Subject: NT: Kansas Conservatives attack AIDS education
From: Kevyn Jacobs <[email-masked]>
To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" <[email-masked]>
Cc: GLB-NEWS <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 10:47:42 -0500 (CDT)

FROM THE NEWS-TELEGRAPH
APRIL 28 - MAY 11, 1995
=======================

KANSAS CONSERVATIVES ATTACK AIDS EDUCATION

WICHITA KS - Although a so-called "abstinence bill" was defeated in the
Kansas legislature, Doug Glaze, Equality Kansas chair, said the radical
right continues to attack AIDS education.

Glaze said lawmakers have shifted their focus to the Kansas State Board of
Education.

In February, legislators aided by the Wichita-based Kansas Family Research
Institute introduced a bill to alter sex education and AIDS education in
public schools. The bill would have forced teachers to present only
information in the context of abstinence or marriage and required
educators to recite to students the state's sodomy law.

Glaze said, "The impetus behind the introduction of this bill was
reportedly a 1994 visit by Dr. Donna Sweet, Wichita's primary AIDS care
physician, to the town of Valley Center, home of anti-Gay demagogue and
state representative Darlene Cornfield." Cornfield in 1993 became the
principle spokesperson for a House resolution directing the US Congress to
avoid giving Lesbians and Gays "special rights."

Glaze said the "largest Lesbian and Gay lobbying effort in years ensued"
shortly after the "abstinence bill" was introduced in the Kansas House.
More than 27 representatives from pro-Gay and Lesbian rights
organizations--including Parents & Friends of Les-

bians and Gays (PFLAG), the Topeka AIDS Project (TAP), the Wichita
Community Clinical AIDS Project (WCCAP) Planned Parenthood and Equality
Kansas--testified against the bill.

However, the House Education Committee altered the bill, making its
provisions voluntary rather than mandatory and the legislation passed
easily in the House.

The Education Committee responded by making the mandatory provisions of
the bill voluntary before sending the bill on to the full House where it
passed easily and was sent to the Senate Education Committee for review.

Glaze said Gay and Lesbian groups kept up the pressure directing lobbying
efforts al Kansas Governor Bill Graves and Kansas senators. The Senate
Education Committee voted to take no further action on the bill.

"Conservatives have responded by initiating a second attack upon AIDS
education in Kansas through a resolution calling upon the Kansas State
Board of Education (BOE) to eliminate Outcome 5 a provision in the Quality
Performance Accreditation (QPA) Program," Glaze said. Out come 5 requires
that public schools show their students "demonstrate mastery of a
locally-developed comprehensive human sexuality and AIDS curriculum" in
order to receive accreditation from the State BOE.

In mid-March TAP and Equality Kansas, in conjunction with Planned
Parenthood and the Wichita-Sedgwick County Department of Health, testified
before the State BOE requesting that they retain Outcome 5. The BOE
responded by delaying any action upon the measure until they meet again in
June.

Glaze said the "abstinence bill" was defeated by the combined efforts of
advocates for Lesbian and Gay concerns from across the state and "if we
are to ensure Lesbian and Gay youth, indeed all youth are provided with
the information they need in order to remain free from HIV disease, we
must repeat these efforts."

The Equality Kansas chair is calling on Gays and Lesbians to write or call
the State BOE.

-from the news desk

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