December 2006 E-Newsletter

4. GSA Network News
Register your GSA
Before you plan any events for your GSA, remember to register or
re-register your group with the GSA Network. Do it NOW to make sure
you receive our student resource sheets, FREE posters, other
resources, and notifications of future GSA Network or LGBT-related
events (see below). Register online at
http://www.gsanetwork.org/register/index.html

If you have any questions or concerns, contact:
Tanya Mayo, Program Director
tanya@gsanetwork.org
415-552-4229

Save the date - Queer Youth Advocacy Day, March 26,2007
Mark your calendars for QYAD 2007 on March 26 in Sacramento!

Queer Youth Advocacy Day is a youth-led lobby day at the Capitol
where hundreds of youth activists come together and educate
lawmakers about the need for statewide policy that will make schools
safer and more supportive for LGBTQ youth.

QYAD 2006 was huge success that brought 500 people to the Capitol,
showed California legislators the power of youth activism, and
opened a lot of people's eyes to the kind of harassment and
discrimination still faced by many students. Now, it's time to go back
to the Capitol and show them that we're still fighting for safer schools!

WHO: LGBTQ youth & their allies
WHERE: Crest Theater & the Capitol (Sacramento)
WHEN: Monday, March 26, 2007
WHY: To network with other youth activists, learn important advocacy
skills, and help make change for schools all over California

Informational packets with additional details will be mailed out later
this fall to all GSAs registered with GSA Network. Keep an eye on your
mailboxes!

For more info, email advocacy@gsanetwork.org or call 415-552-4229.

3. Announcements
Uptown Studios moving
Uptown Studios is moving our office over the holidays. We found a
really cute little house at 410 Alhambra Blvd. that we will be moving
into. No more parking hassles, no more stairs. Same great people...

Our old space will be available effective Jan 1. with 850 sq. ft. on the
office side for about $1500 per month plus our fabulous gallery space
that can be negotiated with the landlord. If you are interested shoot
me an email and I will connect you

Q-CREW Social Activists
Q-Crew is a group of like-minded liberals that do something about the
anti-gay activists in town--something well-planned and positive. Join
us and we will change the world. http://www.qcrew.org

King Hall Lambda Law Students Association Shadow Day
Ever thought about law school? Come be a law student for a day!
Attend classes, have your questions answered by queer law
students, and hear about career options from attorneys working in
LGBT advocacy. We especially welcome members of the lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender communities and friends of the LGBT
community.
When: Friday, January 19th, 2007. 8:00 am - 4:00 pm.
Where: UC Davis, King Hall School of Law
Contact: To register or for more information, please contact Kate at
kadoty@ucdavis.edu

Calling all progressive ECE educators
...or those new in the field with some ECE credits, who would like to
learn and practice anti-bias & emergent curriculum and help create a
Deweyan democratic classroom. Our preschool is a newly created
progressive preschool grounded in the philosophy of Dewey, Reggio
& Vgotsky. Great center, organization and growth opportunities!
Come facilitate organic learning with us! Note: We have a part-time
AM preschool position or, for those who need FT hours, you can also
work with school age children in our after school program. Contact
Shaun Adrian Chong Flatt at shaunflatt@mac.com.

PFLAG Meetings
The Sacramento chapter of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians
and Gays (PFLAG) support group meets the third Tuesday of each
month from 7:30 - 9:30 P.M. at St Marks United Methodist Church,
2391 St. Marks Way in Sacramento, on the second floor of the
education building. It is located at the corner of St. Marks Way and
Lusk Drive, behind Country Club Plaza, near the Southeast
intersection of Watt Avenue & El Camino Avenue.

1. From the Editor

AB537 Month
The seventh anniversary of the enactment of Assembly Bill 537, the
California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, is this
January, and Respect Sacramento would like to celebrate the month
as AB537 Month. This law changed California's Education Code by
adding actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity to
the existing nondiscrimination policy. With this important anniversary
in mind, we'd like to hear from students in our area tell us how AB537
has helped them, their friends, their school, or why more attention is
still needed. Let us know the status of respect for LGBTQ students on
your campus.

SRGSA Yvonne & Lance Scholarship
Sacramento Regional Gay-Straight Alliance (SRGSA) was founded by a
group of students that wanted to see a change in the public school
system. They were tired of seeing the inaction by administration in
dealing with harassments that were directed at actual and/or
perceived lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)
students.

This year the SRGSA, along with its “parent” organization Respect
Sacramento, has decided to grant two $500 scholarships to
graduating seniors in the greater-Sacramento area. This scholarship
is named after two students, Lance and Yvonne, in honor and respect
for the hard work in ensuring that LGBTQ students (actual or
perceived) are protected on their campus and full compliance with
California state law.

Complete information on eligibility and application procedures will be
announced next month. The deadline for the application will be May 1.

Upcoming GSA Training
We are still working on a possible GSA Youth Leadership Training
date for February or March, and students and advisors who are
interested in participating in the development of the day's training
modules are encouraged to come by our next meeting on December
13. Last year's training was very successful and well-received--in
part, we think, due to the input and direction from youth and adult
advisors.

Sac City Schools LGBT Task Force
We have given additional input to the District's administrative policy
on non-curricular clubs in hopes of reducing some of the ambiguity
regarding the role of liaisons versus advisors of curricular clubs.

We are also working with the District to evaluate the effectiveness of
the current sexual orientation-related training being offered to
administrators and staff members.

