From: GLSTNJohn@aol.com
Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 22:50:27 -0400
Subject: GLSTN Congratulates Merrimack Voters

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NEWS from the
Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers Network (GLSTN)

122  West 26th Street, Suite 1100
New York, NY 100001
email:  glstn@glstn.org
WWW:    http://www.glstn.org/freedom/
_________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 1996
                                
    GLSTN CONGRATULATES MERRIMACK VOTERS ON 
      OUSTING FAR RIGHT SCHOOL BOARD MAJORITY

                     Hails Victory of Tolerance Over Bigotry
                                
                                                **

Find out more about GLSTN, the only organization of gay and straight
educators and community members working to see all members of the school
community are valued and respected, regardless of sexual orientation, on our
web site: http://www.glstn.org/freedom/

                                                **
                                
NEW YORK -- The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers Network congratulated
Merrimack, N.H. voters for their resounding rejection of the town's far right
school board majority in Tuesday's election, when pro-education candidate
Rosemarie Rung trounced her opponent by an over 2-1 majority in the
largest-ever turn-out in a school board election in the town's history.
 Merrimack was thrust into a national spotlight last year, when it was used
as a testing ground by the California-based "Traditional Values Coalition," a
religious-extremist organization that coached local school board members in
passing a policy that prohibited any program that had the "intent or effect
of encouraging homosexuality as a positive lifestyle alternative."  
 
"Tuesday's election was a referendum on that policy, and Rung's overwhelming
victory makes it clear that Merrimack voters have no intention of letting an
intolerant minority set the agenda for their schools," said Kevin Jennings,
GLSTN's Executive Director, who cited the headline in the May 15 Nashua
Telegraph--  "Conservatives Clearly Crushed" -- as evidence for his
interpretation.  "Local people saw that this was all about intolerance, and
they rejected that as something that was unfit for children," he added.  
 
Jennings, who attended the school board meeting where the policy was passed
last August and spoke at a rally organized by townspeople in the aftermath of
that vote, spoke of the national implications of the Merrimack election.
 
"This election is a wake-up call to the right wing extremists," Jennings
said. "They now know that they won't be able to pass such policies with
impunity, and that their real agenda -- using the schools to instruct young
people in the lesson of bigotry -- is being found out."  Jennings added, "The
controversy in Merrimack led directly to the founding of a GLSTN chapter by
people in New Hampshire last fall, and there is a lesson to be learned here
by the Right: the more you attack us, the more we will get organized and
fight back -- and we will win."
 
Jennings cited local activists such as Merrimack citizen Randy Kottwitz as
the key to the success of the Merrimack effort.  "The fact that local people
led this drive made it clear that this wasn't a 'special rights agenda' as
the right would have you believe, " Jennings said.  "We plan to organize
community by community every time they launch their campaigns of bigotry,
because we won't let that lesson be taught in our schools anymore."

                                                **

With over thirty chapters, and a membership of over three thousand teachers,
parents, and concerned citizens, The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers
Network (GLSTN) is the largest national organization working to insure that
schools are places where all people are respected and valued, regardless of
sexual orientation.

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