|
eNewsletter 3 | | |
|  | From the Editor:
Respect receives generous grant from Sacramento Valley Bears
Respect Sacramento was one of several community groups to receive grants from the Ken Day Fund from the Sacramento Valley Bears (SVB). In a presentation at their December regular meeting, the SVB announced that Respect would receive funding for the upcoming year in the amount of $7000, which will enable us to continue the work of supporting safe schools for all students, regardless of sexual identity or gender expression, and providing accurate and engaging information on HIV/AIDS to area youth.
In accepting the award from the Bears, Donna Matthews thanked the group for their long-standing commitment to the community. The Sacramento Valley Bears gives more money to area groups than any other LGBT charitable organization in Sacramento. Without their generosity, we would not be able to provide area students and schools with services and support. Way to go Bears!
Join our email newsgroup at Yahoo!
Respect Sacramento welcomes new subscribers to our email newsgroup at Yahoo! (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/respectsacramento). When you join, you can read and post messages, news, and announcements of interest to students and teachers all over the country. Yahoo email groups are easy to join and really flexible in their configuration--you can arrange it so you receive email posts individually, in periodic digests, or even no email posts at all (you check the website for announcements at your convenience). Stay on top of news of interest to the Greater Sacramento area LGBT and education communities by joining today!
Contribute to our newsletter
Do you have an announcement or item that you'd like to include in our newsletter? Would you like to write an opinion piece about something in the LGBT education area? Tell us about what's going on in your GSA! Send submissions to admin@respectsacramento.org and I will be happy to place it in our newletter, which is composed and sent out in the first week of the month. Make this your newsletter by contributing to it!Our next meeting: Wed. January 11
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, January 11 at 6:30 pm. Our regular meeting time and place is the second Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm at the Lambda Community Center, 1927 L Street in midtown Sacramento.
On our agenda: plans for the next GSA Youth Leaderhship Workshop. Are you a student at a local secondary school who would like to help plan our next workshop? Come on by or drop us a line. Our workshops are developed by local GSA members for their peers in the community. We hope to see you there! The Other Side of the Closet at McClatchy HS a great success
Approximately 150 people were in attendance at McClatchy High School for the Sacramento presentation of "The Other Side of the Closet" a play that tells the story of 5 teens who are grappling with issues of peer pressure, youth violence, homophobia, behavior norms, expectations, discrimination and identity. School staff, representatives from the district and the Sacramento City school board, community members from Respect and Stonewall, as well as students and parents from around Sacramento were treated to an outstanding performance followed by a facilitated discussion session with the cast.
This hard-hitting play, presented by the YouthAware Educational Theatre program of the New Conservatory Theater Center in San Francisco (http://www.nctcsf.org/Other.html) supports a safer school curriculum wherein students, teachers and parents can learn about diversity and acceptance in an innovative and engaging format.
According to event organizer Yvonne Neis, a McClatchy HS senior and Respect board member, the evening was a huge success. "It couldn't have gone any better than it did. Some teachers even offered extra credit, so there were even more students than I expected! The play was awesome, the cast was so good and very professional."
The Lesbian Gay Straight Alliance at CKM High School would like to thank all who came out to show their support. The event raised a couple hundred dollars for their club. GSA Network News
Loud, Proud, & on the Way to the Capitol!
Save the Date---Queer Youth Advocacy Day 2006!
Join GSA Network, EQCA, & hundreds of LGBTQ & straight ally youth for Queer Youth Advocacy Day.
Who: You & your friends, your GSA members & hundreds of youth activists
Where: Sacramento, CA
When: Monday, March 6, 2006
Why: To unite with GSAS & youth from all over CA!
To learn how to lobby lawmakers & influence people
To help create safer schools & make sure everyone has a chance at an education.
What: On March 6, youth will sit down & talk with each & every CA Legislature member about a proposed law that will make it clearer how schools can end discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Following a mass training & a huge rally on the capitol steps, we're going to visit every legislator's office to share our stories. This is your chance to make a difference that will affect schools in every corner of CA.
