Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 15:36:33 -0700 From: richter@eecs.berkeley.edu (Jean Richter) Subject: 8/11/97 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. CA: LG parents' group seeks k-5 lesson plans 2. IN: Controversial poster to stay in high school classroom 3. ABA article: Where are the civil rights for gay and lesbian teachers? 4. NY: New York Post denigrates gay & lesbian studies =================================================================== Date: Sat, 9 Aug 1997 07:58:44 -0700 (PDT) From: KIM KLAUSNER Subject: LG parents' group seeks lesson plans for K-5 I am a member of a gay parents group at a public, spanish immersion elementary school in SF and wanted to share our work with you in the hopes that you could spread the word about what we're doing and so we don't duplicate the work others are doing. We have been active at our school educating the teachers and parents about why gay isses should be taught to kids. We have helped teachers, or taught ourselves, lessons in every grade; last year each grade made one stripe of a rainbow banner, which hung in the entryway in June. We have been lucky to obtain funding to write up and compile the lesson plans we have used, and to include others in the guide. We hope to have three lessons for each grade, K-5. We plan to make the guide available nationwide. We are able to pay $100 for each lesson that we end up publishing so if you know anyone with one that would like to share it with others tell them to send it to: Kim Klausner, Buena Vista Lesbian & Gay Parents Group, 1541 Alabama Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 email to klausner@sfsu.edu before September 15, 1997. ==================================================================== POST TRIBUNE, August 8, 1997 1065 Broadway,Gary,IN,46402 (Fax 219-881-3232, print run 73,500) DIVERSITY POSTER TO STAY IN SCHOOL By Jeannine Athens, Correspondent [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] From: LGBTFAIR@aol.com Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 03:39:57 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Fwd: POSTER TO STAY The poster, by the way, is in sync with an LGBT Fairness-drafted amendment to state statute on character trait education regarding teaching tolerance in Indiana public schools that was passed several years ago in the immediate wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. Marla Stevens Dir. of Public Policy LGBT Fairness Indiana ==================================================================== The American Bar Association website has an article entitled "Where Are the Civil Rights for Gay and Lesbian Teachers?" at URL http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/yared.html If you can't access the web and would like this article emailed to you, please let me know. ==================================================================== Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 00:01:34 -0400 (EDT) From: "Channel Q" Sender: MediAction@aol.com Subject: "MEDIAlert!" - 08.11.97 [excerpted from:] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INDEX: "MEDIAlert!" - 08.11.97 [Part "A" ONLY] -ITEM 2: "An Uninformed Opinion" [New York Post; CUNY/CLAGS; Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick; Jane Austen and the Masturbating Girl]. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M E D I A l e r t ! ___________________________ August 11, 1997 Al Kielwasser [2] A N U N I N F O R M E D O P I N I O N Recently, an editorial in the "New York Post" (July 27) waxed homophobic on the subject of higher education. Specifically, the newspaper railed against below-average standards at CUNY -- the City University of New York. As evidence of a general academic decline, the editors cited lesbian and gay studies. Such scholarship is akin to idiocy, in the opinion of the "post." Headlined "CUNY's Misplaced Priorities," the editorial begins by noting: "The City University of New York may not be able to turn out teachers who can win state certification, or lawyers who can pass the bar exam. But, according to the 'Village Voice,' it's 'building a department of the hottest queer theorists in the country.'" "The main evidence of this claim is that CUNY's Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) is bringing to campus this fall Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, known among other things for delivering a paper to the Modern Language Association entitled 'Jane Austen and the Masturbating Girl,'" the editorial continues. "Whether the university has more surprises up its sleeve remains to be seen.... But we wouldn't be surprised if it did. A convoluted sense of priorities is integral to the decline that CUNY has experienced over the last three decades." The remainder of the editorial takes a roll call of related problems at the university, ranging from "inflated grades" to "open admissions." With pity for "students who will have no real future," the newspaper concludes that: "CUNY continues