We have received information from the District about on student -to-
student Title IX complaints involving sexual orientation. There is
reporting being done of sexual orientation-related Title IX complaints
and the complaints that were listed in the report appeared to be
being worked by the District in a manner consistent with the other
Title IX complaints. We are awaiting data regarding similar complaints
made involving staff members that will be coming from the District's
personnel office.

We have also held discussions about a specific incident regarding the
banning by one high school of the use of the word "Queer" on GSA T-
shirts, regarding the vagueness of District policy on what is and is not
permissible on T-shirts. We are also looking at what appeared to be a
potential uneven application of this policy, and the implication of the
increasing use of the word Queer as an expression of identity among
younger sexual minority people. Members of the GSA were part of the
conversation and are starting plans to educate school staff on their
efforts to reclaim the word. (One of our board members has offered
the GSA members help in developing their approach.)

We have also begun investigating ways of doing school climate
surveys in the future to determine the greatest needs for attention
and education in the District.

East Bay gay students seek
peer dialogue
Dec. 9 HAYWARD CA (Inside Bay
Area) Creating a more inclusive
environment for students in the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender and Questioning
(LGBTQ) community was discussed
during a district workshop
Thursday for school administrators

A panel of 11 high school and
middle school students in or in
support of the LGBTQ community
were on hand to bring awareness
to issues they encounter while in
school.

"I hope school administrators
gained some insight to how LGBTQ
kids feel and bring that to the
school sites to create a more
safer, aware environment," said
Nick Halatsis, a senior at
Tennyson High School who
participated in the panel.

Among the issues raised during
the workshop was the constant
ridicule students receive from
others. But the biggest concern for
panel students was the free use of
negative words associated with the
LGBTQ community in the everyday
language of their classmates.

Students say the phrase "gay" has
taken on this generation's
meaning of stupid, and has been
ingrained as a term that isn't
insulting to others.

"When people ask me why I'm
offended by them using the term,
I tell them 'Why don't you just use
stupid?'" said Allegra Wilson, a
student at Hayward High School.
"I'm not stupid, which means we
can't make that connection, so
don't use the word."

Administrators were appalled to
hear how freely such words roll off
the tongues of students.

"We've made efforts to make kids
understand that such words aren't
OK to use. But we're finding it's
only as good as the message they
are receiving at home," said Nancy
Eaton, principal of Eldridge
Elementary. "We need to get to
the parents and point this out.
This isn't a good thing hearing it
every day as normal talk."

The conversations stem from the
district's Equity Action Plan, which
looks at all groups of students
who may be at risk, officials said.
More...

Gay student won't give up
fight for club in Florida
Dec. 3 OKEECHOBEE FL (Orlando
Sentinel) She has been called an
abomination to God, a sinner
who's going to hell, an
attention-seeker bent on
disrupting the tranquillity of this
rural cattle town on the north
shore of Florida's largest lake.

Yet Yasmin Gonzalez, a
17-year-old senior at Okeechobee
High School, has no intention of
backing down.

"There are two ways you can look
at this: me being courageous or
me being stupid," Gonzalez said,
sitting in a park near the school.
"But I don't want underclassmen
to go through what I did. No one
should have to."

Two weeks ago, Gonzalez became
the first Florida student to sue her
principal and School Board for the
right to establish a Gay-Straight
Alliance, a school-based club that
would promote tolerance and
understanding of gay people.

She has gotten very little of either
since. Instead, she exposed deep
conflicts over homosexuality in
this Bible Belt town of 5,500.

On one side is the American Civil
Liberties Union and students such
as Heather Zipperer, a 17-year-old
senior who doesn't understand why
the proposed club has generated
such an uproar.

"I think they're embarrassing
themselves by taking it this far. It
shouldn't be such a big deal,"
Zipperer said. "Those kids can't
help who they are. And it's wrong
to tell them they're wrong." More...

China's first gay student
group hailed, assailed
Nov. 17 BEIJING (Reuters) The
official registration of China's first
gay student group at a university
in southern China has been hailed
by academics and denounced by
some parents, state media
reported on Friday.

The "Rainbow Group" at Sun
Yat-sen University in Guangzhou,
capital of China's southern
Guangdong province "will study
homosexuality and oppose sexual
discrimination", the Shanghai Daily
quoted Ai Xiaoming, the group's
tutor and a professor at the
university, as saying.

"It's wonderful to see the Rainbow
Group set up because it shows
that a state university in China
has given way to students with
different sexual orientation and is
willing to hear their voice," Ai said.

Li Yinhe, an outspoken Chinese
sociologist who was criticised by
state family planning officials for
endorsing wife-swapping as a
"normal kind of entertainment" at
a sexual forum in Guangzhou last
year, said it was a "landmark
event" and an indication of
"historical progress" on her blog,
the paper reported.

The group, however, has alarmed
some students' parents.

"I believe parents are just as
worried about gays as they are
about sexual liberation," Xue
Yong, a parent said.

"If anyone in my daughter's
university dares to give a lecture
advocating new types of sexual
relations and attacking traditional
family values, I will sue the
university," he said.

Homosexuality was regarded as a
mental illness as late as 2001 in
China, and despite growing
tolerance in recent years, gay
people remain under heavy
pressure within traditional families
to stay in the closet.

The Rainbow Club follows the
establishment of China's first free
clinic for gays, providing tests for
AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases, in Beijing
last week. More...