Media

Articles that have appeared in the media concerning gay issues If you have a article that appeared in your local news paper or school paper e-mail it to me and I will post it here and give proper attribution. Newspapers

Schools want an end to gay bashing Students, teachers, and administrators
discuss ways to make districts pay attention.

Associated Press

     OAKLAND -- More than 900 students, teachers, and administrators were here this weekend at a national conference talking about how to end gay bashing in schools
     They said that lawsuits are a powerful weapon in ending the name calling, harassment and violence against young gay people. School districts that have ignored the problem are being held liable.
     No federal atni-discrimination laws cover sexual orientation, and Massachusetts is the only state to mandate such a protection. But officials from the U.S. Department of Education said that under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, new legal ground is being carved out to help gay youth.

     For instance, a boy boy who is harassed by other boys because he is effeminate may have a valid claim that he is being discriminated against because of his gender. Agency officials said they were looking into such a case at a private school in the San Francisco Bay Area.
     The issue has taken on new urgency since the Oct. 12 death of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten and left tied to a fence to die, officials said.
     "When you don't deal with sexual harassment, it leads to society accepting it, ad that leads to tragedies like that," said Gloria Estolano, who works in the agency's San Francisco office.
     Those attending the second annual conference hosted by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network said lawsuits should be a last resort.

     "The last time students needed lawyers to get them through high school was in the '50's ad '60's" during the civil rights movement, said Kate Frankfurt, a organizer of the gathering.
     What's needed instead, she said, is organizations that can stimulate dialogue on the issue.
      Learning how to better run her own such group brought Veronica Lopez, 22, from Stockton to the conference.
     Lopez, a college student who works full time in a day-care center, said homophobia starts early. She said a 4-year-old boy recently came to her in tears because a 5-year-old had just called him an anti-gay epithet.
     "It shows the parents are talking about it because kids don't know what [gay] is," Lopez said.
     "I think it's important that people realize we're not sick people. ...I consider myself pretty normal."

--Fresno Bee

Monday, November 2, 1998

Club Ban Takes Toll On Schools Action aimed at gays has ended up hurting other student in Saly Lake City, some say.

By: Kristen Moulton Associated Press

Salt Lake City --

Student Newspapers

Commentary Sexual conversion or gay for life

By Trina Crockford
Growl Staff Writer

     "You're gay. I hate you. Now change."
     You have just been exposed to the words of many in our society, verbatim. A society in which even some of our political figures and elected officials (i.e. Republican Sen. Trent Lott) compare homosexuality to alcoholism ad kleptomania.
     For too may homosexuality is merely a despicable "sin" in which these "transgressors" possess the full potential to change or convert from the dark side; in essence, to become straight. Forget about nature; this is a one-sided argument in which nurture remains the sole adversary.
     The sole adversary against the gay lifestyle.
     Within the past year, our society has embraced the preposterous idea that anyone gay has the conscious choice to undergo sexual conversion. Newsweek and Newspapers across the country have conquered said issue. Absent fathers and overbearing mothers must be

recognized as a deficiency by the gay person; through the use of prayer and stark realization, their "social malignancy" may be overcome.
     Or so we believe.
     Throughout the United States, ministries are popping up rapidly and nonchalantly. Next move: anti-Gay ministries within McDonald's. It wouldn't be a surprise in our incognizant society. For just as we press the 99 cent Big Mac upon vulnerable consumers, so do we press the sexual conversion issue among the vulnerable gay population.
     "Are you gay?" the ads ask. "Do you lead a lifestyle of sin and atrocity? CHANGE! Exodus ministries may help!"
     But it is not the gay person we are trying to help; it is us. Society is scared; scared of what deviates from out "norm", and so we must fix it. Let us change what is hated; let us reprogram these malfunctioned robots to become our societal drones.
     Let us bring organized religion to these heathens and eradicate their evil wrath from the earth.

     Sound barbarous of us? Seventeenth century? It would not be harsh to liken the situation to early history. We once tried to enforce our evangelical and zealous views upon the "heathen Indians". Is that not what is happening here?
     This is no longer a white man's burden, but a straight man's burden.
     A straight man's burden in which we help the despicable and pitiful gay person. And even if success does ensue, it is merely a facade. A reaction formation, Sigmund Freud would say, that is intermingled with a polymorphis perversion. And perhaps, for once, Freud would be right.
     The fact we as a society are attempting to change human beings is as frightening as it is overwhelming. This is a genocide of the mind that is hurling society backwards to the days of the Southern Bible belt that claimed slavery was supported by the Bible. We still make the claim today. Only now, we substitute the word "slave" for "gay".

--The Cougars Growl

Clovis High School

November 2, 1998

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