From: KRESSL6450@cobra.uni.edu Date: Tue, 07 Jun 1994 15:10:49 -0500 (CDT) THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER CONCERNS IN EDUCATION 55 Glen Street, Malden, Massachusetts 02148 Phone (617) 321-3569 Fax (617) 321-9901 Karen M. Harbeck, PhD, JD Al Ferreira, M.Ed. Executive Director Warren Blumfeld, M.Ed. Associate Directors Dear Colleagues: We are pleased to announce the formation of The National Institute for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns in Education. Our goal is to create a not-for-profit entity that serves as an information and resource referral center for organizations, school, and individuals who are working to create safe and supportive learning environments for GLBT youth, GLBT adults and their heterosexual allies. Our organization is committed to assisting in all areas of the educational and social service contexts, and in all grade levels--elementary, secondary, university and professional programs. In addition to providing training and intervention assistance, the Institute will publish a strategy-oriented newsletter, and provide bibliographical and resource referral services. If you would like to be on confidential mailing list, please provide the following information. Name:_________________________________________________________________________ Address:___________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ Areas of Concern or Interest:__________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ THANK YOU. We look forward to working with you in the months ahead. NOTE: Karen is *NOT* on-line! If you wish to forward the information to me I will forward it to her, mail me at: KRESSL6450@COBRA.UNI.EDU THE FOLLOWING IS THE FIRST LETTER FROM THE INSTITUTE. Dear Colleagues: May 19, 1994 We know that you are all busy with the end of the school year, but we wanted to briefly report back to you about all of the activities that have occurred over the past few months. Given our plans for the summer, we hope to have some major announcements and publications prepared to help start the school year off positively for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth, GLBT adults and our heterosexual allies. Our planning meeting of Feburary 10th, which occurred in Washington, D.C., at the offices of the National Education Association was constructive. Dr. Joanne Kliejunas, a not-for-profit organizational planning expert from Oakland, California, helped us to consider the structure and functions of the Institute so that we could best serve the wide variety of needs defined during the meeeting. Our special thanks to Joanne and everyone who made the effort to attend the meeting given all the bad weather. Out of that Feburary meeting came some very positive contacts with the Federal Department of Education, who sent a liaison. Additional contacts were made with the Departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development (around teen homelessness). We are following up on all fronts. In fact, we are delighted to report that Karen harbeck presented a lecture on GLBT youth and the Massachusetts intervention models to the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. on May 16th, which apparently was the first such presentation to those individuals. In general, it appeared that staff members were surprised to learn of the circumstances of GLBT youth, and eager to be of assistance. A strategy discussion concluded that additional training sessions were needed and that key individuals within the DOE should be contacted. Given the new Federal "Safe School" legislation passed recently, DOE officials felt that they might be able to intervene through sexual harassment protections extended to schools, but that additional directives and legislation would be required before they were empowered to take dierct intervention action on behalf of GLBT individuals. Karen Harbeck and Al Ferreira have been traveling all over the country speaking on behalf of GLBT concerns. In the past few months we have been in California, Ohio, Iowa, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, as well as Massachusetts. Karen presented a lecture on the legal rights of GLBT students and adults to a special training session by the National Education Association from May 13th through the 15th, with Jerry Newberry and Pamela Wilson. The session was filmed by the NEA and should be ready for distribution by late this summer. Also, keep in mind that the NEA has provided two trainings a year on the rights of GLBT youth and two other trainings on the rights of GLBT educators. Contact the NEA Office of Civil Rights if you would like to participate next year. The trainings have been inspirational and effective! Thank you to Ron Houston, Hazel Blakey, Jerry Newberry Pamela Wilson and all of the NEA leadership. What a terrific contribution! You should know that the Massachusetts legislative delagation has taken the courageous step of providing leadership on GLBT concerns. Representatives Frank and Studds and Senator Kennedy will be introducing a bill to support national employment protections for GLBT persons. Representative Meehan will be introducing a bill to establish a commission to investigate the status of GLBT youth and suicide. While the Meehan bill was originally directed at the Department of Health and Human Services, we have reason to believe that it will be amended to include the Department of Education as well. Advocacy Advice: For those of you who live in one of eight protected states (California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, Wisconsin and Minnesot --plus the District of Columbia), we would appreciate your involvement in reviewing sexual orientation laws this summer. We have found a clause in the Massachusetts anti-discrimination employment protections legislation, for example, that suggests that if an employer causes to be published any document or publication pertaining to employment of any nature(job listings, employment handbooks etc.) that compliance with the state law requires a complete listing of all protected classes of persons. Thus, every employer of 6 or more people in Massachusetts, excluding religious organizations and private clubs, must be including sexual orientation in all of their publications whenever they list protected categories. We know that this is rarely done, so educational efforts on this front might be very productive! Over the summer we will be working out our not-for-profit tax status and other organizational details. At this point your contributions to our efforts and your involvement would be most appreciated. We also will produce a more formal strategy-oriented newsletter tthat we hope will be of interest and assistance. In the meantime, feel free to contact us--and have a terrific summer! Best wishes, Karen. P.S. Feel free to copy this letter and share it with your friend and colleagues! Karen M. Harbeck PhD, JD, Executive Director 55 Glen Street Malden, Ma. 02148 (617)321-3569 Fax(617)321-9901