From kevyn@KSUVM.KSU.EDUSat Jul 8 17:02:50 1995 Date: Fri, 7 Jul 1995 16:56:02 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevyn Jacobs To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" Cc: GLB-NEWS Subject: (USA, KANSAS) Midwestern Education Activist Robert Birle Dies Friends: Below is an article about the death of Robert Birle, an educator and activist for Project 21, who lived in Kansas City. Robert went from town to town here in Kansas, networking with the local activists, meeting with school officials, and giving presentations on the mission of project 21. His work with the grassroots across the region, including here in my hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, has helped to bring our education system closer to being a more open and safe place for LesBiGay Students and Teachers. Robert and his work will be sorely missed. -Kevyn Jacobs Manhattan, Kansas ========================================== FROM THE NEWS-TELEGRAPH JUNE 9-22, 1995 ========================== ACTIVIST ROBERT BIRLE DIES, HIS HOPE LIVES ON by Lisa Marie Neff KANSAS CITY-Robert Birle had a vision for the twenty-first century. He foresaw that by the turn of the century, Gay and Lesbian youth would no longer have to live the lies, search for information and lose the years he lost growing up in Philadelphia. So Robert Birle quit a job as an art teacher in Antioch, California and moved to Kansas City, where he set up base as the director of the mid-American region for Project 21--a coalition of people and organizations working to make sure Gay and Lesbian youth find the information they need in school libraries, school courses and counselors offers. Robert Birle died last month, just before he received his achievement award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/Kansas City Chapter. Birle, along with Art Brisbane, the Kansas City Star, Karen McCarthy, the Reverend Paul Smith and the late Lydia A. Moore, received the 1995 Leadership Awards. Birle died just after seeing his work so extensively reported in "School's Out: The Impact of Gay and Lesbian Issues on America's Schools". The book, published by Alyson Publications, was written by journalist Dan Woog, who interviewed 300 teachers, students, parents and administrators in an effort to find out what is going on in the American school system. Woog, in an interview after Birle's death, said as he did the research on his book Birle's "name kept popping up." People were talking about his work. Woog said that while he found activist work taking place around the Midwest, he saw Birle's work as unique. "Great stuff is happening in smaller towns, but (Birle) really saw a Midwest-wide need for something and he went out and made it happen. Most of what is going on is local or national. What Rob did regionally is unique." Project 21 was introduced in 1990 by Jessea Greenman of GLAAD/San Francisco, Hank Wilson of the Gay and Lesbian Youth Advocacy Council in San Francisco and Birle, who at the time was with the Bay Area Network of Gay and Lesbian Educators. Project 21's goal was to talk with school board members about curricula and textbooks and provide schools with Gay and Lesbian resource material. Birle contacted schools in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma Nebraska and Iowa. Receiving mostly negative responses, Project 21 focused on building grassroots, community support for action in local school districts. For example, Project 21 launched its book donation project, providing two paperbacks--Annie On My Mind and All American Boys--to 42 school districts in the Kansas City area. There was a protest outside the Kansas City School District office and a burning of Annie, Nancy Garden's book deemed Best of the Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association. There was a counter-demonstration. There were committees appointed to review the books and most school district advisory boards eventually placed them on the shelf. However, there were exceptions. In the Kansas Shawnee Mission School District, for example, a committee decided the books advocated the Lesbian and Gay agenda and restricted access to them. Students checked out thousands of books and circulated petitions to protest censorship. In some districts, Annie was accepted and All-American Boys re- fused. In Lee's Summit, Missouri, the paperbacks were refused and the copies of Annie already sitting on library shelves were removed. In Olathe, Kansas, Annie was removed from the shelves after some parents protested. The student government president responded by calling on the American Civil Liberties Union. Woog said, "What Rob did in the Midwest is very appropriate for the Midwest. He saw that as a way to raise consciousness." Birle's hope for the turn of the century is similar to Woog's agenda. "My agenda is safe schools for all kids," Woog said. "No one in education would say, 'I think our schools should be safe for 90% of the kids here.' And if you've got a kid who is petrified of going to school...then that is not a safe school. If you've kids are allowed to use homophobic epitaphs and a school where faculty members are afraid to come out, then that is not a safe school." Woog said activists such as Birle have brought the education movement to a crossroads. "I think the fact that these issues are being discussed and discussed openly is a real important trend," he said, adding, however, that the Theocratic assault continues. The twenty-first century, has not yet arrived. ========================================================== Permission granted by the News-Telegraph for distribution to the KQN email list (KQN@casti.com), and archiving in the Queer Resources Directory (QRD) on the Internet (http://www.qrd.org/qrd). For News-Telegraph subscription information (published twice a month), please call 1.816.561.6266, or email: newstele@aol.com ==========================================================