Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 16:35:35 -0800 From: Jean Richter Subject: 3/16/99 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. Support "It's Elementary" broadcast effort 2. NEA note on safe schools report 3. GLAAD news on various schools topics ======================================================= Subject: It's Elementary needs support for broadcast Date: Thu, 25 Feb 99 15:34:47 -0000 x-sender: wemfilms@pop.dnai.com From: Debra Chasnoff PLEASE SHARE THIS PRESS RELEASE WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES *********************************************************** February 24, 1999 FOR MORE INFORMATION: CHRISTY APPLEGATE 415-641-4616 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FINANCIAL SUPPORT NEEDED TO GET "IT'S ELEMENTARY - TALKING ABOUT GAY ISSUES IN SCHOOL" ON THE AIR WATERSHED OPPORTUNITY TO REACH MORE THAN 1 MILLION VIEWERS The award-winning documentary film "IT'S ELEMENTARY - Talking About Gay Issues in School" will finally be broadcast on public television stations across the country later this year. "In the wake of the savage hate crime that took Matthew Shepard's life, and the increase in anti-gay violence and harassment in schools, more and more concerned adults are asking how we can prevent this kind of hatred," says Debra Chasnoff, the film's Academy-Award winning director. "We hope the broadcast of IT'S ELEMENTARY will show parents, educators, and policy makers that schools have a critical role to play in preventing prejudice - of all kinds." KQED, the San Francisco PBS affiliate, is sponsoring the broadcasts through American Public Television. KQED hopes at least 100 major cities, along with many smaller ones, will pick up IT'S ELEMENTARY for broadcast. "KQED is proud to offer this sensitively produced program," says KQED's Regina Eichner Eisenberg. "We are presenting it in the spirit of encouraging constructive dialogue around one of the most divisive issues facing families and school communities today." News of the upcoming broadcast has inspired a new round of attacks on IT'S ELEMENTARY from organizations affiliated with the religious right. The conservative American Family Association, for example, is planning on blanketing the country with its own video about IT'S ELEMENTARY entitled, "Suffer the Children" - which AFA president Donald Wildmon says, "exposes how this powerful pro-homosexual propaganda film is targeting our children." IT'S ELEMENTARY's producers, though, are moving ahead with their plans to attract a large national audience for the broadcast. "We hope over one million people will tune in to see what really happens when teachers include discussion of gay people in their classroom activities," says producer Helen S. Cohen. "But the key to getting this much exposure hinges on generating as much publicity as we can, and convincing as many PBS stations as possible to air the film." To accomplish their goals, Chasnoff and Cohen must raise more than $60,000 in the next few months. The funds are needed to cover KQED's underwriting expenses as the sponsoring PBS station, hire a top-notch national publicist, expand IT'S ELEMENTARY web site, and communicate with scores of organizations across the country about the airdates. To cover these expenses, the filmıs producers are turning to their supporters for help. Tax-deductible donations can be made to Women's Educational Media, Inc., the producer's non-profit production company. Donors who contribute $1,000 or more will receive on-screen credit, and contributions of any size are needed. "We're convinced that this effort to get IT'S ELEMENTARY on the air will be well worth it and will have a huge impact," says Chasnoff. "This is a critical opportunity to get the issues in front of the American public, to direct support to the advocacy groups that are working for human rights, and to move the need to deal with gay issues in schools to the center of public attention." Since its release in 1996, IT'S ELEMENTARY has had a phenomenal impact, creating a tidal wave of activism and public dialogue about dealing with lesbian and gay issues in schools. Parents, educators, administrators, counselors, and policy makers have been sharing copies of IT'S ELEMENTARY with their colleagues and community members in thousands of diverse settings, both nationally and internationally, jump-starting the national and local discussions that need to happen if schools are truly to be safe and welcoming environments for all students. Over the last two years, IT'S ELEMENTARY has won the enthusiastic backing of major educational, health care, and religious institutions. The producers want to make sure that all of these allies are involved when IT'S ELEMENTARY hits the airwaves. "Getting IT'S ELEMENTARY broadcast will be a resounding message of hope, " says Cohen. "Please help us take advantage of this watershed opportunity - the whole country is watching!" Broadcasts airdates have not yet been scheduled, but are tentatively