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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2 8 6 -7 0 0 0
he San Diego City Council has agreed to a
settlement in the American Civil Liberties
U nion’s 2000 lawsuit challenging the city’s sub
sidy of the Desert Pacific Boy Scout Council
through preferential leases for public land in
Balboa Park and Fiesta Island Aquatic Park.
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