Saying No to Bans on Gay-Straight Alliances

Source: www.lezgetreal.com

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has filed a federal lawsuit against the Nassau County (Fla.) School Board on Feb. 10, after school administrators denied students permission to form Gay-Straight Alliances at Yulee High School and Yulee Middle School.

In a letter denying access to the group, the board’s superintendent said that groups with names referencing a sexual orientation would not be recognized and that even if the group changed its name to one not communicating a gay-specific mission, approval was uncertain.

The ACLU lawsuit is alleging violations of the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act, and seeks a preliminary injunction to force school officials to allow the GSA to meet at Yulee High School while the litigation makes its way to trial.
The ACLU of Florida recently won an analogous federal case after Okeechobee High School refused to allow a GSA group to meet. The Okeechobee County School Board ended up paying $326,000 in attorneys’ fees.

“Gay and lesbian students deserve schools that heed the rule of law,” said Robert Rosenwald, director of the ACLU of Florida’s LGBT Advocacy Project. “These students are trying to bring a message of equality and openness, and the lesson they are being taught is that Yulee High School administrators believe discrimination against LGBT students is an acceptable policy.”

The federal Equal Access Act requires schools to grant access and recognition to a GSA — and most other student groups — if the school allows any extracurricular groups to meet on campus, which both Yulee schools do. There are more than 4,000 GSAs in the U.S.

My comment: Besides the question of flouting the rule of the law, which this article clearly points out, the issue of clamping down on open debate is also at stake. As a teacher, I have seen this happen far too often, even in colleges. Administrators fear for their lives when teachers try to engage their students in frank discussions of thorny or touchy subjects, sexuality included. Schools sometimes seem to prefer that their students live under coconut shells, and never embrace the world as their oyster. It's all so archaic, so backward looking. Without open debate, modernity is stymied, and progress dies. So come on--give your youngsters the power of knowledge.

August Wilson's "King Hedley II" in Tampa

Photo credit: www.willbeez.com
Due to popular demand, American Stage Theatre Company has extended by one week the run of August Wilson's hit drama, King Hedley II, thru Feb. 22. This is an intense drama that will make you ask all sorts of questions about the elusiveness of the "American Dream," in a society riddled by racism and classism.

King Hedley II will be familiar to audiences who saw American Stage’s critical hit production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean last season. The death of Aunt Ester, a gamble to peddle refrigerators, a garden of seeds, and a final act of retribution are the threads that make up the tapestry of Wilson’s 1980s installment in the author's renowned cycle of plays.

King Hedley II recently was released from jail and is now trying to sell stolen refrigerators in the poor side of Pittsburg to raise enough money to purchase a video store. As he and his new family begin to rise above their limited opportunities to attain their Ronald Reagan-era “American Dream”, a ghost from the past re-enters Hedley’s life that forces him to confront his own pattern of petty violence, self-destruction, and self-doubts.

Promotional material provided by the American Stage Theater Company

Performances and ticket prices are as follows:
Wednesday and Thursday evening curtain is at 7:30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday evening curtain is at 8 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday matinee curtain is at 3 p.m.

Tickets prices are $24-$39 depending on date and time of performance.
Students Rush tickets are $10, 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Please call the American Stage Box Office
at (727) 823-PLAY (7529)

ACLU Sues FLorida School District Over Gay-Straight Alliance

Illustration courtesy of www.raider.muc.edu

"The ACLU of Florida has sued the Nassau County school district today, contending that administrators illegally barred students from establishing a Gay-Straight Alliance at Yulee High and Yulee Middle.

The group claims that Nassau superintendent John Ruis sent a letter stating that groups mentioning a specific sexual orientation would not be approved.

"We just want the club so that straight and gay kids can get together to talk about harassment and discrimination against gay kids in an open environment. The school is discriminating against us and that's exactly the kind of thing we want to talk about and prevent," student plaintiff Hannah Page said in a press release. "Other clubs and groups are allowed to meet on campus and we have that right too."

The ACLU recently fought and won a similar case in Okeechobee County. It also has been involved in gay rights issues in Holmes County. The issue is hot enough to keep the ACLU so busy that it set up a Tampa branch of its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Advocacy Project over the summer to fight the battle statewide."

Source: tampabay.com, February 10, 2009

We often preach openness, tolerance, and most of all, freedom of speech. And yet we cannot allow gay adolescents discuss their sexual orientation or in the case of straight students, their thoughts on the subject matter. How can we achieve the goal of a harmonious, pluralistic society if we continue to sweep such a subject matter back into the closet? What kind of message are we sending to gay (and straight) kids? Will the cycle of hatred continue in the absence of mutual understanding? If nothing else, the rising rate of teen suicide (Click here for a related blog entry) should be pause for reflection.

Downturn Sinks Tampa Gay Pride

Breaking News
Source: http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews
February 5, 2008

TAMPA — Organizers of Winter Pride Tampa Bay this week canceled its annual gay festival, saying they were unable to raise enough money for the event.