slated for June, 1999. For more information about IT'S ELEMENTARY, or to send a contribution for the broadcasts, please contact: Women's Educational Media 2180 Bryant Street, Suite 203 Department "E" San Francisco CA 94110 Phone: 415 641-4616 Fax: 415 641-4632 Email: wemfilms@womedia.org Women's Educational Media 2180 Bryant Street, Suite 203 San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 641-4616 =============================================================================== NEA Today (National Education Association), January 1999 INNOVATORS: Making the Grade for All Students A typical high school student hears anti-gay slurs up to 26 times a day- and faculty intervene only 3 percent of the time. Nineteen percent of gay and lesbian students suffer physical attacks based on sexual orientation; 13 percent skip school at least once a month; 26 percent drop out. Grading Our Schools, a recent report endorsed by NEA, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Association of School Psychologists, graded 42 of the nation's largest public school districts on how well they protect gay and lesbian students and teachers from harassment and discrimination. The average grade: D. Only eight districts received an A. They had policies that: * Protect students and teachers from harassment and discrimination. * Provide staff with workshops and training. * Support curriculum that includes information about the lives and contributions of gay and lesbian people. * Allow and support the formation of Gay/Straight Alliances and other clubs addressing homophobia and heterosexism in school. ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 21:02:42 -0800 Subject: GLAADAlert - February 25, 1999 From: "Channel Q News" GLAADALERT - February 25, 1999 The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation GLAADAlert Index: [unrelated items omitted] 1) Ask Me Again If I'm Gay 2) Twice More, the New York Post Illustrates Its Intolerance and Disrespect 3) Walls of Educational Photos Irk Paglia 4) ABCNEWS.com: Setting a Standard 1) Ask Me Again If I'm Gay On the February 10 episode of Dawson's Creek, series regular Jack McPhee (Kerr Smith) read a poem in class which led his classmates to believe he was gay, leading to taunting and a confrontation with his girlfriend Joey (Katie Holmes), in which he told her he was not gay. The youth-oriented program took the storyline to the next level on its February 17 episode. As rumors of Jack's sexual orientation continued to mull throughout Capeside High, one of the school's counselors asked Jack's estranged father to come in from out of town to discuss the issue. Over dinner with Jack and his sister Andie (Meredith Monroe), Mr. McPhee (David Dukes), too, asks Jack if he's gay, making clear the fact that he will not support his son's being gay. Jack reluctantly complies with his father's wishes, not touching too much on the subject, but toward the end of the program, he confronts his father again. When Mr. McPhee dismisses him, Jack responds emotionally, saying "This is one conversation you can't run away from - we are going to talk about me! ... [Y]ou ask me again! ... Ask me if I'm gay!" Jack's father tells him, "You are not gay," at which point Jack finally reveals that in fact, he is. "[A]s hard as you've tried to stamp it out and to ignore it ... I have tried harder," Jack says. "I have tried harder than you to be quiet and forget - and not bother my family with my problems. But, I can't try anymore, because it hurts. I'm sorry, dad ... Andie, I'm sorry ... I don't want to be going through this, but I am." Andie supports him, standing up to their father for the first time as she demands he leave their home. At the end of the piece, Jack comes out to Joey, as well, who struggles with the revelation, but is supportive and expresses appreciation him for his honesty. Dawson's goes beyond the coming out story, though, really taking an in-depth look at the impact which Jack's coming out has upon all those around him - his father, Joey and Andie, yes, but also upon people like his classmate Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams); her conservative and religious love interest, Tyson; and her grandmother. When Tyson makes clear his belief that homosexuality is wrong, Jen's grandmother interrupts their conversation. She reprimands Tyson for his criticism of Jack, noting that, "If anything, that boy must be scared and alone, and he will need the understanding of his fellow man to help him through." The episode sensitively and compassionately dealt with Jack's sexual orientation and the difficulties he faced in coming to terms with it. Especially important is the recognition of the power that a show like this can have on its primarily teenage audience: it tells those who are struggling with their sexual orientation that there are people who will accept and support them; it tells kids who feel isolated and alienated that they are not alone; and it sends a message to the classmates