From: LLDEFNY@aol.com Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 12:03:49 -0500 Subject: Lambda Calls for House Subcommittee to Examine the Urgent Issues in Schools PRESS RELEASE Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 4, 1995 Press Contact: Pat Logue (312) 759-8110 David Buckel, Margie Hanssens (212) 995-8585 Lambda Calls For House Subcommittee to Examine the Urgent Issues In Our Schools: Anti-Gay Violence, Gay Teen Suicide, Children's Rights(1) (CHICAGO, December 4, 1995) -- Commenting on the upcoming hearings scheduled by the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House of Representatives (Peter Hoekstra, R-MI, Chair) entitled "Parents, Schools, and Values" for December 5th and 6th, Lambda's Patricia M. Logue, Managing Attorney of Lambda's Midwest Regional Office said: "We hope these hearings will address the stunning fact that anti-gay violence by teens in schools has become widespread, and is often treated by administrators and school officials as acceptable behavior."{2} Lambda is currently preparing appellate briefs in the case of Jamie Nabozny, a young man who, as a student, suffered years of brutal verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his classmates. "No student should have to suffer abuse to get an education," said Logue, who represents Nabozny along with David Buckel, a Lambda staff attorney, "and we can't stop the violence until we stop the message that it's OK to beat up people because they're lesbian or gay."{3} Nabozny suffered multiple assaults during his years in a Wisconsin public school, from seventh grade to eleventh grade. Students would trap him in the hallways or the bathroom and beat him, punching, kicking, and even spitting and urinating on him. During one assault, several boys pinned Nabozny to the floor and acted out sexual acts on him, with the class looking on. "My goal in life became to try and not get punched or kicked by somebody, and a number of times suicide seemed the only way to achieve that goal," said Nabozny, who three times attempted suicide during his ordeal at school and who was ultimately diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. "All I wanted was to get my high school education like everybody, but I've lost that part of my life forever, " Nabozny explains.{4} Although the precise purpose of the hearings has not been made clear to date, they are reported to be a renamed and rescheduled version of hearings previously scheduled to address "promotion of homosexuality" in public schools. "The idea that homosexuality' is promoted' in America's public schools is laughable given the violence that my son suffered," commented Robert Nabozny, Nabozny's father, "and I'm sure thousands of kids out there go through the same thing, no matter how often their parents make phone calls and go to meetings with the school principals."{5} The violence and the suicides are all the more likely when students, both gay and non-gay, are denied the opportunity to have positive, open, lesbian and gay role models when schools bow to pressure from the radical right not to teach tolerance of lesbian and gay people.{6} "Our schools need to provide a safe environment for all children to learn, to exchange ideas, and to ask difficult questions," said Buckel, "Legislation that reinforces intolerance and the closeting of lesbians and gay men would be devastating to those key educational functions. More importantly, the message of such legislation is that we don't care about kids who'd rather die than discover that they're gay." In a case that is said to trouble the sponsors of the hearing, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently addressed the assertion that all parents have a right to dictate the information their children have access to at school, "If all parents had a fundamental constitutional right to dictate individually what the schools teach their children, the schools would be forced to cater a curriculum for each student whose parents had genuine moral disagreements with the school's choice of subject matter. We cannot see that the Constitution imposes such a burden on state educational systems." {7} Nabozny and Lambda Staff Attorney David Buckel will be available for comment at a press conference to be held on Monday, December 4, 1995 at 1:00 pm in Room 2359 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington D.C. 1 Given Lambda's grave concern that the documented facts will not be available at the Hoekstra hearings, we have provided citations to key authorities in this release. 2 Over a third of all lesbians and gay men in studies conducted in Maine, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and in eight U.S. cities suffered anti-gay violence while in high school, and according to the New York Governor's Task Force on Bias-related Violence, teens surveyed about their biases against a variety of minorities reacted more negatively to gay people than to any other group. Kevin T. Berrill, Anti-Gay Violence and Victimization in the United States, 5 J. Interpersonal Violence 274, 286 (1990) (citations omitted). 3 Unfortunately, Nabozny's experiences are not uncommon. For example, One state's attempt to address the escalating violence against lesbian and gay youth in its schools has documented results including assailants typically outnumbering victims three to one in severe beating incidents and gang rapes. Safe Schools Coalition of Washington, Safe Schools Anti-Violence Documentation Project Second Annual Report 1 (1995). Another state's attempt to address the violence against lesbian and gay youth in its schools arose from the high national suicide rate for lesbian and gay youth, and resulted in a Governor's Commission that documented widespread anti-gay violence in the schools of Massachusetts. The Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth, (February 25, 1993). 4 Tragically, Nabozny's suicidal response to his suffering is not uncommon, either: according to a study by the federal government, gay youth comprise up to thirty percent of completed suicides. Paul Gibson, Gay Male and Lesbian Youth Suicide, in Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide 3-110, 3-115 (U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services Pub. No. (ADM)89-1623, 1989). Unfortunately, Nabozny's experiences are not uncommon. For example, One state's attempt to address the escalating violence against lesbian and gay youth in its schools has documented results including assailants typically outnumbering victims three to one in severe beating incidents and gang rapes. Safe Schools Coalition of Washington, Safe Schools Anti-Violence Documentation Project Second Annual Report 1 (1995). Another state's attempt to address the violence against lesbian and gay youth in its schools arose from the high national suicide rate for lesbian and gay youth, and resulted in a Governor's Commission that documented widespread anti-gay violence in the schools of Massachusetts. The Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth, (February 25, 1993). 5 See attached copy of written testimony to be submitted by Nabozny's parents to the Hoekstra hearings. 6 There is no evidence of any positive correlation between a gay sexual orientation and child molestation. Carole Jenny et al., Are Children At Risk for Sexual Abuse by Homosexuals?, 94 Pediatrics 41 (1994)(see attached). Science has shown, to the contrary, that "[G]ay men are no more likely than heterosexual men to molest children." Gregory M. Herek, Myths About Sexual Orientation: A Lawyer's Guide to Social Science Research, 1 Law & Sexuality 133, 156 (1991)(see attached). Furthermore, "the vast majority of scholars in this field state that one's sexual orientation is not a choice, that is, individuals no more choose to be homosexual than heterosexual." Comm. on Adolescence, American Academy of Pediatrics, Homosexuality and Adolescence, 92 Pediatrics 631 (1993). 7 Brown v. Hot, Sexy, and Safer Productions Inc., 64 USLW 2268 (1st Cir. October 23,1995). --30--