Category: Education

Grad student alleges school trying to force her to change her anti-gay beliefs

LGBTQ Nation • Sunday, July 25, 2010 • Filed under: Education, Georgia • Comments (0)

A Georgia graduate student has filed a lawsuit accusing Augusta State University officials of violating her constitutional rights — she claims the school told her that her anti-gay beliefs are incompatible with the standards of her desired profession.

Jennifer Keeton, 24, who is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, said she was ordered to undergo a re-education plan that requires her to attend “diversity sensitivity training,” complete additional remedial reading and write papers to describe their effects on her beliefs, according to the lawsuit filed last week.

“The school counseling faculty has decided that my views are not acceptable for me or to share with other students,” Keeton said in a video statement produced by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

“They have required a remediation plan in which the end result would be me altering my beliefs or being dismissed from the program.”

Keeton has said in and out class that, according to her Christian beliefs, homosexuality is immoral and a lifestyle choice. Continue reading…

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

Saving LGBTQ youth should be our top priority

Kelvin Lynch • Monday, July 19, 2010 • Filed under: Education, Family and Parenting, Views & Voices • Comments (0)

LGBTQ youth are more prone to depression and suicide due to bullying and discrimination in school

As we fight for equal rights – rights to which every citizen of this nation is entitled – we should be careful not to become so engrossed in these issues that we forget where we came from, the place that shaped us into who we are and motivates us even now to defeat bigotry and hate and make this nation truly great.

It’s a reasonable argument that our collective experiences in school during our most formative years made us the fighters and advocates we are today.  So many of us remember the hostility, ridicule, discrimination, and maybe even the beatings we had to endure beginning around middle school and following us throughout high school. The sort of horrors no young person should have to endure, at the hands of bigots and bullies who were our peers and teachers alike.  How many times did we have to walk down the hall to threats of physical violence, while school personnel just stood by watching and listening, doing nothing to come to our aid? Continue reading…

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

Parents say 11-year-old daughter denied medical treatment because she has ‘two moms’

LGBTQ Nation • Sunday, May 9, 2010 • Filed under: Education, Family and Parenting, New Mexico • Comments (7)

The parents of an 11-year-old student in Rancho Rio, NM, are planning a civil rights lawsuit against their daughter’s school for failing to provide her treatment following a playground accident because, they say, she has “two moms.”

Jenna

On February 26, Jenna Bissell says she sat in her fifth-grade class at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School for hours with a gash on her face, dried blood between her loosened permanent teeth, cut lips and a swollen nose after she tripped on the playground.

According to Jenna, her teacher never asked about her injuries or sent her to the nurse, and instead was just told to “go clean yourself off you are gross” by her teacher. Continue reading…

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill revived in Tennessee state legislature

LGBTQ Nation • Tuesday, April 6, 2010 • Filed under: Education, Tennessee • Comments (1)

Despite having been stalled in subcommittee before, a Tennessee lawmaker is is once again making a push to advance the so called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The House bill as written, along with a companion piece in the state Senate, would ban the teaching or furnishing materials on human sexuality other than heterosexuality in public school grades of Kindergarten thru 8th grade, reports Out & About.

“Sexuality is a very complex issue, and some parents have different philosophies about the issue,” said Rep. Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville). “We are saying that schools should remain neutral; we’re not advocating for or against the homosexual lifestyle.”

“This bill is a slap in the face of local control of education,” said Chris Sanders, board chair of the Tennessee Equality Project, who added that the bill was drawing attention away from more vital education-related issues.

A hearing and debate is scheduled for Wednesday.

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

Student play depicting gay Jesus planned at Texas university

LGBTQ Nation • Wednesday, March 24, 2010 • Filed under: Education, Religion, Texas • Comments (0)

A class project depicting Jesus Christ as gay has hit a nerve in Stephenville, Texas.

Tarleton State University is adding security for expected demonstrations Saturday when students perform the production, called “Corpus Christi.”

The play, by Terrence McNally, opened in New York in the 1990s, and student John Jordan Otte chose the script for his advanced directing class.

Otte said he understood that the play would likely create controversy, but he never imagined this level of anxiety.

He said he wants to convey the turmoil that gay Christians sometimes experience and create a sense of acceptance, tolerance and unconditional love.

The play, which has stirred controversy on campus and in the community, features the Jesus character named Joshua kissing Judas during their prom at Pontius Pilate High School and performing a same-sex marriage for two of his disciples. Continue reading…

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

Fresno college: Instructor violated policy with anti-gay teachings

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, March 19, 2010 • Filed under: California, Education • Comments (0)

Lopez
(Photo: Fresno City College Rampage)

Fresno City College officials said they plan to take action against an instructor accused of presenting religious-based and anti-gay views as fact in a health class.

