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eNewsletter 3 | | |
|  | 1. From the Editor: Pride Activities and More!
June is Pride Month and Respect Sacramento is taking part in some exciting events and fun activities to mark the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer:
Join us for Friday Movie Night before Pride, June 9 at 7:00 pm at the Lavender Library, 1414 21st Street in Midtown Sacramento. We'll have free popcorn, sodas, and a film. Bring your spirit and talent as we prepare for the...
SacPride Parade and Fair
Saturday, June 10, from 10 am to 6 pm. Students, in GSAs or not, are invited to march with us in the parade (10 to noon or so). Make a sign for your GSA or something to celebrate LGBT students everywhere. We're hoping to have a special element for our parade contingent this year... a school bus! Ride with us or march with us and show your pride! Then stop by our table at SacPride Contact us for more information. We hope to see you there!
After the Pride Fair, check out the Sacramento Pride Art Expo sponsored by the Lambda Youth Council at the Lambda Community Center, 1927 L Street in midtown Sacramento from 6 to 9 pm as part of the Second Saturday Art Walk. For more information, go to www.sacpride.net.
Respect Trip to the AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco, June 17
You're invited! One of our most successful and rewarding activities last year was our trip to the AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and we are opening the trip up to invite more youth, parents, teachers, and representatives of local community organizations to join us. Families are especially welcome! The bus leaves at 7 am from the Lambda Center, and the day will consist of a morning's volunteer work tending to the vegetation in the grove, picking up, clearing brush, weeding, and other work projects as directed by the staff. After lunch--provided by the AMG staff--we'll venture into the city for a short sightseeing or shopping trip, and we'll be home sometime around 4 or 5 pm. We've chartered a bus that can accommodate 50 people, and we're paying the way. All you need to do is drop us a line at admin@respectsacramento.org or call Donna at (916) 505-3494 and reserve a spot. Last year's trip was enjoyable, moving, and rewarding.
Respect Board member Yvonne Neis honored by Sacramento Stonewall Democrats
The Stonewall Democratic Club of Greater Sacramento honored our own Yvonne Neis as one of the recipients of their annual Four Freedoms Awards. Yvonne received the "Freedom from Fear" award for her courage and perserverance in working to improve the learning environment for LGBT students in Sacramento City Unified School District schools. She has endured so much in the last three years, and she has come so far. Congratulations, Yvonne. We agree with fellow awardees Willie Brown (Freedom of Speech), Dr. David Thompson (Freedom of Religion), and Illa Collins (Freedom from Want) that you are an inspiration to us all. And congratulations on being selected as the recipient of the Sacramento PFLAG Follansbee Scholarship--you are soooo deserving!2. Our next meeting: Wed. June 14
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, June 14 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: our trip to the AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco on June 17 (see above). Are you a student at a local secondary school who would like to help plan events? A teacher or parent with a concern? Come on by or drop us a line. Our events are developed by and with local GSA members for their peers in the community. We hope to see you there! 3. Support Youth Films at the SF LGBT Film Festival (San Francisco)
Frameline30
San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival
June 15-25, 2006
www.frameline.org/festival
Do It Yourself -- New Youth Films
Wednesday June 21 | 6:00 pm | Roxie
$9 members | $10 general | DOIT21R
Free for ages 18 and under (present ID at door)!
CO-PRESENTED BY Dimensions Clinic, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, and Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools
Adolescence and young adulthood is a time of golden beauty, vivid dreams, disappointments and hope. Here's an incredible chance to see new work made by youth in collaboration with media arts organizations including Frameline, TILT, BAVC and the Media Arts Center of San Diego.
Jennifer Gilomen's "Queer Youth Speak: In and Out at the Library "follows two young people as they experience the queer past though an archive and add their own poetic voices to the history they witness. Johanna Malaret and Ethan van Thillo's documentary "Altared Lives" follows ten LGBTQ young adults as they explore religion, family, culture and sexuality.
The following films were made by the Wells Fargo/ Frameline Youth Filmmaker Workshop in collaboration with TILT. The lives of passengers briefly intersect on a BART train in erica sokolowershain's "Where have we been all this time?" When a queer teenager stains her clothes, she must find a way to come out to her parents without her lucky shirt in Juliana Spector's "Stainless."
