Justice For All : Creating Safe Schools

On Thursday May 7th, I presented at an event co-hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, and Equality Arizona. The goal of the presentation was to start a dialog in Arizona about how to improve the school situation for LGBT students and families.

A few months ago I wrote about Chris Quintanilla, a student in the Peoria High School District that had been told by his school that he could not wear a rainbow wristband that said "Rainbows are Gay." After the ACLU got involved and wrote a letter to the district that matter was resolved favorably and Chris has been able to wear the wristband.

The problem is, the school never really wanted to deal with Chris' sexuality. They wanted to try and hide it and make him conform to how everyone else looks and acts. Many of the students in attendance spoke of a similar problem at their school. The common theme with the students was that the teachers and administrators were not supportive or too scared to be supportive. Since in Arizona one can be fired for being gay many teachers are afraid of losing their jobs if they are assumed to be gay.

I had taught High School for a short time. Back in 1995 students at the High School asked me to help them establish a gay-straight alliance. I was more than happy to sponsor it. While that story should be it's own post some day, I did gain valuable experiences that I could pass onto the students and empower them. I suggested that they try and get the teachers on board by treating it as a sexual harassment policy. All schools must treat name calling using fag, dyke, etc. as sexual harassment. If the teachers and administrators are failing to stop it and follow the necessary discipline procedures then they can be reprimanded.

Besides trying to give tips on empowering the students, I was able to share HRC's latest program called Welcoming Schools. The concept of the program is to start teaching diversity in the elementary schools. This includes teaching about all types of families. My daughter is in 1st grade. For the past two years during the first month of school they do projects about your family. This means each year she has to "come out" to her class that she has 4 mommies (I had her with my ex). This can create questions from the students. How those teacher handles the conversations will be key in how my daughter is accepted by her peers. This is what the program is designed to do, give the teachers training and tools to be able to handle these types of discussions. The program also deals with bullies. We know that bullying happens very young so by having a program that educates teachers on what to do hopefully we can begin to improve the situation.

The program was well received. Thanks to some educators and board members in the audience I think we are going to try and bring the program to Arizona.

All the co-sponsors help to put on a great event and I hope we will see more of these events in the future.

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• HRC Releases New Welcoming Schools Guide To Address Name Calling and Bullying Among Younger Students (lezzymom.blogspot.com)
• High Schools Blocking Gay Sites for Teens? (abcnews.go.com)

LGBT Tax Day Demonstration Shut Down By Police

I recieved the following not from Christopher Hall, founder of C.A.R.E - Central Arizona Rainbow Equality. Christopher organized Casa Grande, Arizona's first LGBT event just a few weeks ago. He also organized the protest today which was designed to bring attention to the fact that LGBT people pay an average of $1,000 on their taxes by not being allowed to marry. Protests like this were held all over the country today and organized by Marriage Equality USA, Join the Impact, and the Human Rights Campaign.

I received the following email from Christopher regarding the protest

Today the Casa Grande Police Department broke up our demonstration.

Officer B. Walsh and his accomplice, who would not provide her name, informed us that our flag was not to be flown anywhere within the city of Casa Grande. Dana who was the owner of the flag, was threated to be arrested if it were flown again.

We were told that it was obstructing the view of the road for some individuals. We were more than willing to work with them. We had asked where we could stand and they said we could not stand anywhere.

Funny thing is, I had talked to the city and they said as long as we were on the sidewalk or 7 feet from it, there should not be a problem. Apparently there was. When I first confronted the police about the issue, they told me to get in touch with the city. Even though I did, they still enforced their "policy" and were hesitant to work with us in any way.

Another form of injustice happened when they took down the gay people's information, but none of the straight people had to provide the police with their ssn, date of birth, photo id, etc. The gay population on the other hand had to.

With future events such as the right to save rally, we need your help to make sure this does not happen again. Please help us in figuring out how to deal with this situation. If you have any ideas, please feel free to let me know asap.

I already talked to the on duty supervisor tonight, and I took a witness with me. I also plan to talk to the chief and commander for the police department sometime tomorrow. Please help me. This is not right and something needs to be done.

Since this email the ACLU and Lambda Legal have been told about the incedent and asked to give assistance. Also, the Attorney General's office has been made aware of the actions to shut the protest down.

I will be updating this story when more information comes in. In the meantime if you would like to tell the police department how you feel you can contact Commander Scott Sjervern - Casa Grande P.D. at (520) 421-8700.

Also you can contact Bob Jackson - Mayor of Casa Grande, AZ at (520) 421-8600.

UPDATE
The following are statements from the Casa Grande Police Department obtained from azcentral.com

A statement issued Thursday afternoon by Casa Grande police Chief Robert Huddleston said the department is working to determine whether Walsh acted inappropriately and, if so, will take steps to correct issues.

Chief Huddleston said, "The Casa Grande Police Department will continue to work with this and any other citizen group to respect their right to assemble and demonstrate in a safe manner. We apologize for any inconvenience or misunderstanding, and look forward to the completion of the investigation."

To read the full article on azcentral.com go here.