Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 17:13:05 -0700 From: Jean Richter Subject: 7/7/99 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. NC: Job opening for LGBT youth program coordinator 2. Safe schools publications 3. CA: LLEGO on defeat of AB 222 4. England: Editorial on age of consent debate and hate crimes 5. WY: Column on non-political nature of Matthew Shepard benefit concert =============================================================================== From: NCLambda@aol.com Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 15:40:21 EDT Subject: NC Lambda Youth Network Job Announcement NCLYN Programming and Communications Coordinator for North Carolina Lambda Youth Network (NCLYN), a statewide leadership development and organizing network led by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied young people. By providing resources, education and support, NCLYN cultivates leaders who are addressing homophobia, improving communities and organizing for social justice for all people. Duties include and are not limited to: coordinating programs, maintaining a statewide network of lgbt youth, producing quarterly newsletters, supervising interns, coordinating public relations strategy, and assisting with community outreach. Should have strong oral and written communication skills, previous experience in community organizing, a commitment to developing the leadership of young people and a sense of humor! Position will require reliable transportation, some evening and weekend work. Start date is August 1, 1999. Send resume and contact info. for three references, a one-page statement on lgbt young people and leadership, and a cover letter by JULY 15, 1999 to NCLYN, Hez Norton, Executive Director, 115 Market St, Durham, NC 27701. (919)683-3037; nclambda@aol.com. ================================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1999 13:15:44 -0700 From: "Reis, Elizabeth" Subject: exciting news: Safe Schools' new publications are here!! The Safe Schools Coalition of Washington is excited to announce that TWO new publications are now available in print. (They were already on our website, but we finally raised enough $$ to print them!! Congratulations to all who helped raise the funds. Thanks to those who contributed.) The new publications are: (1) "83,000 Youth," a 31-page report, the first-ever compilation of selected findings of eight population-based studies as they pertain to anti-gay harassment and the safety and well-being of sexual minority students. We have finally gathered the findings from the five Youth Risk Behavior Surveys and three other carefully designed quantitative studies that have asked students about their experience of orientation-based harassment at school and/or their sexual orientations and/or related variables. These studies surveyed middle and high school youth from Massachusetts, Vermont, Seattle, San Francisco, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut and 12 Indian Health Service areas. (2) "The Safe Schools Resource Guide" 1999-2000 edition, a 58-page revised/expanded document which includes six special guide sections for administrators, educators, families and students about how to prevent, intervene in, handle, and survive anti-gay harassment. It also contains current information about national and international organizations which offer support and information regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues and schools, as well as local agencies, cool websites, bibliographies, curricula, wonderful posters, and more. THREE WAYS TO ORDER: A) Send your request to the NW Coalition Against Malicious Harassment. They are a member of the Safe Schools Coalition and they handle distribution for us. P.O. Box 21428, Seattle, WA 98111-3428. Suggested donation: at least $3.33 per publication, payable to "Safe Schools/NWC" B) Call in or email your request and we can invoice you if you wish: 206-233-9136, mailto:ncamh@aol.com C) For orders of 100 copies or more, contact, instead, Frieda Takamura, co-chair of the Safe Schools Coalition: 800-624-0785 (WA State), 253-941-6700 (elsewhere), mailto:ftakamura@wa.nea.org ----------------- Beth Reis Public Health Educator, Public Health, Seattle & King County Co-Chair, Safe Schools Coalition of Washington 2124 Fourth Ave., Seattle, WA 98121 phone: 206-296-4755 fax: 206-296-0184 email: elizabeth.reis@metrokc.gov alternate email: publications@safeschools-wa.org Safe Schools Coalition website: http://www.safeschools-wa.org ================================================================================ Reply-To: listserver@channelq.com Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1999 13:15:03 -0700 From: "Channel Q" To: (LGBT Political Activists and National Media) Subject: LLEGO on defeat of AB 222 in CA For Immediate Release Washington, June 7, 1999 For more information,Contact Benjamin Sheppard, 202.466.8240, Extension 109 LLEGO AFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO YOUTH AFTER DEFEAT OF CALIFORNIA STUDENT ANTI-DISCRIMINATION BILL After joining several national and local organizations in an effort to win passage of Assembly Bill 222, which was defeated by a 40-38 vote in the State Assembly, LLEGO today affirmed its solidarity with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning youth, and vowed to join efforts to further educate the greater Latina/o community against homophobia, discrimination, and violence against all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender persons. The defeat of this bill was particularly bitter to LLEGO and sexual minority organizations in California in part because several non-Latina/o groups of the extreme religious right targeted Latina/o members of the State Assembly by exploiting Latina/o fundamentalist Christians. By mailing flyers in Spanish and buying ads in Spanish radio and print, which accused Democrats and moderates of forcing the `gay lifestyle' upon educators and students, the Latina/o anti-gay religious groups were able to intimidate several assembly members to vote against the bill. "By spending about $100,000 in a smear campaign against our community, these Fundamentalists were able to secure the one vote that defeated the bill. With the unity of the LGBT community and efforts to educate others about homophobia, 40 were already in favor," said Martin Ornelas-Quintero, executive director of LLEGO, "and this happened with vastly smaller resources than the Christian Right, but a lot more honest discussion." LLEGO had arranged to hold a Latina/o youth leadership summit to train Latina/o youth leaders for equal rights and HIV/AIDS prevention activism prior to the vote on AB 222. "We are now facing the indifference of some people who think violence against Queer men and women is part of our culture," said Mariana Toledo-Hermina, summit coordinator at LLEGO, "Bigotry is neither Latino culture nor Christian." LLEGO is a non profit organization dedicated to the strength and well-being of the Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community at the local, national and international level