Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 17:25:25 -0700 From: Jean Richter Subject: 6/8/99 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. TX: Application deadline extended for latina/o LGBT youth summit 2. Supreme Court rules that schools cannot ignore sexual harassment 3. GLAAD news on TV characters, "It's Elementary", and supreme court decision ================================================================================ Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 14:00:56 -0500 From: JLSE To: "listeros@onelist.com" Subject: Latino Youths in Austin Subject: [llego] URGENT NOTICE TO YOUNG LGBTQ LATINAS/OS (fwd) Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1999 11:51:56 -0500 (EST) From: Daniel Soto Mayorga To: jaimel@netscorp.net ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 16:34:42 -0000 From: aquilgbt@llego.org To: llego@eGroups.com Subject: [llego] URGENT NOTICE TO YOUNG LGBTQ LATINAS/OS URGENT NOTICE TO YOUNG LATINA/O QUEERS- NOTICIA URGENTE PARA LAS/OS JOVENES LATINAS/OS LGBT Y CUESTIONANTES Gente Joven CV y AC: The National Latina/o Queer Youth Summit to be held at Alma de Mujer, Austin, TX in July 14-18 has moved its application deadline. All the young Latina/o Queers ages 16-22 willing to participate can send their applications by fax or postmarked, no later than June 11, 1999. If you need the application form or more information about the Summit, give us a call: 202.466.8240, e-mail Mariana Toledo-Hermina, the Summit coordinator at: TAManger@llego.org, or visit our web page: www.llego.org. Gente Joven CV y AC: La cumbre nacional de jovenes latinas/os LGBT y cuestionantes, a celebrarse en Alma de Mujer, Austin, TX, del 14-18 de julio 1999, a movido su fecha limite para solicitar. Todas/os las/os jovenes latinas/os LGBT y cuestionantes entre las edades de 16-22 aņos e interesadas/os en participar, pueden enviar las solicitudes via fax o por correo con fecha de envio no mas tarde del 11 de junio 1999. De tener alguna pregunta sobre la Cumbre, comuniquese al: 202.466.8240, e-mail Mariana Toledo-Hermina, coordinadora de la actividad a: TAManger@llego.org, o visite nuestra pagina electronica: www.llego.org. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/llego http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications -- "Our silence will not save us" - Audre Lourde ________________________________________________ "LAREDO FAMILY QUEER SPACE:" THE QUEER CYBER-COMMUNITY OF LAREDO: http://www.netscorp.net/~jaimel 1.) LAREDO QUEER SPACE E-MAIL FORUM: http://www.netscorp.com/~jaimel/page13.html 2.) Laredo Queer Family Space Office listeros@onelist.com http://www.netscorp.net/~jaimel (956)791-1869 5-10 PM - ONLY! 3.) Gay Culture - Hadrian House, Publishers ANTINOUS E-PRESS "Th Ganymede Equation A Retrospective, 1971-98" ancient and modern graphics http://www.netscorp.net/~hadrian 4.) USE AN ANONYMOUS HANDLE, AND SPEAK OUT ON LINE. ======================================================================= From: LLDEFNY@aol.com Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 15:39:56 EDT Subject: High Court Rules that Schools Cannot Ignore Sexual Harassment Among Students =========================================== LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND News Release ============================================ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, May 24, 1999 Contact: Peg Byron 212-809-8585 x 230, 888-987-1984 (pager) David Buckel 212-809-8585 x 212 ============================================ High Court Rules that Schools Cannot Ignore Sexual Harassment Among Students Lesbian and gay kids often suffer from student-on-student sexual harassment (NEW YORK, May 24, 1999) -- The United States Supreme Court ruled Monday that schools that willfully ignore sexual harassment of one student by another can be held liable for violating federal civil rights law. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund praised the 5-4 decision, noting that abuse of lesbian and gay students often involves sexual harassment from their peers. Because Title IX, the federal law banning sex discrimination in public schools, is an important building block for creating safe and nurturing schools for all students, Lambda joined a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, which involves a Georgia fifth-grader who had been sexually harassed by a male student in her class. Noting Nabozny v. Podlesny, Lambda's successful constitutional lawsuit against a Wisconsin school district that ignored student brutality against a gay classmate, the federal government recently clarified that sexual harassment directed at lesbian and gay students is also covered by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Lambda Legal Director Beatrice Dohrn said, "Sexual harassment of lesbian and gay students is a significant problem. The court has taken an important step in recognizing that school officials who turn a deaf ear to complaints of serious harassment and violence themselves facilitate the denial of educational opportunities to harassed students." Lambda Staff Attorney David Buckel said, "Today's decision is very important to our struggle to make schools safe for lesbian and gay students, as violence and harassment by peers is the most common form these problems take." "The High Court ruling sustains one of the many tools available to stop