QUEER YOUTH SPEAK: IN AND OUT AT THE LIBRARY dir Jennifer Gilomen 2005 USA 14 min video ALTARED LIVES dir Ethan van Thillo & Johanna Malaret 2006 USA 27 min video WHERE HAVE WE BEEN ALL THIS TIME ? dir ericka sokolowershain 2006 USA 7 min video STAINLESS dir Juliana Spector 2006 USA 10 min video
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 58 Min
Frameline30, the 30th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, screening June 15-25 at the Castro Theatre, Roxie Film Center, Victoria Theatre, Cinearts@Empire, and the Parkway Theatre is the oldest and largest event of its kind in the world. Tickets go on sale to Frameline members Friday, May 26. General public ticket sales begin Friday, June 2. Tickets are available at Superstar Satellite video store located at 474 Castro Street (between Market and 18th Street in San Francisco), online at www.frameline.org/festival, by phone at 925 866 9559 and by fax at 925 866 9597. 4. State Capitol exhibit celebrating LGBT Pride Month
For the fifth year in a row, the California State Capitol Museum Second-Floor Capitol Rotunda will display an exhibit recognizing the history of gays and lesbians. Join us at the Opening Ceremony: 5:00 pm, June 13, Capitol Rotunda. This is believed to be the only LGBT-themed exhibit to be displayed in a state capitol building.
This display is part of a series of Community Pride projects brought to you by the Legislative LGBT Caucus and the Lavender Library, Archives and Cultural Exchange. The exhibit will be on display during regular Capitol hours June 1-30. For further information contact the Lavender Library at info@lavenderlibrary.org. 5. Why pride matters
In the current print issue of The Advocate, Hollywood publicist Michael Levine argues that pride festivals are bad PR. His fellow Hollywood publicist respectfully--and strongly--disagrees.
By Howard Bragman
I was reading Michael Levine's commentary on why gay pride celebrations are bad for our image [in the June 6 print issue of The Advocate], and I must say I couldn't disagree more. Let me tell you how I come to this conclusion.
First, I have been practicing public relations for more than 25 years. I have had the honor and privilege of representing nearly every major LGBT organization in the United States, including Christopher Street West, the group behind Los Angeles's gay pride celebration. I have participated in the parade as its publicist, as an honoree (Gay Businessman of the Year), as a marcher, and as a spectator.
You can't discuss the public implications of gay pride without understanding a historical perspective. Thirty years ago, when these celebrations were in their infancy, our community was invisible. I repeat, invisible. Mainstream news organizations did not cover our community; our civil rights struggles had no legitimacy; and if we were covered, it usually focused on negative or stereotypical images.
The gay pride parades were our moment. Our earliest pioneers stood in public and said, "I'm here, I'm queer, get used to it." While that wasn't the language they used, necessarily, it was certainly the spirit in which the parades were presented.
Now, when we march down Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, Calif.--a city where the majority of the elected officials are openly gay--it's easy to forget that what has become an afternoon celebration was once an act of remarkable courage.
And who were our earliest heroes? They were the very members of our community who had no choice but to be out--the butchest lesbians and the most effeminate men; leather enthusiasts; and our political pioneers.
We have grown and matured as a community, and our parades now present a much more diverse cross section of our population. But at the beginning it was the few and the proud, and all of us should be deeply indebted to those who talked the talk and walked the walk. Without their efforts, we would not be where we are today.
The second point I need to make is that gay pride celebrations were not created for the media. They were created for us. They bring us together in droves, and they inspire a sense of community. No one can go to a gay pride parade and not be amazed at the numbers and the diversity of our people and not feel a sense of kinship and community.
One of the most moving moments of my entire life was marching in the parade with my parents in the PFLAG contingent. The cheering was amazing. My mother started crying and said, "This must be what if feels like to win Wimbledon."
Attendance has changed at parades. Thousands of our straight friends now join us, not to gawk or hold up signs telling us we're going to hell, but to share our celebration and party They know that without gay people, parades wouldn't exist. In fact, parties probably wouldn't exist. And if they did, the partygoers would be poorly dressed, the food and decor would suck, and the whole event would be bo-o-oring.
I'm not ignorant of the points that Mr. Levine was trying to make. It does seem that the media likes to focus on Dykes on Bikes and Tom of Finland–esque men in harnesses and leather jockstraps.
Do the mainstream media need to present a more accurate and balanced picture of our community? Of course they do. They need to get away from the stereotypes and take a more balanced look at every community, not just ours. It's hard to do this in a 90-second news story, but we have to keep pressure on them to show realistic and positive portrayals of us--a lesbian firefighter, gay parents with an HIV+ child, or a transgender teacher sharing textbook and life lessons with children.
When I was doing PR for Christopher Street West, I used to take the media to the kitchen cabinet refinishing booth to show them that we're just as boring as the rest of the world. But I never denied our more flamboyant brothers and sisters--they are us, and they have as rightful a place in our community as a Log Cabin Republican in a Brooks Brothers suit.
Even more justified, in my mind.
Bragman is the founder of the Los Angeles–based Fifteen Minutes PR. 6. Announcements
From GSA Network:
GSA Network Activist Camps! APPLY ONLINE!