through cultural, political and community development resources. To know more about LLEGO, please visit our web page at www.llego.org. ### ***************************************************************** This message has been distributed as a free, nonprofit informational service, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. Please do not publish, or post in a public place on the Internet, copyrighted material without permission and attribution. (Note: Press releases are fine to reprint. Don't reprint wire stories, such as Associated Press stories, in their entirety unless you subscribe to that wire service.) Forwarding of this material should not necessarily be construed as an endorsement of the content. In fact, sometimes messages from anti-gay organizations are forwarded as "opposition research." ================================================================================ THE TIMES, June 8, 1999 Prejudice against gays in the House of Lords dismays Martin Bowley, QC The language of ignorance Among the books and articles I packed for a recent holiday in Greece was the Hansard report of the Lords' age of consent debate on April 13. It made disturbing reading. It included fine speeches in favour of reform from most of the usual suspects: Earl Russell, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, Lord Annan, Baroness Mallalieu and the Bishop of Bath and Wells. As always, Lord Williams of Mostyn, for the Government, was steadfast in defence of equality, fairness and justice. There was a moving plea for reform from Lord Alli who concluded: "In tonight's vote I should like your Lordships to speak out for me and millions like me, not because you agree or disagree or because you approve or disapprove, but because if you do not protect me in this House, you protect no one." The other side of the debate was filled, too often, with the language of ignorance, prejudice, bigotry - and hatred. Baroness Young's elderly supporters variously described homosexuality as "an aberration . . . abnormal . . . sinful . . . unclean . . . unnatural . . . bestial . . . pathological . . . perverted and degraded". If that is the language of the great and the good - even when constrained by the conventions of parliamentary courtesies - how much worse must the language be in the pub, the street, the playground and the staff canteen? No wonder gay teenagers are bullied and humiliated for their sexuality at school, often to the point of suicide, that "queer-bashing" is a Saturday-night entertainment for a slightly older generation and that harassment on the ground of sexuality is often experienced in the workplace with no legal redress. It was on that same trip to Greece that I learnt of the nail-bomb attack on the Admiral Duncan pub in a gay part of Soho. It appeared to have been fuelled by homophobia, just as the attacks on the black community in Brixton and the Asian community in Brick Lane seemed to be racist. In moral terms all are equally culpable - in legal terms there is one important difference. Under Section 82 of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, racially aggravated crimes can attract higher sentences. There is no such provision for homophobic crime. During the committee stage of the Bill last year the Liberal Democrat MP Richard Allan tried to include such a provision. The Government refused to accept his amendment on the spurious ground that it would be seen to weaken its commitment to crack down on racially motivated assaults. On the contrary, it would have confirmed its commitment to oppose crimes motivated by prejudice and bigotry. In the light of the Soho bombing, will the Government now concede that this was a mistake? The draft had been completed. With goodwill on all sides it would take a minimum of parliamentary time. It could be law by the end of this session. Such a change will not solve every problem. To do that would include the Labour Party honouring its 1992 manifesto commitment to repeal s.28 of the 1988 Local Government Act, and the Government sponsoring a Sexual Orientation Discrimination Bill on the lines of the one that Baroness Turner of Camden has three times piloted through the House of Lords. The Government is already committedto provide for fair and non-discriminatory sexual offences laws, after the conclusion later this year of its sexual offences review. And the Home Secretary is at least on record as "recognising" that the present position, where the law does not recognise longstanding relationships between members of the same sex, is less than satisfactory. More than 30 years ago Noel Coward cautioned in his last play, A Song at Twilight, that "even when the actual law ceases to exist there will still be a stigma attached to the love that dare not speak its name in the minds of millions for generations to come. It takes more than a few outspoken books and plays and speeches in Parliament to uproot moral prejudice from the Anglo-Saxon mind." But as the late Lord Bonham-Carter reminded us in the first report of the Race Relations Board: "A law is an unequivocal declaration of public police. A law gives support to those who do not wish to discriminate but feel compelled to so do by social pressures. A law gives protection and redress to minority groups. A law provides for the peaceful and orderly adjustment of grievances and the relief of tensions. A law reduces prejudice by discouraging the behaviour in which prejudice finds expression." To widen the definition of hate crimes now would at least be a start and would send out a powerful signal that the Government believes that we are all entitled to live at peace in a tolerant, inclusive, society without fear, harassment or discrimination. Lady Young's Christian principles might even persuade her to lead the case for the amendment in the House of Lords - Lady Young is always strong on signals. And it would be some small penance for her nasty gibe at Lord Annan's expense at the end of her winding-up speech on April 13, when she claimed that she could never quite recall whether he was Provost of King's or Provost of Queen's. You don't hit much lower than that. The author is President of the Bar Lesbian and Gay Group, and a member of Stonewall, the gay rights organisation. ================================================================================= PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, June 8, 1999 400 N. Broad St.,Philadelphia,PA,19101 (Fax 215-854-5691) (E-MAIL: dailynews.opinion@phillynews.com ) ( http://www.philly.com ) Elton's no Johnny on the spot when it comes to gay rights Debbie Woodell [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] Debbie Woodell is a Daily News sports desk editor. Her column appears here every other Tuesday. Send e-mail to woodeld@phillynews.com ================================================================================== Jean Richter -- richter@eecs.berkeley.edu The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) These messages are archived by state on our information-loaded free web site: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/