of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, letting them know that it's alright to support their friends. Furthermore, Jack is the WB's first openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender series regular. Please thank Dawson's Creek, its creator and executive producer Kevin Williamson (who came out in the February 18 edition of New York's Daily News) and the WB Network, for what is surely one of the most powerful pieces we've seen. Contact: ... Kevin Williamson, Creator and Executive Producer, Dawson's Creek, 12233 West Olympic Blvd., Suite 210, Los Angeles, CA 90064, e-mail via WWW: http://www.dawsonscreek.com ... Jamie Kellner, President, WB Television Network, 4000 Warner Blvd., #34-R, Burbank, CA, 91522 2) The New York Post Illustrates Its Intolerance and Disrespect In the February18 edition of the New York Post, columnist Steve Dunleavy went one step further than his usual brand of inflammatory, insensitive and homophobic commentary, moving into the territory of clear-cut hate speech and threatening the subject of his column with violence. Queens School Board candidate Wayne Mahlke has drawn significant attention for his attempts to resurrect the Rainbow Curriculum by placing lesbian- and gay-themed books in public school libraries. Among those age-appropriate books Mahlke has been promoting: Daddy's Roommate and Heather Has Two Mommies. Dunleavy writes that Mahlke's candidacy "worries the living hell out of me," because "what Mahlke wants to do with these 10-year-olds is expose them to something that makes me want to loosen his teeth." Dunleavy quotes Mahlke's opponent, Frank Borzerelli, who says Mahlke "is sick ... [and] can only be called allegedly brainwashing for perversion." Dunleavy agrees with him, slinging insults at Mahlke in an apparent attempt to discount Mahlke's claim that he is trying to promote tolerance and multiculturalism. Most appalling, however, is how Dunleavy closes the piece. He warns, "Come near my school district, and perhaps you won't be beaten up, but your legs won't touch the ground the moment you get off the train ... But if I hear about gay books with daddies in bed being exposed to little kids, you may not be as safe as I promised." In 1997, GLAAD met with New York Post Editor Ken Chandler, Managing Editor Marc Kalech and one of the paper's metro editors, to discuss the paper's history of problems in covering lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. At that meeting, GLAAD cited columns by now-retired Post columnist Ray Kerrison and Dunleavy as particularly hateful and damaging examples of the Post's coverage. That was before Dunleavy decided to entertain notions of gay-bashing and physical violence so obliquely in his column. The Post has once again demonstrated its complete disregard for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people -- and for the diversity so present in its own home base of New York. Demand that the Post issue an apology from Dunleavy for his threats of violence. Contact: Ken Chandler, Editor, New York Post, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036-8790, fax: 212.930.8540, e-mail: letters@nypost.com 3) Walls of Educational Photos Irk Paglia The February 22 Wall Street Journal featured an op-ed by prominent academic and openly lesbian feminist Camille Paglia, entitled "It Wasn't 'Romeo and Julian'" and referring to a Newton, Mass., junior high school's posting of photographs of lesbian and gay historical figures in celebration of diversity. According to Paglia, the Newton schoolteacher who created the exhibit told the Boston Globe that it was intended to teach "tolerance and respect." But much to Paglia's chagrin, featured persons include people who were not, in their lifetimes, "professed gays," pointing to William Shakespeare, Michelangelo and Walt Whitman. Paglia says that in spite of their admittedly likely attraction to men, "In the absence of hard information, to call them 'gay' is ethically wrong." At the crux of Paglia's argument is her assertion that "to introduce major artists to schoolchildren via sexual scandal rather than through the art itself is a perversion of education." She chastises the exhibit's inclusion of Eleanor Roosevelt for "reduc[ing] a bold, dynamic woman ... to gossip and speculation." She notes that Shakespeare's work was never inclusive of lesbian and gay themes, except in negative and implied portrayals. In fact, she writes, "Shakespeare is world-famous for his celebration of heterosexual love, as in the eternally popular 'Romeo and Juliet.'" Paglia then delves into a discussion of the roots of sexual orientation, claiming that "it certainly is not inborn," and asserting that the "intrusion of militant gay activism into primary schools does more harm than good by encouraging adolescents to define themselves prematurely as gay." Toward the end of her piece, Paglia suggests that it is a "kind of arrogant cultural imperialism shown in Newton - where 'tolerance and