Subject: GLSTN Applauds UT Teachers and Students: Offers Free Resource
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 12:57:53 -0500

***GLSTN NEWS***GLSTN NEWS***GLSTN NEWS***

For Immediate Release  

Contact: Kevin Jennings, Executive Director, 212-727-0135
February 28, 1996         

         National Teachers Organization Applauds 
                    Teachers and Students in Utah
   Offers Free Resource Packet to Any Students Wishing to Start      
            'Gay-Straight Alliances' in American High Schools

New York, NY. . . The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers Network today
commended Utah teacher Clayton Vetter, who became the first public school
teacher in that state to acknowledge being gay in a press conference
announcing the formation of a Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers Alliance in
Salt Lake City on February 27.  Vetter came out, and community members
mobilized the group, in response to the 4-3 vote last week of the Salt Lake
City Board of Education to ban student clubs rather than allow students to
form a Gay-Straight Alliance at East High School.

"Clayton Vetter and his supporters have stood up for the values of truth and
honesty," said Kevin Jennings, GLSTN's Executive Director.  "Rather than
allowing the 'big lie' that gays are a threat to our children to continue, he
and other community members have spoken up on behalf of equality for all
people."  Jennings, who in 1989 was the faculty advisor the nation's
first-ever Gay-Straight Alliance at Concord Academy in Concord,
Massachusetts, added, "Students in Utah have a right to go to schools where
all people are respected, and where teachers and students are judged on their
abilities and character rather than by the prejudices of any single element
of the community.  The courage of student like Kelli Petersen [founder of the
East H.S. Gay-Straight Alliance] and teachers like Clayton Vetter will
triumph over the cowardice of so-called 'leaders' who are willing to scrap an
entire extracurricular program rather than allow a few kids a place to meet."

Jennings went on to offer free copies of GLSTN's "Starting a Gay-Straight
Alliance" publication to any student in the U.S. who wishes to found such an
organization.  "We won't let ourselves, or these kids, be silenced by
legislative intimidation.  If kids want to start a club to make their schools
places where all people are respected, we'll do everything in our power to
help them."  Call 212-727-0135 or e-mail [email-masked] for a copy of the
guide.

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.

                                     -END RELEASE-