"We're devastated," said Winter Pride spokesman Zeke Fread. "We hated to drop it at the last minute, but it just didn't pan out."

Members of Tampa's gay community started the festival in 2006 in response to Hillsborough County's decision not to recognize gay pride events. The celebration outgrew its first location, Lowry Park Zoo, after more than 5,000 people attended. The second event drew nearly 10,000.

This year's festival was scheduled for Feb. 28 at Al Lopez Park. Thousands from throughout west Florida were expected to attend.

Fread blamed the poor economy and costly fight against Amendment 2, in which voters defined marriage as a union between a man and woman. Festival organizers had lined up some sponsors but raised less than half of the estimated $25,000 needed to pay for insurance, display tents and other expenses, he said.

Since the announcement, hundreds of supporters have contacted Winter Pride asking how to help. Organizers hope to bring back the event for 2010.

"We're optimistic because now have a year to plan," he said. "We'll come back bigger than ever."

My Storied Past, Part 1: From "Mak Nyah" in Asia to Gay in America

"In July 2006, one evening I was sitting in a car with another man in a public park, in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. We were just talking, there was nothing sexual going on. This park is known among gay people as a place to hang out. We call it “lost world.” Around 10pm, a police patrol car with two police officers pulled up. I still remember that moment. I thought I was going to die. The officers were both Malay Muslims. They quickly approached the car and grabbed us. ONE officer dragged my companion about six to eight meters away. They pushed us each to opposite sides and quickly grabbed our IDs. They tried to force us to admit that we were doing something wrong so that they would have a reason to bring us back to the police station. I only had one thing in my mind there. I was so frightened. I thought that I am not going to see the morning tomorrow.
The police officers made us stand with our backs to them facing the car and put our hands on the car. We said we did nothing wrong. They said two men inside a car in a public park was already wrong. I said again to them, “We did nothing wrong.” One officer said, “Don’t lie to me. We all know what people are doing in the park at this hour.” I said, “Officer, I don’t know what you had the occasion to catch people doing in the park at this hour but I am telling you the truth.” I was afraid because I knew that if I admitted I was gay I would be in serious trouble. I tried to act regretful, hoping they would have some pity and soften up. I was praying that the officers would believe me."

This anecdotal account is excerpted from a long, unpublished essay written by Dr. Walter Williams, a leading scholar in gay studies. In this extended essay, Williams overviews the insidious influence of Islamic fundamentalism in Malaysia, the country of my birth.

Like the Chinese Malaysian gay man of the above story, I too am of Chinese descent. And like that man, I have always lived in fear. I have lived in fear of my identity--but only for few years, unlike this young man.

Coming out to myself in my late teens, I was at that time hundreds of miles away from home. Then in college, my new home was a touristy island and a place of trade exposed for centuries to cosmopolitan ideas. At times, that island of pristine beaches and stupendous vistas embodied my aspirations, as I fell in love over and over again.

Even later when I was banished to a rural area of obvious Islamic fundamentalism to teach high school, I feared nothing. Respected and beloved by my students of all faiths and creed, iI found solace in my vocation. And I found someone to care for--a father figure, a man of little formal schooling, but of much wisdom.

So how is it that this "Mak Nyah" (Malay derogatory term for transvestites, but also used broadly to apply to homosexuals) ended up in America? When did my fears begin?

That moment of epiphany seemed so distant, so hazy. And yet, Williams's essay prickled my subconscious. It vexed me.

For me, perhaps that moment was seeded by the prim and proper English instructor--a woman who had attended Oxford, a woman whose skirt was always of the polite length--of my undergraduate years. Somehow, I received the assignment of making a speech on the sodomy laws of Malaysia as part of the coursework in the Speech class. I resisted, she insisted. Such is the irony of life.

I do not remember the exact parameters of my fifteen-minute talk, but surely I must have covered some highlights of the said laws, and here I quote from Williams's essay again:

"In Malaysia’s Penal Code, Section 377, the sentence for conviction of sodomy is flogging, plus up to twenty years in prison. Victims are flogged with a section of bamboo that is split into several strips. When bamboo is split it has extremely sharp edges, which slice the skin like knives. Flogging is quite bloody, and leaves permanent scars. In addition to Section 337, just to prevent any homosexual from escaping conviction, Section 337A provides for a male to receive up to two years in prison for any act of “gross indecency with another male person.” This vague wording allows prosecution for any kind of erotic interaction between two males. This law is explicitly applied only to homosexual behavior among males, but lesbians also suffer discrimination."

I thought little of these laws--a young man caught up in the frenzy of tests, quizzes, and paper writing could scarcely have time to mull over such heady stuff. But such thoughts must have remain in my subconscious, and like what Thomas Jefferson said, they came back like "a fire bell in the night," filling "me with terror." They came back one unexpected day.

