Date: Sat, 11 May 1996 06:49:13 -0700 (PDT) From: jessea@uclink4.berkeley.edu (Jessea NR Greenman) Subject: Seeking *Your* input for first-ever database of high school GLBT? groups [model organizing effort] {note from The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project: we believe the message below to be one of the most important we've ever sent out. it represents the first major effort of which we are aware to link high school LGBT? groups with one another. this first effort focuses on California, but it can serve as a model for folks in other states to do the same. The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project is eager to serve as a national repository for such information, so we welcome participation from all states in this effort. Please *do* especially let your colleagues in CA know about this project, as well. THANKS! } ------------------ Dear Friend, I am writing to request your help. I am a senior in high school and the co- founder and former co-president of the Gay and Lesbian Awareness Group (GLAG) at an independent K-12 school in Oakland, California. I am working with the Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally Project (PERSON) to create a database containing information about high school groups, like GLAG, formed to work for gay rights and support gay students. The database will include each group's name, their school, their contact person, their postal and/or e-mail addresses, and a brief description of how they got started, how they operate, what problems they have faced, and what goals they have set. At present, I am focusing my efforts on gathering information about such groups in California high schools, but I expect later to take this endeavor to a national level and will welcome participation by out-of-state groups. I will make the database available to all participating groups, as well as to any GLBT? organizations or individual defenders of gay rights who express an interest. My ultimate goal is to create a means for the groups on the list to communicate, exchanging information about resources or tips about group operation, or even to unite these groups into a larger coalition. I got your e-mail address from Jessea Greenman, the head of the PERSON Project, who is my supervisor. She thought that you might be a helpful resource in my search for groups who wish to participate in this project -- perhaps you know of high school GLBT? groups, or you can suggest other ways for me to seek them out. Any ideas you can offer will be a great help. It would also be wonderful if you could spread the word to your colleagues - - the more people with whom I can get in touch, the more high school groups I can find. Additionally, I hope to enlist the help of organizations on college campuses -- students in these organizations may know about groups at local high schools, or they may be able to refer me to groups at the schools from which they graduated. Please respond as soon as you are able, because I'm eager to begin compiling the database, and because I have a June 6 deadline for this school-related project. E-mail can be sent to elly@ptn.com, but if this mode of communication is inconvenient for you, you can call (510) 486-0685, fax (510) 549-2324, or send regular mail to P. O. Box 5313, Berkeley, CA 94705. If you are interested in receiving a copy of this database for use in your own work once its "first edition" has been completed (although I hope that it will need regular updates over the years to come), please include this request in your response. Also, please let me know how I can contact you (if you feel comfortable doing so) so that I can ask any necessary follow-up questions about the information you send me. Thank you for your help, Elly Matsumura: elly@ptn.com *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ OK TO RE-POST. Jessea Greenman The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) CHECK THIS OUT FOR TONS OF INFO - - http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/ Please cc us (for our files) on correspondence you send or receive re our action alerts.