The GSA Activist Camps are youth-planned and youth-led intense 3-day events featuring hardcore community building, skill-building, political education, and leadership training for GSA members. All youth who will be involved in a high school or middle school GSA next year are strongly encouraged to apply.
Southern California Activist Camp - Los Angeles
July 14th - 16th, 2006
Northern California Activist Camp - Oakland
July 28th - 30th, 2006
Central Valley Activist Camp - Fresno
August 11th - 13th, 2006
APPLY ONLINE! Go to www.gsanetwork.org/camp/camp2006.html to get more info and apply online!
From The Lambda Players:
"Take Me Out" confronts an unmentionable issue in professional sports, which, although whispered and gossiped about, has yet to make real
headlines: homosexuality among sport stars.
This Tony Award winning play should not be missed. Mark your calendars.
$15 for adults $13 for students, seniors and SARTA:
Friday's and Saturday's 5/11- 6/17 at 8 pm $10 for all:
Thursday's 6/07 at 8 pm
Sunday's 6/04 at 2pm
www.lambdaplayers.com
From CARES:
CARES, Northern California's HIV/AIDS Healthcare Center, holds its 7th Annual CARES Luau! Saturday, June 17, from 6-10 pm at the CARES Clinic, 1500 21st Street in midtown Sacramento.
Over the past 20 years there are not to many of us who don't know of someone who has been affected by HIV/AIDS and its devastating effects on friends and family.
The Luau is a yearly fund raising effort for the nonprofit CARES, an HIV/AIDS regional health-care clinic, pharmacy and social services entity located in Sacramento. CARES was established in 1989 through a partnership of Sacramento County and the area's four major hospital systems, led by the University of California at Davis Medical Center.
The 2006 7th Annual CARES Luau will feature fabulous food, tropical drinks, live and silent auctions and the exotic stylings of San Francisco-based APE, "The World's Greatest Tiki Band," featuring a tiki carving performance by "Crazy Al" Evans, whose work will be auctioned off at the evening's end. The event will take place behind the CARES building at 1500 21st Street in Sacramento. Tickets are $75. For more info call 916-914-6363 or check out www.caresclinic.org. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Canadian province to offer LGBT H.S. course
June. 1, VANCOUVER BC (365gay.com) Grade 12 students in British Columbia schools will learn about LGBT issues in a new course to be offered this fall.
The course, to be called Social Justice, will examine a range of topics, including race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. It stems from a British Columbia Human Rights complaint filed by a same-sex couple.
Murray Corren and his same-sex partner, Peter, accused the Ministry of Education of discrimination against gay students and the children of same-sex partners.
A human rights tribunal heard evidence in the case last year.
Correm, a teacher in Coquitlam, has been fighting for recognition of gay issues in the curriculum for nearly nine years. He says that there is systemic discrimination through omission and "suppression of queer issues in the whole of the curriculum."
The couple's complaint focused on the Social Studies curriculum set by the provincial government that includes specific reference to aboriginals, women, and multiculturalism, but there is no mention of gays, lesbians, or transsexuals.
Corren said the curriculum should include LGBT history and historical figures, the presences of positive gay role models - past and present, the contributions made by gays to society and civilization, along with issues relating to same-sex marriage and gay families.
"As a teacher, when I looked through the curriculum documents, I could see very little acknowledgment or evidence that the existence of gay and lesbian people in our society and in history was pretty well absent from the curriculum," he told CTV television. "We felt that was discriminatory."
The province's teachers union also supported the complaint.
In an agreement with the B.C. government the the department of education will add the course as an option for grade 12 students and the couple agreed to withdraw their complaint.
The government also said it would launch a review of the entire curriculum to ensure it reflects B.C.'s diverse population.
"We are delighted with this agreement. British Columbia will be leading the way for the rest of Canada," said Corren.
Last week California Gov. Schwarzenegger said he would veto legislation requiring schools to teach LGBT history. The measure had passed the Senate but was still pending in the Assembly.
While the B.C. course will be optional, the California legislation would have mandated schools to teach the course.
California already requires that African Americans, native peoples, Mexicans, Asians and Pacific Islanders be included in textbook descriptions of "the economic, political and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society."
Anti-gay T-shirt suit may wind up in Supreme Court
May 31, SAN FRANCISCO (365gay.com) A legal battle being waged on behalf of a suburban San Diego teenager who was barred from wearing a T-shirt with anti-gay rhetoric to class could end up in the US Supreme Court legal analysts suggest.
A federal judge in San Diego is weighing arguments over whether the Poway Unified School District violated Tyler Chase Harper's First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion for keeping him out of class when he wore a shirt on the National Day of Silence in 2004.
