Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 16:55:33 -0800 From: Jean Richter Subject: 3/16/2000 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. UK: Guidelines introduced to replace Clause 28 2. Canada: News article on gay-straight alliances 3. CA: Teacher to appeal anti-gay harassment case ========================================================== BBC Online News, March 9, 2000 http://www.bbc.co.uk Guidelines to defuse Section 28 row The BBC has learned details of the government's formula to try to defuse opposition to its plans to repeal the controversial Section 28 ban on promotion of homosexuality by local authorities in England and Wales. [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] ================================================================================ Canadian Press, March 9, 2000 The last frontier of social tolerance Students combat homophobia by forming gay-straight clubs By CAROL HARRINGTON, The Canadian Press CALGARY (CP) ­ In junior high school, Brent Power frequently was spit at, shoved around and called a "faggot." In science class, a student threatened to kill Power with a knife, and he once ended up in hospital after being thrashed by four boys in a Dairy Queen parking lot. [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE CLUBS What: Clubs formed by students, both gay and straight, to reduce isolation and stigma associated with homosexuality. Where: In Canada, mostly in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia. How many: Estimated 50 in Canada and over 700 in the United States. Membership: Ranges from four to 50 students per club. ================================================================================ From: JGrissom@lambdalegal.org Reply-To: lambdalegal@lambdalegal.org Subject: Lambda Seeks Justice for Top High School Teacher Targeted by Anti-Gay Abuse Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 15:57:50 -0500 =========================================== LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND www.lambdalegal.org News Advisory ============================================ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, March 9, 2000 Contact: Myron Dean Quon 323-937-2728, ext. 229 Peg Byron 212-809-8585 x 230, 888-987-1984 (pager) ============================================ Lambda Seeks Justice for Top High School Teacher Targeted by Anti-Gay Abuse Argument before California appeals court on Monday, March 13, 1:30 p.m. (LOS ANGELES, March 9, 2000) - An award-winning high school teacher mercilessly harassed for being a lesbian is asking a California appellate court to reinstate her employment discrimination case against her school district, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Thursday. The case is California's first appeals-court challenge of anti-gay harassment of a teacher. On Monday, March 13, Lambda Staff Attorney Myron Dean Quon will argue on behalf of teacher Dawn Murray in Murray v. Oceanside Unified School District before the Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego. Quon and Murray will speak with reporters following the argument. "School officials teach our kids a terrible lesson by tolerating the harassment of lesbian and gay teachers. Our schools should be nurturing respect for diversity, not breeding hate and discrimination against gay people. It's shameful that an exemplary, talented teacher like Murray is forced to withstand vicious attacks on her reputation," said Quon. Despite hostile work conditions, Murray has been a top teacher of high school biology, earning honors such as a prestigious Princeton University fellowship for teaching biotechnology to high school students and an award from the National Association of Biology Teachers as an Outstanding Biology Teacher of the Year. A veteran biology teacher, Murray has been working for the school district since 1983. In 1993, Murray was denied a promotion to student activities director at Oceanside High School after a school official objected that someone with her "lifestyle" "shouldn't be that close to the kids." Since then, Murray has had to suffer rumors spread by district employees and false accusations that she had sexual encounters on campus with a co-worker; to endure an obsessive focus on her sexual orientation from school administrators, teachers, and other school personnel; and to be targeted with vandalism of her classroom. When she pressed for action to stop this harassment, Murray was threatened with loss of her job. "No one deserves to be treated the way I have simply because of my sexual orientation. All I'm asking for is my day in court," Murray said. Murray filed suit against her school district in 1996, but a trial court dismissed the case, erroneously ruling that California's law prohibits only sexual orientation discrimination based on the hiring, firing, or promotion, but not harassment of an employee based on her sexual orientation. Lambda hopes to reinstate the case and show that sexual orientation harassment, like racial or sexual harassment, is prohibited. Supporting Murray with friend-of-the-court briefs are the Tom Homann Law Association, San Diego's lesbian and gay bar association, and San Francisco's Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom. "Employees are entitled to a workplace free from harassment and discrimination. But the trial court's decision in this case effectively tells gay, lesbian and bisexual employees that - unlike other minorities - if they are harassed at work, they don't have any recourse unless they were also fired. That ruling is contrary to well established public policy in California," said Darin L. Wessel, who co-authored the Homann brief. Lambda, the nation's oldest and largest gay legal organization, is headquartered in New York. It's Western Regional Office in Los Angeles is now marking its 10th year. WHAT: Argument in Murray v. Oceanside Unified School District, the first case regarding anti-gay harassment of a teacher to reach a California appellate court WHO: Lambda Staff Attorney Myron Dean Quon argues for former biology teacher of the year Dawn Murray; both will be available to speak with reporters following the hearing WHERE: Fourth District Court of Appeal of California, Division One, 750 B Street, San Diego WHEN: Monday, March 13, argument begins 1:30 p.m. (Murray v. Oceanside Unified School District, No. D031662) --30-- Click here to view Lambda's news release online. http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/pages/documents/record?record=599 =================================== Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund www.lambdalegal.org Western Regional Office 6030 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 200 Los Angeles, CA 90036-3617 323-937-2728 phone 323-937-0601 fax lambdalegal@lambdalegal.org ============================================================================== 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/