You'll tell lawmakers what it's really like to be in school. Tell them what you need to feel safe, supported, and ignored no more. They need to hear from you!
More info: Email Lai-San Seto at advocacy@gsanetwork.org or call 415-552-4229 Nominate a California leader
The James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards annually recognize four to six Californians who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to some of the challenging issues facing California and who are making a significant difference to our shared future. Nominees for the award may be working in any field—such as education, health, the arts, housing, economic development, or the environment—in the public, private, or nonprofit sector. Award recipients will receive $125,000 of flexible support for their work to benefit the people of California.
The nomination deadline is January 20, 2006 and we invite you to nominate an innovative, effective California leader for this award.
Nominations are welcomed from anyone who is well-acquainted with the nominated leader (or leadership group) and can attest to his or her qualifications. A nomination form may be downloaded at http://www.irvine.org/leadership, and we anticipate that the nomination process will take no more than one to two hours. The Web site provides more details about the awards, as well as answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
Submit your nomination by January 20, 2006. Nominations will be accepted in the Foundation's San Francisco office through January 20, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. PST. Thank you for becoming a part of this program to recognize and celebrate effective leaders by nominating an outstanding Californian. The Trevor Project: Keeping LGBT youth alive
The Trevor Project (http://www.thetrevorproject.org) runs the only national 365-days-a-year hotline for LGBT youth—or any adolescent—who's considering suicide. Logging 1,000 calls a month at 866-4-U-TREVOR, the help line is a vital resource at the holidays and all year long.
The year-end holidays bring joy to many—and depression and thoughts of suicide to others. When those at risk are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning youth, the Trevor Project is there to help every day of the year, including Christmas. The organization runs a toll-free national suicide hotline—(866) 4-U-TREVOR—as well as suicide-education programs for LGBT youth. For more information, The Advocate.com has an interview with Jorge Valencia, the executive director of the Trevor Project at http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid23734.asp.
Capital City AIDS Fund: An Evening with Oscar
Capital City AIDS Fund (CCAF)
Oscar Night® America - Sacramento, Dinner Party
"An Evening With Oscar®"
Sunday, March 5th
The event, a black tie optional affair, is one of the highlights of the social season in Sacramento. The front entrance to the Hyatt will be turned into a Hollywood style grand entrance complete with red carpet.
Uptown Studios is helping out to collect donations of items for the silent auction. Art work, Baskets of coffee or goodies, Trips to sunny places, a dinner out on the town... Be creative! If you have something that you can add to our fabulous list of items drop me a line at tina@uptownstudios.net
CCAF is a non-profit 501(c)3 whose mission is to support Sacramento area HIV/AIDS organizations. capitalcityaidsfund@yahoo.com
| | | | | | | | | | High school seniors overwhelmingly support gay families
Jan. 5, NEW YORK CITY (365Gay.com) A national poll of high school seniors shows that young people are twice as likely as adults to support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.
The survey was conducted by Zogby International for Hamilton College in Clinton, NY. The results, released Thursday, come at a time when conservative groups are trying to prevent the establishment of Gay Straight Associations at schools in a number of states nationwide.
The poll on "hot button" political issues also found that students in the high school class of 2006 support strong handgun control measures but oppose abortion.
Three-quarters of the high school seniors throughout the country favor the legal recognition of same-sex relationships, either as marriage or civil union.
The survey found that three in four seniors oppose a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Sixty-three percent support adoption by gay couples.
On the issue of abortion most high school seniors said it was morally wrong and would severely limit a woman's right to choose.
The poll found that students feel that a woman who is poor and unable to afford another child should not have a legal right to an abortion. Two-thirds of high school seniors would require parental consent before a woman under the age of 18 could legally obtain an abortion.
Nevertheless, when asked about Roe v. Wade, more than 60 percent of high school seniors want the Supreme Court to preserve the abortion decision.
This was the eighth annual Hamilton Youth Poll and comes as many high school seniors prepare to become first time voters in November 2006.