to fall short in its most basic task -- graduating folks who can function well in the increasingly complex municipal economy." While all homophobia is based in ignorance, the "Post's" editorial is especially stupid. The newspaper advances a stale fear of new ideas -- attacking "queer theorists" with the sort of narrow-minded rhetoric once used against proponents of a round earth. The notion that lesbian and gay studies necessarily diminish or exclude "basic education" has no basis in reason. A course on lesbian and gay literature is still a literature course, after all. Historically, however, heterosexual elites (mostly white, wealthy, and male) have preferred to think only of themselves -- literally -- substituting egomania for education. Even today, most universities overwhelmingly teach what effectively amount to heterosexist courses (if not courses in heterosexism). Yet "straight studies" are seldom cited as the cause or consequence of any academic decline. In faulting lesbian and gay studies, the "Post" commits a classic act of scapegoating. Faced with complex social problems, bigots have always used the media in this way. Rather than search for real solutions, it is easier to blame someone else. In the "Post's" blameful opinion, moreover, it is clear that the editors have not read what they ridicule. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick has made numerous contributions in the area of lesbian and gay studies (and is an expert in 19th and early 20th century literature as well). Yet, the "Post" is ready to disavow her work on the basis of one paper -- and even then, on the title alone. Ironically, Sedgwick's paper concerns the history and cultural impact of "masturbation phobia" -- the same paranoia exhibited by the "Post." In the opinion of salacious and simple minds, anything that refers to masturbating women must be "pornographic," especially if its attributed to a lesbian academic. Neither the only nor most current of Sedgwick's many essays, "Jane Austen and the Masturbating Girl" first appeared in the Summer 1991 issue of "Critical Inquiry." The paper was subsequently published in an anthology of Sedgwick's work (Duke University Press, 1993), in which she chronicles -- and deflates -- the tendency of journalists to cite the paper's title as "an index of depravity in academe." If editors at the "Post" had bothered to read Sedgwick's book, they might have offered something more original than a dumb repetition of homophobic cliches. In drawing conclusions from titles alone -- to foment sweeping accusations and uninformed blame -- the "Post" finally exhibits the very ignorance it decries. Homophobia and hypocrisy often go hand-in-hand. * * * * ACTION ALERT! Educate the editorial staff; send remedial comments to: Marc Kalech, Managing Editor, "New York Post," 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036-8790, fax 212-930-8540, e-mail editor@nypostonline.com (or newyorkpost@delphi.com), web-site www.nypostonline.com. [ Re/Sources: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies was established in 1991, as the first university-affiliated program of its kind (in the U.S.), "encouraging research on the lives of gay men and lesbians from multicultural, multiracial and feminist perspectives." In addition to a newsletter, CLAGS publishes a directory of lesbian and studies (CLAGS, Graduate School of the City University of New York, 33 West 42 Street, Room 404N, New York, NY 10036-8099, tel./fax 212-642-2924). Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's anthology "Tendencies" was published in 1993 by Duke University Press, Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708-0660. ] -------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT MEDIALERTS Distributed continuously since 1992 as a community press service, "MEDIAlert!" [TM] is a biweekly action and advocacy-oriented column of media criticism, focused on lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender issues. Recipients may print, publish or post this material, in whole or part, under this or any title, without prior permission. When appropriate, attribution can be made to "Al Kielwasser" and/or "MEDIAlert!" File copies of publications using all or part of any "MEDIAlert!" are always appreciated. Contact: MEDIAlert!, 163 Park Street, San Francisco, CA 94110-5835, voice-mail/fax 415-826-5203, e-mail MediAction@aol.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHOR NOTES The editor of "Gay People, Sex and the Media" (New York: Haworth Press), Al Kielwasser's media criticism and research have appeared widely in both mainstream and academic publications; he was twice elected Chair of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/San Francisco Bay Area. ======================================================================== Jean Richter -- richter@eecs.berkeley.edu The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) CHECK OUT OUR INFO-LOADED WEB PAGE AT: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/