Campus administrators have concluded that instructor Bradley Lopez violated a campus anti-discrimination policy when he told students that homosexuality is a mental disorder that should be treated with psychotherapy.

In a March 8 letter to three students who complained, the school said its investigation found that Lopez engaged in conduct that could create a hostile learning environment, reports the Fresno Bee.

The three students were part of a complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in February. Continue reading…

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

Ellen, website present lesbian teen with scholarship following prom flap (Video)

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, March 19, 2010 • Filed under: Advocacy, Education, Featured, Mississippi • Comments (0)

DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres presented a $30,000 scholarship on behalf of Tonic.com Friday to a teenage lesbian whose high school prom was canceled when she asked to attend with a girl.

Constance McMillen, 18, appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to talk about her experience and at the end of the segment DeGeneres, who is a lesbian, presented her with the check to be used toward her college education.

“I admire you so much,” DeGeneres told the high school senior from Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, MS.

“When I was your age I never would have had the strength to do what you are doing.”

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the school after the school district decided to cancel this year’s prom rather than allow McMillen attend the dance with her girlfriend. McMillen also had asked to wear a tuxedo to the prom, but was told by the school that girls must wear gowns.

DeGeneres said she had offered to pay for a private prom for McMillen and her classmates, but McMillen said she wanted the school district to hold the dance.

The scholarship came from funds raised on Tonic.com and through an anonymous donor, as well as the website’s founder.

Tonic also offered McMillen an internship, but no word yet whether McMillen has accepted the offer.

Here’s a clip from Friday’s Ellen broadcast:

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

San Francisco school board votes to increase funding for LGBTQ education

LGBTQ Nation • Tuesday, February 9, 2010 • Filed under: Education • Comments (0)

The San Francisco school board voted Tuesday night to fund a substantial increase in instruction and services related to gay and lesbian issues.

The school district, facing layoffs and massive program cuts, unanimously agreed that the estimated $120,000 annual price tag was worth it to support for gay and lesbian students — children who are more likely to experience bullying and skip school because they were afraid.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The resolution calls for adding a district position to manage “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning” youth issues. It also requires the district to keep tabs on harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and distribute educational packets every year to parents encouraging them to discuss sexuality, gender identify and safety with their children.

The measure, sponsored by the city’s Youth Commission and its Human Rights Commission and the district’s Student Advisory Council, requires district staff to seek outside funding to cover the costs, but guarantees at least a half-time position and other services regardless.

Continue reading…

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

ACLU says Fresno college health instructor teaching anti-gay views

LGBTQ Nation • Tuesday, February 9, 2010 • Filed under: California, Education • Comments (0)

An instructor at Fresno City College is under fire over his alleged teachings about homosexuality.

The American Civil Liberties Union charged Monday that instructor Bradley Lopez is wrongly presenting religious-based and anti-gay views as fact in an introductory health class, and demanded the campus ensure health-science classes teach unbiased and medically accurate information.

According to the Fresno Bee:

Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, said Lopez is teaching his personal views as science — neglecting the established facts that he should present to students. “Instead of teaching about abortion as an option for women and about the actual health implications, he’s teaching that abortion is murder based on the Bible.”

Gill charged in her letter that Lopez has presented homosexuality as a “biological misapplication of human sexuality” that can be treated with counseling or hormone supplements. He also used Bible passages as empirical evidence that life begins at conception to support his assertion that abortion is murder, she said.

In a section on environmental health, Gill alleged, Lopez offered a biblical quote about the world ending in flames as “the real global warming we should be worried about.”

In a statement released Monday, Continue reading…

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

Education department official expresses regret for controversial incident

LGBTQ Nation • Wednesday, September 30, 2009 • Filed under: Education, Politics • Comments (0)

Kevin JenningsA senior official of the Department of Education expressed regret Wednesday for an incident that happened when he was a young teacher in the late 1980s, saying he should have handled it differently, but that society could benefit from his error, reports ABC News.

Kevin Jennings, director of the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools and founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), has been criticized by social conservatives for a passage in his 1994 book “One Teacher In Ten.”

At the time, only a few people knew that Jennings, then a 24-year-old teacher at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, was gay. In the Spring of 1988, a young woman who knew Jennings was gay, brought to his office a high school sophomore whom Jennings called “Brewster” in the book. Continue reading…

Previously from LGBTQ Nation:

Page 1 of 212