One thousand high school seniors from across the U.S. were contacted by phone for the study of attitudes on abortion, guns and gays. The poll was funded by Hamilton College's Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percent.
| | | | | Researchers argue gay generation gap must be overcome
Dec. 23, AMHERST MASS. (365gay.com) A generation gap as wide as a chasm divides younger and older gays a think tank that deal with LGBT issues has found.
Researchers at Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies say that the differences must be overcome.
Whether working specifically with LGBT youth groups or in other contexts, people from different age cohorts have very different experiences and beliefs that reflect the rapid changes over time in the treatment of LGBT people in families, workplaces, schools, and communities, the Institute says in a new report.
"In interviews with LGBT youth and adults, we found a noticeable gap in communications across generations," noted Dr. Glenda Russell, a co-author of the report. "LGBT adults tend to project their own experiences onto today's young people, when in fact the lives of today's young people are often quite different."
The study notes several examples of this generation gap. "Alternative proms" organized by LGBT adults for LGBT high school youth often seem to be designed to meet the needs of the adult organizers who missed their own proms rather than the needs of today's young people, the study found.
Adults tend to focus on the suffering and isolation of LGBT youth, even though many LGBT teens are actually doing well, Russell said.
From the other direction, she said, young LGBT people sometimes complain that no one is doing anything about discrimination, apparently unaware of decades of prior activism by LGBT adults.
The challenge for the community is to turn these differences into opportunities for learning and growth the report says.
Co-author Dr. Janis Bohan notes, "The good news is that both sides can learn from each other. LGBT adults should be willing to follow the lead of young people, and young LGBT people should be willing to use adults as mentors."
Young people often provide a fresh perspective on issues that is both less constrained by past strategies for problem solving and less reliant on older-and perhaps incorrect-assumptions about the degree of homophobia, Bohan said.
Adults, on the other hand, have greater experience and resources and are more familiar with the historical roots of the LGBT movement.
To read a summary of the report, join our Yahoo newsgroup at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/respectsacramento/ and click on the Files section. I've posted a copy of it in a PDF format.
Gay-friendly prom in Tracy gets protest threat
Dec. 30, TRACY CA (365gay.com) Justin Daley is more than happy to talk about the upcoming "gay-friendly" prom he is organizing, just don't ask him to mention where it will be held. The West High senior and president of his school's Gay/Straight Alliance Club is not trying to be coy, but at this point, he would simply rather not say.
Not with an impending protest from the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas, which brought its message of "God hates fags" to the Central Valley in the spring to protest graduation day at Tracy and West high schools.
"I don't want to make things too easy for Reverand Phelps and his followers," Daley said of his cloak-and-dagger routine surrounding the prom's official location. "We will announce the actual location of the event about a month before the prom."
The self-described "hatemongers" from Westboro have made numerous trips to the West Coast in recent years to protest everything from "gay-friendly" proms to funerals of American soldiers killed overseas.
According to a fax from the Westboro headquarters, "America has raised a generation of filthy fags and dykes," and "every body bag filled with body parts is the work of our schools."
The church says that school officials are "irreversibly bound for hell" for allowing gay/straight clubs to form.
Despite the prospect of uninvited guests, Daley is sure his prom will go off without a hitch.
"I don't really think they will be able to negatively affect our prom at all," he said. "If anything, they are going to give us more attention, and attract 300 to 400 counter-protesters like last time."
Daley is quick to note that although the prom is labeled gay friendly, it is open to anyone with an open mind.
The prom is officially scheduled for April 13. | | | | | Two Quotes of the Year 2005:
Not just hip-hop, but America just discriminates. And I wanna just, to come on TV and just tell my rappers, just tell my friends, `Yo, stop it.' - Hip Hop Artist Kanye West (during an MTV special)
We perceive no reason why both parents of a child cannot be women. - The California Supreme Court | | You are subscribed as xxx@xxx.net To unsubscribe please click here.
 
|
