Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 15:35:19 -0800 From: Jean Richter Subject: 1/28/2000 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. Article in The Nation on gay teens fighting back for their rights ======================================================================= THE NATION, January 31, 2000 33 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003 (212) 209-5400 (E-MAIL: letters @thenation.com) ( http://www.thenation.com ) GAY TEENS FIGHT BACK A NEW GENERATION OF GAY YOUTH WON'T TOLERATE HARASSMENT IN THEIR SCHOOLS. Jared Nayfack was 11 years old and living in the heart of conservative Orange County, California, when he told his best friend from school that he was gay "and my friend then came out to me," says Jared. When he turned 15, Jared celebrated his birthday by coming out to his parents and closest friends. By then, he was attending a Catholic high school, and on a school-sponsored overnight field trip, Jared and his schoolmates decided to spend their free evening at the movies seeing The Rocky Horror Picture Show. "Some of us had decided to get all costumed up to see it, and when the teacher who was with us saw us she threw a fit: She forced me to get up in front of the other twenty-one students ­ many of whom I didn't know ­ and tell them I was gay. Most of the kids supported me, but later that evening, one of them ­ a lot bigger than I was; he had a black belt in martial arts ­ came into my hotel room and beat me up. I was a bloody mess, and he could have killed me if another student hadn't heard my screams and stopped him." Instead of punishing Jared's assailant, the school's dean suspended Jared and put him on "academic and behavioral probation." "The dean told me that even though I was forced to tell the others that I was gay, I was at fault because I'd threatened the masculinity' of the kid who'd beat me up," Jared recalls. [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] ================================================================================ 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/