the harassment of lesbian and gay students," said Stephen R. Scarborough, staff attorney at Lambda's Southern Regional Office in Atlanta. Writing for the majority in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said lawsuits may be filed against school officials who knowingly and deliberately ignore student-on-student harassment. The ruling remands the case to the district court, vacating an Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that dismissed the lawsuit. The case was filed by Aurelia Davis, seeking damages after public school administrators in Monroe county, Georgia, ignored severe sexual harassment against her daughter LaShonda. Referring to Title IX, O'Connor wrote, "The statute makes clear that, whatever else it prohibits, students must not be denied access to educational benefits and opportunities on the basis of gender." Lambda, the nation's oldest and largest legal organization serving lesbians and gay men, joined an amicus brief authored by NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. (Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, No. 97-843) --30-- Link directly to La mbda's news release: http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/pages/documents/record?record=415 ======================================= Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund www.lambdalegal.org National Headquarters 120 Wall Street, Suite 1500 New York, NY 10005-3904 212-809-8585 phone 212-809-0055 fax lambda@lambdalegal.org From: heather wright Subject: PFLAG News Release: AR Mom Praises Supreme Court Decision for Safe Schools Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 16:45:19 -0400 Organization: PFLAG May 24, 1999 Contact: Janice Hughes, 202-638-4200 x225 Carolyn Wagner, 501-582-5510 Arkansas Mother Praises Today's Supreme Court Decision Which Will Lead to Safer Schools for All Students The Arkansas mother-and a leader of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)-who successfully pressed federal officials to recognize and intervene against sexual harassment directed at gay and lesbian students, praised the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Monday which says schools may be liable in student-on-student harassment. The 5-4 ruling reversed a federal appeals court decision that said Title IX, a federal law, never applies to student-on-student harassment. Abuse of gay and lesbian students can often involve sexual harassment, as well as other types of violence. "This landmark decision by the highest court in our land reinforces that federally-funded schools must address and stop student-on-student harassment that interferes with their access to education," said Carolyn Wagner, a PFLAG Regional Director and resident of Fayetteville, AR. "This is a critical tool for all youth and their parents to help secure a hostile-free learning environment for all students," said Wagner, who with her husband, Bill, has worked closely with PFLAG since 1996 to meet with, and to be heard by, federal officials on the issue. "We are relieved to hear that the Supreme Court is making it crystal clear to schools that they have an obligation to protect all of our children," PFLAG Executive Director Kirsten Kingdon noted. The Supreme Court ruling that peer-on-peer sexual harassment was included under Title IX strengthened the main tool currently available to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students and their families that assists them in seeking a safe learning environment. The Wagners helped secure a historic agreement last year-between federal education officials and Fayetteville Public Schools-which says that the Arkansas school district must take specific steps to handle various forms of sexual harassment, including sexual harassment directed at gay and lesbian students. The agreement came in response to a complaint brought by their son, Willi, who charged that the local school system did not act after he was harassed repeatedly and beaten up by a gang of students. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund (New York) represented him in the complaint. The decision last June was the first time new Title IX guidelines, issued in 1997, have been applied to sexual harassment directed at a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students. Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG) promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgendered persons, their families & friends, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity. Serving nearly 75,000 members, PFLAG affiliates are located in 425-plus communities in the U.S. and abroad. 1101 14th St. NW, Suite 1030 . Washington, DC 20005 . ph: (202) 638-4200 fx: (202) 638-0243 . www.pflag.