Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 06:36:55 -0700 (PDT) From: jessea@uclink4.berkeley.edu (Jessea NR Greenman) Subject: TG and youth protest GID at APA(Chicago) || Models of Pride (LA) || report onOct. 15 Etown PA School Bd. Mtg. || ME Attorney General does NOT have email! frmo GLAADLINES October 15 '96 contact: Don Romesburg (415) 861-2244 romesburg@glaad.org http://www.glaad.org INHUMANE PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS MET WITH PROTEST: Transgender people and lesbian and gay youth from around the country will protest in Chicago on October 19 at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) conference. They will challenge the APA's use of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) to diagnose a disease and stigmatize individuals who transcend gender norms. Additionally, activists will educate the public and the psychiatric community about the ways that GID is being used to hospitalize and victimize teenagers who identify as transgender, lesbian, gay and bisexual. For more information contact Riki Anne Wilchins (GenderPAC) at (212) 645-1753, e-mail: riki@pipeline.com. GAY YOUTH CONFERENCE: A MODEL OF PRIDE: A conference for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth called Models of Pride IV will be held on October 19 at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the conference is in its forth year. Workshops will include coming out, health issues, gay art, bisexual and transgender issues, career planning, as well as two GLAAD-run workshops on images in media. A panel with speakers such as Wilson Cruz (My So-Called Life, Johns) and a dance will conclude the event. For more information contact Kathy J. Gill (Gay & Lesbian Education Commission of the LAUSD) at (213) 625-6392 or Bart Verry (Models of Pride) (213) 341-4951, e-mail: verry@oxy.edu. =========== =========== (Please address all responses and inquiries to the originator of this article, listed below) ELIZABETHTOWN (PA) SCHOOL BOARD RECEIVES TONGUE-LASHING FROM THE COMMUNITY Dozens of residents of the Elizabethtown Area School District lined up at two microphones this evening to express their views to the school board during its public comments section of the agenda. For the more than one hour and forty minutes that this visitor sat to listen, all but two citizens rose to address the board on its recent "pro-family" resolution and of these only three spoke in support. Reading from a prepared statement, the board president began the session by apologizing for any misunderstanding the resolution may have caused. His comments did not appease the members of the community. Throughout the evening, the board sat stone-faced as it listened to citizen after citizen and student after student express their dissatisfaction not only with the discriminatory content of the resolution but with the negative media attention this incident has brought on this rural community in south central Pennsylvania. An early speaker, identifying himself as a lifelong, staunch Republican and "no friend of the NEA" (referring to the NEA resolution that allegedly prompted the board's action) condemned the board's unrealistically traditional concept of family as a husband, wife and their children which excluded him because he has stepchildren. In a particularly emotional moment, the mother of a speech and hearing impaired child compared the board's resolution to public attitudes of not too many decades ago when her child would be considered "deaf and dumb" and incapable of making a meaningful contribution to society. She went on to express how so many peoples' lives were enriched by her bright, intelligent daughter despite her disability. She concluded by teaching the board the difference between "me" and "we" as so eloquently symbolized in sign language. An eighth grade student welcomed the widespread attention as an opportunity to focus awareness on the need for equal rights for all people. He thanked the outside groups, mostly representing regional gay and lesbian organizations, who held rallies before and during the meeting. One eloquent and particularly informed speaker after recounting policy after policy the board by its very actions had broken, placed on the stage completed letters of resignation for each to sign. Her action brought a standing ovation from supporters. While three citizens thanked the board for the passage of the resolution, the evening clearly belonged to those who denounced the board and its actions as intolerant, discriminatory, unconstitutional, and a reflection of personal beliefs rather than representative of the citizens of the community. Many members spoke with regret at how the board's resolution has drawn attention away from the task at hand, that of educating the students of the district. Time and time again the board was asked to rescind its action. As the board president resisted responding to questions by continually referring to the session as one for public comment only, Elizabethtown residents and others across Pennsylvania and the county must continue to await an outcome to this issue. Jerry Vath JVath@aol.com ========= ========= [this just in from trimikeg@aol.com...] "I recently faxed a letter to the Maine Attorney General because his email address did not work. When I called, I also inquired about the email address and received the response that he does not have email." *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ OK TO RE-POST. Jessea NR Greenman, The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project is an all-volunteer effort CHECK OUT OUR FREE INFO-LOADED WEB PAGE AT http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/ "Most of the change we think we can see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor." Robert Frost