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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 2004)
20 J n * * January 23.2004 news COLORADO 'o r the first time ever, the Denver Public School System has said trans and gender- nonconforming students will he protected under policies unanimously adopted by the hoard at a recent meeting. T he board voted to add the term “gender identity” to the list of those afforded pro tection under the policy that describes “Equal Educational Opportunities” for students. “We made a promise four years ago to get this done, and now we’ve finally fulfilled that promise,” said Keith Lucero of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Education Advisory Council. His group has worked with district advisers as well as lawyers from the Colorado Legal Initiatives Project for the past two years to develop policies and protections for those stu dents whose gender expression is not traditional. “1 grew up in a Denver suburb and by middle school I was harassed and physically attacked, sometimes as a daily event,” council member Zia Klamm said. “W hen I asked for help, adults told me it was my fault for these attacks because 1 didn’t ‘act normal.’ I did not know any other way to act. By adding gender identity to the school policy, my hope is that other kids will not have to go through the kind of harassment that I experienced." 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In July 2003, Federal District Court Judge Napoleon Jones ruled that the Balboa Park lease violates First Amendment guarantees of separa tion of church and state. T he city has given the Scouts nearly 70 years of exclusive use of 18 acres of prime park property in city-owned Bal boa Park for $1 a year and free use of an aquatic facility on city-owned Fiesta Island in Mission Bay through preferential leases. The Balboa Park lease contains a provision that terminates the lease if any court issues a final judg ment finding the lease illegal. The city attorney will ask Jones for such a final judgment based on the court’s finding that the lease is unconstitution al and will then notify the Scouts that the termi nation clause has been triggered, paving the way for the removal of the Boy Scouts from the park. “The Boy Scouts cannot have it both ways,” attorney M.E. Stephens said. "Having gone to great lengths to establish that discrimination against gays and nonbelievers is essential to their mission, and therefore protected by the First A m endm ent, they cannot now turn around and ask the people of San Diego to foot the bill for that discrimination.” T he Morgan Hill Unified School District, where queer students have suffered years of harassment and discrimination, including phys N A TIO N A L ical violence, has agreed to a wide-ranging staff he nation’s largest academic internship and student training program and policy protec organization, the W ashington C enter for tions. This ends a five-year federal lawsuit Internships and Academ ic Sem inars, was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union served with a lawsuit Jan. 9 for illegal sexual ori and the National C enter for Lesbian Rights. As part of the settlement, which was an entation discrimination and retaliation in vio lation of the Dis nounced Jan. 6, trict of Columbia district employ H um an Rights ees will take part in a mandatory Act. It was sued for annual training refusing to place an program devot intern with the ed exclusively to office of openly gay harassment and U.S. Rep. Barney discrim ination Frank, D-Mass., be based on sexual cause the student’s orientation and college did not gender identity. want him there The district also based on the con is implementing gressman’s sexual an age-appropri orientation. ate training p ro H ie plaintiff in gram for stu the lawsuit, David dents and an Halpem, was a pro anti-discrimina gram supervisor tion policy bar whose job entailed ring harassment U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is demanding answers placing interns on based on sexual from the nation’s largest academic internship organization, C apitol Hill. He orientation or which has been accused of anti-gay discrimination was fired because gender identity. he objected to the Substantial damages will be paid to the plaintiffs. center’s discriminatory conduct. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of six stu In accord with regular practice at the center, dents— five girls and one boy— who charged that Halpem placed the intern with a member of school officials did not protect them from ongoing Congress who shared the student’s interests— anti-gay abuse. O ne student, Freddie Fuentes, which in this case was gay rights. However, a fac had to go to the hospital after a group of male stu ulty adviser at Calvin College, the Christian uni dents beat and kicked him while shouting “fag versity that the student attended, did not want got" at a school bus stop in full view of the driver. him interning in a “homosexual environment.” A nother student, Alana Flores, found a W hen supervisors directed Halpem to assign pornographic picture taped to her locker. A the student to work elsewhere, he protested and handwritten note attached to it read: “Die, was fired the next day. He was told that he was let go because of staffing reductions, but he believes Die...Dyke hitch, Fuck off. We’ll kill you." W hen Flores asked for help, the assistant princi that no other employee was terminated and that in fact new employees were subsequently added. pal brushed her off and told her to go hack to class, saying: “D on’t bring me this trash any O ne month earlier, Halpem had come out to his supervisors that he was gay after receiving more. This is disgusting.” T he case had been appealed to the 9th C ir reports that a gay intern had felt unwelcome. In cuit Court of Appeals by the district. The court order to help future interns feel more comfortable, issued a historic ruling holding that officials must he requested that a reference to his volunteer work for the Human Rights Campaign be added take steps to eliminate harassment when they to the staff biographies available to incoming stu- leam that queer students are abused at school. T T dents. Supervisors told him they did not want him to become a “poster child” for gay rights. In a letter to center president William Burke, Frank demanded an explanation. He is still awaiting a response. National Park Service director Fran Mainella has been urged to keep queer civil rights march scenes in a Lincoln Memorial tourism video ccording to press reports, the National Park Service has been repeatedly pressured to remove footage of queer civil rights marches, as well as pro-choice demonstrations, in a tourism video that has been running at the Lincoln Memorial since 1995. In a letter sent Jan. 9, the Human Rights Campaign urged NPS director Fran Mainella to leave the scenes intact. “There is no justice in trying to rewrite his tory or erase parts of it,” HRC president Cheryl Jacques wrote. “To do so would not only be a betrayal to the thousands of visitors who go to the memorial each day, but it would be a direct assault on the integrity of the values and teach ings of Abraham Lincoln.” Press reports in late December indicated the NPS was going to remove the footage. Speaking with H RC officials Dec. 23, an NPS representa tive said the video was being “updated” but ardently assured HRC that the NPS would not be removing scenes of queer civil rights or pro- choice marches. The spokesperson added that the NPS believed it would be “dishonest” to take out the scenes and that the agency wanted to depict an “accurate historical portrayal” of what occurred at the monument. A President Bush (right) appointed racist Judge Charles Pickering on the eve of M artin Luther King Day weekend resident Bush made a recess appointm ent of Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the W hite House announced Jan. 16. He is opposed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and dozens of other mainstream civil rights groups. P
