Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 06:00:09 -0800 From: jessea@uclink2.berkeley.edu (Jessea NR Greenman) Subject: Proposed Health Curriculum Just Barely `Gay Friendly' ATTN EDITORS: Contact: Mary Ann Swissler, 3833 Telegraph Ave., #16, Oakland, CA 94609, (510) 597-1803 for payment arrangements. Copyright 1995. [Uploaded at the author's request, since she is not on-line to do it herself.] Proposed Public School Health Curriculum Just Barely `Gay Friendly' Activists Charge By Mary Ann Swissler A teen suicide video included in a proposed health class curriculum for state middle schools never once mentions lesbian and gay teens, despite statistics into the problem which ought to frighten every education official dealing with junior high and high school students. Apparently not, judging from the final selection by the state curriculum commission which will wind its way to the even more conservative State Board of Education on September 7 and 8. While the Glencoe/McGraw-Hill health curriculum mentions gays and lesbians at various points throughout their multi media text, a solid understanding of the health issues of gay and lesbian teens will probably be drowned in the undertow of increasingly lax state and federal controls, according to San Jose elementary school teacher and educational equity activist John Lindner. He said the Health Framework, which he and The PERSON Project supporters persuaded the curriculum commission to frame in a way that would include tolerance and dignity of queers, could be useless in the face of watered down equity mandates by the state and federal departments of education, and a tepid treatment of the subject in the only book that stands a chance of getting into the hands of eighth and ninth grade teachers and students. Lindner, who also sits on the board of the Billie DeFrank Center lamented, "It mentions it in very peripheral ways, but not in the main text." Publisher's representatives from Glencoe/McGraw-Hill in New York did not return phone calls. Predictably, the fight could come down to dramatic debates over the rights or wrongs of homosexual acts. Educational equity activists said their main goal is not to include gay issues into K-12 sex education lessons, as many on the curriculum commission and State Board of Education believe. State mandates to teach "mutually monogamous, heterosexual marriages" would remain in place, according to Jessea Greenman of The PERSON Project. The only difference they have sought is to give teachers permission and the tools to provide lesson plans about gay relationships as a way to address health issues of queer youth and kids from gay families. "This has got nothing to do with sex acts. It's more of a minority issue with its own unique set of health issues," said an emphatic Greenman. A documented heightened abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use, along with a higher than average rate of high school drop outs, suicide, and running away among queer youth are legitimate topics that still elude the classroom, she said. Without institutionalized change they always will, added Greenman. Predictably, according to the religious right such as Beverly Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, it's got everything to do with recruitment into gay sex. Sheldon offered up stern warnings about recommendations found in The Health Framework, at July 27 curriculum commission hearings in Sacramento. That document contained hard fought wins from 1992 public hearings in which both the religious right and queer education equity activists testified in person, by mail or fax. According to Nancy Sullivan, of the Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Office, publishers are evaluated against the seven separate criteria found in the Framework. But while they have given their nod to a program which offers a positive, although limited introduction to health issues of gays and lesbians, Sullivan told activists not to assume the same attitudes will prevail at the State Board level. "There isn't anything to lead me to believe they would act contrary to the commission's recommendations." Sullivan said, "Local choice wins out," adding that health is not even a mandatory class; even HIV education is required only once in junior high and once again in high school. And according to The PERSON Project co-founder Jessea Greenman, State Superintendent Delaine Eastin reminded her staff last February how local school boards would retain the ultimate control over curriculums. Worse, Greenman said, the state has tried to ignore its own mandates of leadership, mandates which have traditionally been outlined in frameworks. In letters last May, Board President Marion McDowell attempted to pass off the Health Framework's effect on the content included by text manufacturers as an ugly rumor. In fact, when marketing their programs to the state commission, according to documents reviewed by this reporter, each company goes to great pains to match up their curriculum package with nine subject areas mandated by the state. Further these are reflected at length in the Health Framework. Greenman said, "At the same time the State Department of Education says that it *does* have a role -- to set standards, provide excellent curricula and exert leadership--they are abdicating their self professed leadership role." Lindner commented that at the classroom level, the best way to handle the topic is through addressing the family. "If you have families with two dads or two moms, how families are organized is something that should be addressed." The state education code for sex education, which practically forbids frank discussions nowadays, is different from how you gather information about family structures, he said. "Discussing family structures is not the same as sex education....There's nothing in the Health Framework directing publishers to discuss family structure, but there is language about sexual orientation and different family structures: `Children from non-traditional families can also develop successfully. Given the variety of non-traditional families in contemporary society it is important that children not reared in two parent families be convinced that their situation can also be conducive to growth and development. Further it is important that children not be denigrated because of their family living arrangements or the composition of their families.' " Unfortunately, it will take the hard work of human rights organizations concerned with sexual orientation rights to make sure the spirit of the Health Framework is preserved in classroom lesson plans. Along with P-FLAG, and the Gay and Lesbian Straight Teachers Network, the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association both have Gay Caucuses. "A World of Difference" (tolerance courses for younger children) has come out with a supplement after years of exclusion of gay issues by the curriculum publishers, the Anti-Defamation League. For more information on California health framework or Board of Education issues, call The Person Project at (510) 601-8883 or email the Project at . *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ PLEASE FEEL FREE TO RE-POST OR PRINT, WITH ATTRIBUTION Jessea Greenman The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project*; ph/fax: 510-601-8883 586 62nd St. Oakland, CA 94609-1245 To get to our gopher, gopher to "gopher.outright.com" Point a web browser at http://www.outright.com/project21 Another Web site, courtesy of "Gay & Lesbian Web Alliance": URL: http://emanate.com/glwa/proj21 The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project is *always* looking for volunteer organizers. If interested, please contact Jessea as shown above. Please cc us on all correspondence you send or receive regarding one of our action alerts...we file it ALL! Thanks! *The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project was formerly called Project 21 but it is no way connected with GLAAD. P.E.R.S.O.N. (copyrighted) stands for Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally.