person be given budgetary authority over the more than $23 billion in federal money spent on HIV prevention and care for people living with HIV and AIDS.

The last person to oversee the office, Carol Thompson, stepped down in February 2006 and it has been vacant ever since. At least two names are being floated as a potential AIDS czar: Dr. Helene Gayle, who served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention between 1995 and 2001; and Jesse Milan Jr., chairman of the Los Angeles-based Black AIDS Institute.

Both Gayle and Milan are African American and have extensive resumes in terms of combating HIV and AIDS. Gayle is now president and CEO of CARE, which focuses on poverty issues facing women throughout the world. A spokeswoman told the Bay Area Reporter that, “Dr. Gayle has not been inclined to speculate about appointments.”

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Dallas Voice Film Review: ‘Noah’s Arc’ fans won’t be disappointed with big-screen adaptation

From the Dallas Voice:

By Steve Warren Contributing Film Critic
Nov 26, 2008 – 2:19:48 PM

Essentially a black gay male West Coast version of “Sex and the City,” “Noah’s Arc” ran for two successful seasons on Logo. Now, like “Sex and the City,” “Noah’s Arc” spawns a feature film follow-up.

“Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom” picks up several months after the cliffhanger that ended Season Two and neatly wraps things up — but not so neatly that things can’t fall apart again for a third season.

Series fans will be glad to hear that the film takes place on the weekend Noah (Darryl Stephens) is finally marrying Wade (Jensen Atwood). For a change of scene, the gang heads to Martha’s Vineyard, where Wade’s family owns a house that’s big enough for all of them.

“Life is not a soap opera,” Ricky (Christian Vincent) says. But “Noah’s Arc” is, and five minutes never pass without some individual or couple going through a crisis that’s resolved as quickly as it began. You have to consider an overview of the series to find any depth, because each episode — and this feature is paced like any episode but four times as long — is made up of one shallow moment after another.

Ricky, the ultimate non-monogamist, brings a trick along for the weekend: Brandon (Gary LeRoi Gray), a 19-year-old student of Chance’s (Douglas Spearman), who makes the thirtysomething friends suddenly seem a lot older than they did.

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