Teens Rally Against Anti-Gay Harassment

defending the First Amendment against the Christian right ...

... because if Jews don't speak out, they'll think we don't mind

Web JewsOnFirst

Optional Member Code

Please email us
(click here)
catcher@JewsOnFirst.org

And "bookmark" us at
JewsOnFirst.org

Jews on First
P.O. Box 33821
Washington DC 20033

310-553-1146

Teens rally against gay harassment

An advocacy day at the state Capitol supports two bills designed to combat campus discrimination.

By Kim Minugh, The Sacramento Bee, March 7, 2006

For Garrett Rubin, the harsh reality of being an openly gay teenager comes as taunts in the high school locker room. But what could be destructive is instead motivating.

The 16-year-old Granite Bay student says the verbal harassment compels him to make sure school locker rooms - and campuses in general - are safer for other gay students.

On Monday, he picked up a microphone and a picket sign to celebrate Queer Youth Advocacy Day at the Capitol with about 500 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students and their allies from all over the state.

"I refuse to settle for anything less than respect and equality in education," said Rubin, who was a master of ceremonies at the event. "I shouldn't have to be working so hard to get an education like everybody else."

Stories of harassment on campuses abounded at the Advocacy Day, sponsored by the Gay-Straight Alliance Network and Equality California. But students said they participated in hopes that such anecdotes will become rare among future generations of LGBT youth.

Progress toward that end, they say, would come in the passage of two bills in the Legislature: Assembly Bill 606 and Senate Bill 1437.

AB 606, authored by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, specifies steps that school districts should take to ensure compliance with the California Student Safety and Violence Act of 2000, which seeks to keep harassment and discrimination out of schools.

The bill also reaffirms the state superintendent of education's ability to withhold funding from schools not complying with the law.

SB 1437, written by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, attempts to create bias-free curriculum and school activities by adding sexual orientation to the state Education Code's list of protected categories, such as race and religion.

Participants also opposed AB 2311, authored by Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, R-Monrovia. The bill would prohibit the "promotion of homosexuality in public education."

Those bills, but especially AB 606, were the focus of a noon rally and afternoon appointments made by students with their area legislators.

"LGBT people are part of California's diverse society - that is a reality," said Carolyn Laub, founder and executive director of the GSA Network. "Anecdotes and evidence (from surveys) shows that LGBT people and those perceived to be LGBT are not safe at school. ... They're getting harassed. They're getting called names. Teachers don't know how to intervene."

Participants cited the 2001-02 California Healthy Kids Survey, which found that students harassed based on actual or perceived sexual orientation are twice as likely as students not harassed to report depression and suicidal thoughts.

Those students who are harassed also are more than three times as likely to report missing at least one day of school in the last 30 days because they felt unsafe, the study found.

To ensure school safety, AB 606 would require school districts and the state Department of Education to, among other things, establish and publicize a nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation, to make sure teachers and other school staff members know how to identify and take action against discrimination, and to maintain documentation of all complaints concerning discrimination and harassment.

Proponents say the measures in the bill would not cost school districts any additional money.

At the rally on the Capitol steps, students held signs supporting AB 606 and advocating "Safe schools for all." Some students shared personal stories of beatings and humiliation at their schools, while some legislators, including State Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero and Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, both Democrats from Los Angeles, pledged their support for AB 606 and SB 1437.

Speakers competed against the clamoring of a couple of hundred counterprotesters lining N and L streets on the north and south sides of the Capitol, displaying signs that linked homosexuality with sin, the AIDS epidemic and pedophilia. Signs read: "Do not brainwash our innocent youth" and "Stop gay marriage."

Students responded with peace signs and a chant of "Hey hey, ho ho, homophobia's got to go."

"I'm so excited. This is what life is all about," said 17-year-old Hännah Pfahl of Granite Bay High School as she carried a sign reading "To discriminate only generates hate."

Joshua Rossman, 18, of Rocklin, said he saw the day as an opportunity to promote equality.

"There is no reason for bigotry," he said. "We should all take action. These kinds of events are a catalyst for the change we need."

Although the visiting students got mixed responses from policymakers - Placer County's students, in particular, faced a number of conservative legislators, some of whom already had voted against AB 606 in the Assembly - many said they were nonetheless energized by the experience.

"It was definitely empowering to be able to speak with people involved in the Legislature," said 17-year-old Rocklin student Nicole Cayanne.

She said she would return to her campus Gay-Straight Alliance with a renewed sense of what can be achieved through political involvement.

Fair Use Statement: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.