Sex, Money, & Lies: The Tale of a Gay Candidate

Photo of Earl Rynerson, candidate for Fort Lauderdale mayor
Source: www.earlformayor.com

Fort Lauderdale, for those of you who have been living in the parched deserts of Africa, is of course the gay oasis in Florida. Circuit parties with free flowing booze and wild frenzy sex on the beaches seemingly is the dominant image of this city. I have never seen much of that, but then again, I am a goody good two shoes.

That said, it is, still, a boring city. No one really cares about politics in that town. At least, not the average gay man who worries more about his sagging behind, Clinique concealer, and the next "date" than does he of sewers and sewage.

So when a gay candidate running for mayor grabs headlines, then you know it's serious business or is it? Earl Rynerson, an openly gay man, apparently is the man under heavy scrutiny. Why?

First, he admits that he has refused to pay a number of bills for services rendered, ranging from a fence built for his house to a vacation in Africa. If you ask me, he sounds like a "drama queen" who is high maintenance. I say to him: Pay the bills and end the endless soap opera. After all, it's just money; give it to some poor contractors or service providers who need them rather than the go-go boys.

Second, reports have surfaced that he has subscribed to sex sites, including one geared for men into bondage. Frankly, none of this shocking to me. Most gay men have joined one site or another over a long gay lifetime. And if one has not, well, there is something wrong with him. He has never heard of the saying, "joining the herd."

He also tried to pass himself off as "Lt. Col. Earl Rynerson." Apparently, the man has not been in active duty for more than a decade, and military regulations dictate you cannot claim that rank in such circumstances. I say this is no big deal. The man obviously likes to play GI Joe. And gays always exaggerate anyways--it's either you are real young (when in fact, you are ten years older), real muscular (when in fact, you are actually stocky), or you are financially comfortable (when in fact, you are just making the ends meet).

So you see, life in gay old Fort Lauderdale is truly boring. In fact, gays everywhere are just like everyone--boring to the core, like all human beings. Click here for here an article on Rynerson.

Dying Young: Nearly a Fifth Gays Tried Suicide

A recent study released by Ireland's Ministry for Health concluded that nearly a fifth of the respondents of this large-scale study (though the exact number of respondents was not reported) have attempted suicide. This inclination stems from their sexual identity and the "experiences of being abused and feeling isolated."

The study goes on make this startling revelation: 80 percent of the respondents reported as having been verbally abused due to their sexual identity and more than half had been bullied whilst in school. Some forty percent of them reported of having been threatened with physical violence. Click here for full article.

I find these findings quite alarming. One of the most recent studies for United States--sampling more than 2,800 interviewees--support the overall conclusions of that Irish study. More than one in five men have at least contemplated suicide. Twelve percent of the sample reported actual suicide attempts, and of this group, about 70 percent reported having tried to do so before age 25. Also, 45 percent of those who had attempted suicide had done so more than once.

The US study concluded that "gay and bisexual males—particularly younger gay and bisexual males—constitute a high-risk group for attempted suicide." And the risk factor for gays and bisexuals is much higher than that for the general population, and that risk is higher at a younger age since coming out among adolescents and youth exposes them to greater social stigmatization and hostility than at a later age. Click here here for full article.

Bonding & Intimacy in Gay-Straight Friendships

Above is the trailer for the play, "Terra Haute."

Have you wondered if it is possible for a gay man to have a platonic, yet intimate, relationship with a straight man?

I think this is one of the central, though no means, only questions, raised in gay writer Edmund White's new--and perhaps, most successful--play, "Terra Haute." Loosely based on another equally well-known gay writer's work, Gore Vidal, In a series of extended essays, Vidal documents his emotionally charged correspondence with Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Vidal, however, denies that he was ever remotely attracted to McVeigh.

Similarly, but not exactly, "Terra Haute" centers around the relationship between an aging, financially comfortable, bisexual journalist and a young, poor, masculine, straight terrorist awaiting execution. What happens when two correspondents, after developing a paper-only relationship, finally meets and sees each other in the true light serves as the conflict of this play.

The drama pivots on the theme of "different types of loneliness," to quote White himself. Like many of his earlier novels such as the highly celebrated, coming-of-age tale, "A Boy's Own Story" and "The Married Man," this play explores "distances in male relationships ... created by differences in age, sexuality or expectations," to quote a New York Times article. White explains also: “I’d hope that thinking about them in terms of their intimacy can raise questions about how they relate to the world,” he said.

So is "Terra Haute" a gay play? Not so, says the playwright. For ultimately this is a play about the humanity of even the most cold or menacing people. The sexuality in the play is simply a vehicle to convey the humanity, the commonality that binds men and women, old and young, children and adults--all of us in this iridescent world.

In that respect, for me, the last two blog entries, including this one, speak to the same undercurrents; We must search for the inner war that often breaks out within us. That war rages on, incessantly, and only we, as individuals, can harness its energies for a greater good.