The T-shirt was hand-lettered with the words "I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned" on the front and on the back it read "Homosexuality is Shameful" and "Romans 1:27," a reference to a Bible passage.
When he refused to remove the T-shirt Harper was suspended and subsequently filed a federal lawsuit against the school district.
In April the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a ruling that addressed only the narrow issue of whether the dress code should be unenforced pending the outcome of the lawsuit said that the school could restrict what students wear to prevent disruptions.
In a hearing involving the suit itself lawyers for Harper asked Judge John A. Houston to find the school's ban on negative or offensive speech toward gays is unconstitutional.
They argued that Houston should issue a summary judgment without a trial.
The school district's lawyers are asking for a summary judgment that the school did nothing wrong.
Each side says that whichever way Houston rules there will be an appeal.
Legal experts suggest that as school districts weigh how to protect LGBT students from harassment against conservative students free speech rights to object to homosexuality it is only a matter of time before the Supreme Court becomes involved.
Houston has not indicated when he will make a decision in the case.Gays' place in textbooks: Debate is on
May 22, SACRAMENTO (The Sacramento Bee) Lance Chih first read Walt Whitman's inspiring poetry in his state-approved 10th-grade literature textbook. It was easy for the newly out-of-the-closet teen to connect with the beloved poet's messages, particularly those about celebrating one's own individuality and identity.
"The ones we read in class, it meant something to me," said Chih, now 18 and about to graduate from Folsom High School.
He thinks it would have been helpful, though, to learn, too, that Whitman's groundbreaking lines carried more than one man's view on slavery, the working man and the American landscape. Whitman's work, such as the Calamus poems, a series written in 1860 that articulated intense affection between males, later made him the poster child for the gay liberation movement.
But Chih didn't learn that in class. He learned it a year later through his own readings and through friends in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Right now, California textbooks rarely broach the subject of sexual orientation. Students like Chih might see brief references to gays or lesbians in their social science textbooks, such as when being taught about the AIDS epidemic.
Senate Bill 1437, a state measure recently approved by the Senate that will now be vetted in the Assembly, seeks to change that by recognizing the contributions of the LGBT community in the social science curriculum in the same way the state has come to recognize the achievements of women and minorities.
The measure as currently drafted doesn't spell out how that would be accomplished; those decisions would be left up to the California Board of Education.
Supporters say passage of the bill could perhaps prompt teachers to expand a class discussion on literary greats like Whitman and Oscar Wilde, who was convicted and jailed for homosexuality. They say history books could teach about the gay rights movement and California politicians like Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to serve on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Opponents argue that the bill is unnecessary and carries an ulterior motive -- to force schools to promote homosexuality and alternative lifestyles. Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, calls SB 1437 a terrible infringement on a parent's rights because it teaches about something they may not support. More... SF school board considers cutting JROTC over Pentagon gay policy
May 23, SAN FRANCISCO (The San Francisco Chronicle) The San Francisco Board of Education appears poised to kick the military's Junior ROTC programs out of the city's public schools, saying the Pentagon's refusal to allow openly gay service members is deplorable and not in line with the school district's anti-discrimination policy.
School board members are scheduled to introduce a resolution tonight outlawing the JROTC because of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rule. The resolution calls that policy an "unjust, indefensible, unintelligent, state-sanctioned act of homophobia."
The resolution, which won't get a final vote until June, would create a task force to develop a similar program without a tie to the military and would phase out JROTC by the 2007-08 school year.
JROTC currently has 1,625 students in seven San Francisco public high schools: Balboa, Burton, Galileo, Lincoln, Lowell, Mission and Washington. Students enroll on a voluntary basis and earn physical education credits for participating in the military-sponsored program. The students engage in physical training such as running, push-ups and jumping jacks; and discipline training such as marching, drill-practice and using a mock chain of command. They also study military history and perform community service. More... | | | That's enough for now. Did I leave anything out? Please drop me a line. 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 complaints, comments, or 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!
See you on Wednesday, June 14 at 6:30 at the Lambda Center.
Jerry O'Connor
Respect Sacramento Board Member
Respect Sacramento
PO Box 191678
Sacramento CA 95819
(916) 733-2135
info@respectsacramento.org
www.respectsacramento.org
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| | Quote Unquote
It doesn't take courage to be gay in L.A. It takes courage to be gay in Williamsburg, Kentucky, where you can be expelled for a gay MySpace page.
- Comedian Alec Mapa
It is probably easier to change laws than to try to change closed minds.
- Anonymous response to an Advocate.com Poll question: Is it more important for LGBT activists to go to places where discrimination is the strongest than to lobby lawmakers? | |
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