Tag Archives: education

For the third year in a row, the book most complained about in public school libraries is And Tango Makes Three, which tells the story of two male penguins raising an orphaned chick. The American Library Association tracks the titles most demanded for removal by parents and educators, although they estimate that four or five times more books are removed …

JMG reader Sean Chapin does an excellent job picking apart the lies in yesterday’s hateful anti-Day Of Silence clip from the Illinois Family Association. If you didn’t catch the final update on yesterday’s post, the IFI has amended their clip to remove the incorrect attributions and reposted it at another URL on YouTube. If you flagged it yesterday, thanks, but …

UPDATE: Since this post went up, the Illinois Family Institute has changed the information on their home page. Instead of a Baptist church in Arizona, the creator of the clip is now identified as Grace Gospel Center in Bensonville, Illinois. The Arizona church has written me to say they have no affiliation with the Illinois Family Institute. I have updated …

The ACLU is demanding that Tennessee’s public schools stop blocking students from researching LGBT issues on the internet. According to the ACLU, filters at schools currently block the term “LGBT” but allow access to “ex-gay” websites. Many noted LGBT activist groups are currently blocked to students, including HRC, PFLAG, GLSEN, and GLAAD. Via press release: In its letter, the ACLU …

Last night CNN did an excellent report on the plague of anti-gay bulling in the nation’s public schools, focusing on the suicide of 11 year-year old Carl Walker-Hoover and interviewing Thomas Krever, head of NYC’s Hetrick-Martin Institute, which is home to Harvey Milk High School. Excellent piece. Learn about Hetrick-Martin here.

Even in the face of last week’s widely publicized suicide of 11 year-old Carl Walker-Hoover, who had been tormented by anti-gay bullying, the religious right is shamelessly going forward with their plan to pull students out of school on Friday’s Day Of Silence. Here’s a portion of the just-issued press release from Karen England, executive director of the Capitol Resource …

Sponsored by openly gay politico Daniel O’Donnell, a sweeping anti-bullying bill has overwhelmingly passed in New York’s state Assembly. Via press release: The bill was recently amended to cover the broadest categories of students who face harassment and discrimination in our state’s schools. While the amendment explicitly added weight, it also clarified that protections should not be limited to the …

Tabloids are lighting up about the latest “scandal” at Oprah Winfrey’s all-girl boarding school in Africa. Oprah Winfrey’s elite boarding school for girls in South Africa has been rocked by its second sex scandal in fewer than two years. Seven students were suspended last week for sexually harassing their schoolmates, the “Afrikaans on Sunday” newspaper reported. One 15-year-old was accused …

Openly gay Ocala, Florida high school student Justin Reynolds was well-received by his fellow students last week when he appeared for classes in (very casual) drag as way to highlight gender identity discrimination. But the school sent him home anyway. Inside the halls of any typical American public high school, the outfit would hardly be construed as outlandish: a V-neck …

Tennessee state Rep. Stacey Campfield doesn’t want teachers to be allowed to even say the word “gay” to students. Rep. Stacey Campfield said he believes the issue of homosexuality can be too complicated for young minds to understand. Campfield filed, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which would essentially ban teachers from talking about the topic. “I think our teachers need …

The Alliance Defense Fund, the losing-est Christianist outfit ever, has lost again. UC Hastings College of the Law can deny recognition and funding to a Christian student group because it excludes gays, lesbians and non-Christians, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The San Francisco law school is entitled to require official student organizations to “accept all comers as members, even …

The 5th grade adopted son of a gay couple in Portland, Oregon has been told that he can’t wear an Obama mask during a school talent show. His parents say it’s because their son is white. “I understand the history of blackface and how African Americans were caricatured by it,” said Scott Lechert. “However, we now have a popular biracial …

How can these silly battles still be going on? A 17-year-old Boone County girl has sued Lebanon Schools after her high school principal told her she could not wear a tuxedo to the school’s April 25 prom but would have to wear a dress. The Lebanon High School senior, whose name is not revealed in the lawsuit, is a lesbian …

The NYT City Room blog reports that RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Ongina has hand-delivered a $25,000 donation from the MAC Cosmetics AIDS Fund to NYC’s Hetrick-Martin High school, which serves LGBT students who’ve had difficulty in regular public schools. The school is noted for being a space where students do not have to conform, where girls can declare their orientation …

Ah, Canada. Nanaimo students will wear pink today, along with tens of thousands of British Columbians, to show they will not tolerate bullying. As part of a provincewide campaign, Wednesday has been recognized as a day to don pink to deliver the anti-bullying message. The protest started after an incident at a Nova Scotia school in September 2007, when a …

Things got out of control last night at the continuing tuition protest at NYU. Riot police used pepper spray and at least one student was beaten with a baton. Students are demanding that the school reveal its operating budget and endowments and that some scholarships be granted to students from the Gaza Strip. The school’s cafeteria has been “occupied” for …

Virginia’s George Mason University had a real queen for Homecoming this year. Ryan Allen, a popular host of the George Mason University’s yearly drag show, was elected its homecoming queen over the weekend in an emotional crowning ceremony at halftime of the sold-out GMU vs. Northeastern basketball game at the Patriot Center. He beat out two female finalists after a …

Georgia state Rep. Charlice Byrd wants to fire every university professor who teaches such “disgusting” classes as queer theory. (Or anything else to do with sex or gayness, apparently.) Sounds like somebody wants to be the next Sally Kern. Since Byrd wants you to contact representatives and complain about perverted classes on dirty homo sex, you should start with her: …

The University of Colorado wasn’t the only place to stage a Valentine’s kiss-in for homo visibility today. Love — or, at least, lust — was in the air on Ho Plaza at 12:15 p.m. A group of roughly 20 students lined up to hold a colorful banner that read “QUEER KISSIN’ … in progress” and then proceeded have a queer …

Last week a Spanish court ruled that parents may not take their children out of classes that teach about LGBT rights. Some Spanish families are rebelling, as demonstrated by the above video. From the Christianist LifeSiteNews, where I also got the title of this post. Spanish families who are resisting their government’s mandatory homosexualist indoctrination program have made a video …