respect' would clearly not be accorded to a fundamentalist Christian or Hindu who declared homosexuality immoral ..." Paglia misses the point. The photographs presented were not supposed to contest the varied achievements and contributions of their subjects, nor were they intended to "hoist" anyone as "a gay saint." And while it is true that some of the figures did not self-identify as being lesbian or gay during their lifetimes, Paglia glosses over the fact that there wasn't a cultural identity in the sense that she's discussing in the time of figures such as Michelangelo and Shakespeare. In delving into the notion of "causes" of homosexuality, Paglia, a humanities professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, treads into waters where she wouldn't seem to have much credence or expertise. And finally, her presumption that a desire to promote tolerance and respect for diversity would inherently be at odds with acceptance of fundamentalist Christians and Hindus is absurd. Please contact the Wall Street Journal and let them know what you think of Paglia's commentary. Contact: Robert L. Bartley, Editorial/Opinion Page Editor, Wall Street Journal, 200 Liberty St., New York, NY 10281-1003, fax: 212.416.2658 (until 4pm EST), e-mail: letter.editor@edit.wsj.com 4) ABCNEWS.com: Setting a Standard In its February 19 piece about an attack on 17-year-old Adam Colton, ABCNEWS.com provided extensive information which contributed to its report. Based on a story which originally broke in the Associated Press, Rebecca Leung's ABCNews.com piece details the case, noting that this is the second time Colton has been victimized at a school which has also allegedly had a history of racial intolerance. But in the report, ABCNEWS.com includes related audio-visual footage of the report; a map showing the crime's proximity to San Francisco, and provides a link to its July, 1998 article on hate crimes against lesbians and gay men, which, in turn, also provides information to a number of lesbian and gay community organizations which provide important services to victims and other community members. This is certainly not the first time GLAAD has recognized ABCNEWS.com for the scope of its in-depth and contributing coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. It appears that they may be setting a new standard. You can see the site at: http://abcnews.go.com:80/sections/us/DailyNews/sfattack990219.html Please check out the site and let ABCNEWS.com know how you felt about their coverage. Contact: ABCNEWS.com, via WWW: http://www.abcnews.go.com/service/abccontact.html -- then click on the "U.S." link under the "content" list The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. GLAAD promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation in the media as a means of challenging homophobia and all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. Contact GLAAD by e-mail at glaad@glaad.org or by phone at 213.658.6775 (LA), 212.807.1700 (NY), 415.861.2244 (SF), 202.986.1360 (DC), 404.876.1398 (Atlanta) and 816.756.5991 (Kansas City) Feel free to pass GLAADAlert on to friends, family and associates! Report defamation in the media by calling GLAAD's Toll-Free AlertLine! 1-800-GAY-MEDIA (1-800-429-6334) Visit GLAAD Online at http://www.glaad.org "GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are registered trademarks of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc. GLAADAlert may be freely distributed and reprinted in all forms of media under the condition that any text used carry the full attribution of "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) glaad@glaad.org TO REPORT DEFAMATION IN THE MEDIA - Call GLAAD's Alertline at 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or go to the GLAAD Web Site at www.glaad.org and report through our Alertline Online. TO JOIN GLAAD AND RECEIVE GLAAD's QUARTERLY IMAGES MAGAZINE, call 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or join on the Web today at www.glaad.org/glaad/join/join-about.html TO SUBSCRIBE TO GLAAD-Net, GLAAD's electronic mailing list, send e-mail to majordomo@vector.casti.com with the message "Subscribe GLAAD-Net" (without the quotation marks). Make sure that you turn off all signatures and extraneous text. TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send e-mail to majordomo@vector.casti.com with the message "Unsubscribe GLAAD-Net" (without the quotation marks). Make sure that you turn off all signatures and extraneous text. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is a national organization that promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation of individuals and events in the media as a means of combatting homophobia and challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are registered trademarks of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc. ================================================================================= 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/