Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 18:06:20 -0700 From: Ron Buckmire Subject: LOU SHELDON TARGETS L.A. YOUTH ****************************************************************************** *********************** Los Angeles Unified School District GAY AND LESBIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION 450 N. Grand Ave. Room H-242 Los Angeles, CA 90012 213/625-6392 Sidney A. Thompson Superintendent of Schools Kathy J. Gill Director FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kathy Gill 213/625-6392 9/22/95 LOU SHELDON TARGETS L.A. STUDENTS A gay youth conference, held annually at Occidental College, Eagle Rock, is one of several school-district programs coming under Congressional attack, owing to the politics of ultra-right-wing activist Lou Sheldon and his Traditional Values Coalition (TVC). The Oct. 14 Models of Pride Conference -- expected to attract 350-500 gay youth, ages 15-23, who are already out and looking for positive support and information -- is sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Education Commission of the L.A. Unified School District. GLEC is the only such commission in the U.S., and was created to advise the L.A. Board of Education on the dire needs of gay students in the district. Simultaneously, on Oct. 13, the House committee on reform, chaired by Rep. Peter Hoekstra, will begin hearings to investigate what Sheldon called (in a recent letter to the TVC) the "infiltation of the homosexual agenda within the public schools." The hearings are the result of a promise that Sheldon extracted from House leader Newt Gingrich, and are viewed by the TVC as a "golden opportunity." Sheldon wants Congress to deny federal funds to any school district that tolerates sexual diversity. Sheldon's letter to his constituents places LAUSD, and its gay commission, at the top of his hit list for the McCarthy type hearings. The list also includes the National Education Assn., as well as districts in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Iowa, Virginia. But it is LAUSD that rouses Sheldon's biggest ire, because of its reputation as progressive, its uniquely broad support of gay students, and its lure as a symbolic target. This second-largest school district in the U.S., located in a vast city whose large youth population is swollen by homeless street kids, faces a unique array of problems. Here, a gay kid may face ethnic bias in addition to being gay-bashed at school or driven from home by searing homophobia. To meet the needs of gay dropouts, the Board of Education offers two gay continuation-school programs, EAGLES Center in western L.A. and Frida Kahlo School in "East Los." Many shelter kids enroll themselves, walking in off the street. Other EAGLES and Kahlo students are enrolled by concerned parents who fear for their offsprings' lives in mainstream schools. The EAGLEs program is only 4 years old, yet can show outstanding graduates who pulled their lives together, and went on to scholarships, awards, careers and jobs. Other features -- Project 10, a voluntary counseling program in 30 of its 40 high schools; access to real-world information on AIDS; Gay Pride Month in the schools; a district-wide Gay Prom; the Models of Pride Conference -- round out a district policy that pleases out gay kids but angers Lou Sheldon. To cap it all, LAUSD has a hate-crime policy that mandates punitive action against any prepetrating student or educator. Sheldon would dismantle this policy, viewing it as a shelter for "homosexual promotion." GLEC's position is that every student has a basic human right to attend school in a safe environment, free from the threat of any physical, emotional, mental or spiritual harm. "This right," says director Kathy Gill, "must necessarily be inclusive, so as to be extended to each and every student in LAUSD." Joining with PFLAG and other national organizations, GLEC is demanding that the hearings be cancelled. At this date, the House committee has not yet scheduled any equal time for gay students or educators to testify, though they have evidently scheduled a full phalanx of "expert witnesses" who will present their "facts" to the House committee. "It is essential," Sheldon told TVC, "that every parent hear the atrocities of what has happened." A handful of L.A. gay students, who have their own view of what constitutes an "atrocity," are yet hopeful that they may travel to D.C. to testify. As the battle is joined in Washington, several hundred gay kids will converge on Occidental College for a Saturday of fun and learning, with workshops on everything from ethnicity to living independently as a minor after your parents throw you out. --- RON BUCKMIRE, Ph.D. http://www.math.oxy.edu/~ron Mathematics Department, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, L.A., CA 90041 buckmire@oxy.edu||+1 213 259 2536 (vox)||+1 213 341 4966 (fax) Check out the Queer Resources Directory