Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 17:42:19 -0700 From: Jean Richter Subject: 10/26/99 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. OR: School board bans Boy Scout recruiting during school hours 2. Uganda: Police plan anti-gay "outreach" in schools 3. CA: A variety of letters on fired transgender teacher ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 17:51:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Montalvo Reply-To: Boyscout@Texas.net Subject: Development in Portland BSA situation 10/5/99 Please see "Nancy Powell" section for background at: Scouting Issues Research http://boyscout.home.texas.net/ ================== http://boyscout.home.texas.net/PORT018.htm In turnaround, Portland schools to bar Boy Scouts from recruiting October 5, 1999 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Just months after Portland's school board won a two-year legal battle to allow the Boy Scouts to recruit on campus, it is preparing a new rule to keep out the Scouts and all "non-school" groups. [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] =================================================================== Africa News, October 5, 1999 www.africanews.org Museveni, police homo probe out 'Story was made up' The Monitor (Kampala) By Julius Mucunguzi Kampala -- The Directorate of police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has released the probe report into the mid September alleged homosexual wedding in Wandegeya, a suburb of Kampala city, The Monitor has learnt. [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] ================================================================================ SACRAMENTO BEE, October 4, 1999 P. O. Box 15779, Sacramento, CA, 95813 (Fax 916-321-1109 ) (E-MAIL: opinion@sacbee.com ) ( http://www.sacbee.com ) LETTERS: Transgender tolerance Re ''Sex change puts future of star teacher in doubt,'' Sept. 19: When I read the article about transgender teacher Dana Rivers struggling to keep her job in Antelope, I took it personally. In 1991, I lost a high school teaching job in Yucaipa, Calif., despite my stellar reputation as a teacher, for the simple reason that I answered honestly when a colleague, and later students, asked me if I was gay. I was told by my fundamentalist Christian principal and by numerous colleagues (including gay and lesbian ones) that I would not have faced the loss of my job if I had only been willing to lie about my identity. Rivers has lost her job as a teacher, despite her stellar reputation, because she spoke the truth about her identity and honestly answered her students' questions in order to help them understand that truth. Speaking the truth and explaining that truth to students: This is now a cause for firing of teachers? (Shades of Thoreau and Socrates!) What sort of twisted ''traditional'' value system makes parents prefer that their children be taught by liars and cowards rather than by men and women who have the courage and integrity to speak the truth, even when that truth is unpopular, even when teaching that truth carries personal risk? These parents don't want education for their children. They want conservative social conditioning, and they want sycophants, not teachers, doing the job. - Michael R. Gorman, Sacramento Re ''Teacher at Center notified of firing,'' Sept. 28: As a retired ''gay'' college professor/teacher, I am well aware of the prejudice concerned with one's ''unusual'' sexual orientation. Far be it from me to condemn the young person involved, but since he was still with male genitalia, dressed in female dress, the question of proper dignity (which restroom to use, etc.) is in question. Possibly the young person was unwise in revealing too much of his/herself to his/her students. Johns Hopkins University, followed by Stanford University, originally performed the transsexual operation. Both have since stopped because of the large numbers of suicides that followed. The operation is elaborate cosmetic surgery that requires lifelong shots and ongoing medical care to prevent the body from reverting to its natural state. Homosexuals do not ''choose a lifestyle.'' They seem ''born that way'' and hopefully make the best of it, as they have since Alexander the Great. Transsexuals do choose that option and do, alas, trap a great many others along with them. - Harold S. Wells, Sacramento As a senior citizen who has raised six wonderful children myself, I want the public to know that there are ''average folks'' who support Rivers 100 percent. I think that it is a shame that the Center Unified School District board of trustees made what appears to be an unfair decision. Rivers is being discharged, not for her performance as a teacher, but because the trustees made a hasty decision and acted without any regard to one of the most basic American principles: due process. I dare say we need more facts in this case. - Sarah Weber, West Sacramento In light of recent hate crimes, I was appalled to read about another one. I'm talking about the teacher fired because of her sex change. Her colleagues and students had documented her as a ''gifted'' teacher. But apparently we have to ''protect'' the children. I would love to see studies showing how knowing a person who has had a gender transformation can cause harm to our children. What message are we sending to our children? That it is OK to hate yet another group of people? - Michael Adams, Elk Grove I find it amazing that people think this is a tolerance issue, or even a gender issue. This is a right and wrong issue. This is about a teacher sharing a far too intimate and adult subject with his students. Adults don't use children for therapy. A teacher, if he really cared about his students, wouldn't use them and confuse them with his own personal issues. An honorable person wouldn't be going to all the media and stirring up his students' lives and education. This is the wrong thing to do. How can a person who is so confused about who he is hope to help teenagers figure out who they want to be? - Patty Grabow, Antelope Although I do not know Rivers personally, I am close to someone who knew him as a teacher and coach. At the lowest time in this person's life, Warfield picked him up out of the gutter and brushed him off. He shared his belief with this young man in a higher power. As the article indicated, Rivers has struggled with his/her identity all of her life. People who struggle and suffer are usually the ones who can show compassion and understanding to others. An example of this is the one that Jesus set. I may not agree with the lifestyle and choices that Rivers is making, but does this make an award-winning teacher bad? Who can do a better job of teaching and reaching out to adolescents looking for purpose and meaning in life, a perfect teacher or one who has been there? - Jan F. Lynch, Elverta I am troubled by Warfield being constantly referred to as ''she.'' Warfield is not a woman, nor will he ever be a woman. As long as a species has a penis, it is a male. Removing the penis, testicles and adding a rib and tilting his hips does not make him a woman either. Breast implants and hormones will not make him a woman. If educators and administrators have such a hard time accepting basic medical truths that have been proven for generations, how can they teach our children the truths of math, history, geography and science? No wonder our children are confused and feel our system has failed them. It has. I see signs on Warfield's behalf asking for ''tolerance.'' Perhaps the reason our society is so out of control is that we have been too tolerant on issues that we should not have been. - Carol Raposa, Roseville Rivers is Northern California's latest victim of fear, ignorance and intolerance. The decision of the Center Unified School District board to fire her is unconscionable. How long will intelligent people allow a narrow, ill-informed, self-righteous minority to speak for our community? The board's unjust and shortsighted action is so ridiculous as to cause many to shake their heads in disbelief and state that they are simply at a loss for words. We urge them to find the words quickly and speak out against this incomprehensible decision. - Kathleen Montgomery, President, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Sacramento I find it offensive and completely irresponsible that three school board members fired Rivers solely because she is considered ''different'' and does not fit within the moral standards of the board members. Not only is the school district facing the possibility of expensive legal action and the loss of a valuable and effective teacher, but it is teaching students everywhere that it is OK to discriminate against and judge another human being. Quit wasting taxpayers' money and get on with educating our children. If that cannot be done, then it is time to recall those school board members. - John P. Butler II, Elk Grove We find it disturbing that the school board would encourage through its actions an atmosphere of bigotry and intolerance. Our schools play an important role in educating our young citizens about the personal and social destructiveness caused by bigotry. The board's actions send a message to the students that bigotry is acceptable. Dana seems to be supported by staff, students and parents at Center High School. She expresses her love of teaching and desires to return to the classroom. The board needs to stand up for tolerance and let Rivers return to the classroom. - Richard Lougy, Linda Lougy, Rocklin ================================================================================ Jean Richter -- richter@eecs.berkeley.edu The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) These messages are archived by state on our information-loaded free web site: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/