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe from PFLAG's Action Alert list, e-mail info@pflag.org, subject line "unsubscribe." Please notify info@pflag.org if this message did not come through clearly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ================================================================================== Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 18:21:58 -0700 Subject: GLAADLines - May 24, 1999 From: "Channel Q News" FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 24, 1999 GLAADLINES Contact: Jerry Weinstein GLAAD Publications Manager (212) 807-1700 x18 weinstein@glaad.org http://www.glaad.org News and Breaking Stories about the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Index to Stories: [unrelated item omitted] 1. CANADIAN SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF SPOUSAL RIGHTS; U.S. SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS SCHOOL SAFETY 2. ACCLAIMED DOCUMENTARY TO AIR ON PBS THIS JUNE 3. GAY CHARACTERS INCLUDED ON FALL SCHEDULE CANADIAN SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF SPOUSAL RIGHTS; U.S. SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS SCHOOL SAFETY: On May 20, the Canadian Supreme Court handed down what many legal experts are hailing as Canada's most significant judicial ruling in decades. The Court found an Ontario law, which defined the term "spouse" to apply only to heterosexual couples, as unconstitutional. As a result of this decision, Ontario must extend the definition of spouse to include same-sex partners. Many have speculated that while this decision stops short of sanctioning same-sex marriage, it will force the government to grant benefits such as income tax savings, equality under the criminal code, and ultimately full recognition of gay and lesbian marriages. The United States Supreme Court today decided that schools can be held legally liable if they fail to intervene when students sexually harass their peers. In a narrow five-four decision, the court held that the schools may be held liable under Title IX when the harassment is so egregious and pervasive and a school district does nothing about it. In the face of the recent outbursts of student violence from Colorado to Georgia, this decision reaffirms that all students have a constitutional right to safe schools. For further information on the Canadian ruling, please contact John Fisher, Executive Director, Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE) at (613) 230-1043 or by e-mail at egale@egale.ca. For further information on the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to gay and lesbian youth, please contact Jim Anderson, communications director at the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) at (212) 727-0135 or by e-mail at janderson@glsen.org. ACCLAIMED DOCUMENTARY TO AIR ON PBS THIS JUNE: Beginning June 2 and throughout the summer, PBS stations around the nation will be airing the groundbreaking documentary, It's Elementary, for the first time. At press time, eighty-nine stations in twenty-five of the top thirty markets are scheduled to screen this film. Debra Chasnoff, academy award-winning documentarian (for Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons, and Our Environment, 1991), and producer Helen S. Cohen have created a platform for imparting critical thinking skills to children, and in so doing, teaching them not to hate. The filmmakers report that a dozen stations are creating special programming to accommodate this broadcast. From Cincinnati to Boise to Syracuse there will be local wraparound shows that will incorporate discussions about discrimination based on sexual orientation in early education. While religious political extremist organizations have pressured public television affiliates to refuse to screen the documentary, many stations have stepped forward to broadcast the film. Some, as in the case of the Detroit, Michigan station, have reversed their initial decision against screening and will premiere the film. First released in 1996, the film has been shown nationally at nearly 500 teacher-training programs, as well as to thousands of educators. For more information on It's Elementary visit the web site at www.womedia.org. Journalists should contact It's Elementary's publicist, Tony Newman, of Fenton Communications at (212) 584-5007. GAY CHARACTERS INCLUDED ON FALL SCHEDULE: In New York last week, the broadcast networks announced their upcoming fall television seasons for advertisers. NBC, which currently has the most lesbian and gay characters in primetime, rolled out their new lineup which includes the return of numerous shows with lesbian or gay characters including The Profiler and Friends. Will & Grace will bring its brand of "Must See TV" back to Tuesday night. However, the network has cancelled Homicide: Life on the Streets, primetime's only show with a bisexual character. ABC added two new gay characters to their network with the gay-inclusive comedy Oh, Grow Up and, with Kevin Williamson, the openly gay creator and producer of Dawson's Creek, will premiere a new drama with gay inclusion entitled Wasteland. The WB's teen drama Popular will include a gay student in its ensemble cast. For more detailed information on the upcoming TV season, contact Scott Seomin, GLAAD's Entertainment Media Director, at (323) 658-6775 or via e-mail at seomin@glaad.org. GLAAD is the nation's lesbian & gay multimedia advocacy organization. GLAAD promotes fair, accurate, and inclusive representation as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. To subscribe, contact Wonbo Woo at (212) 807-1700 or at woo@glaad.org. "GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are registered trademarks of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Loren R. Javier Interactive Media Director GLAAD Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation javier@glaad.org phone: 925.831.1092 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 combating 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/