Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 17:00:35 -0700 From: Jean Richter Subject: 5/22/2000 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. Federal Title IX guidelines on gay student harassment 2. CA: Independent religious schools balk at gay student protection law 3. NY: LGBT educational initiatives in Long Island ================================================================================ 1. Federal Title IX guidelines on gay student harassment From: SARATOGANY@aol.com Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 19:53:14 EDT Subject: US Ed. Department: Harassment and Sexual Harassment of Gay and Lesbian Students Msg fwd by: The Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020 Email to: saratogany@aol.com "The Actual or Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project" CSS-NYS Note: As I have mentioned on other occassions, under Title IX gay and lesbian students are NOT protected from discrimination. However, they are protected against SEXUAL HARASSMENT and SEX DISCRIMINATION. Frequently harassment of gay and lesbians students is SEXUAL in nature, by word or act. For example; "hey faggot you want to suck my c**k?" or a simulated sex act. Obviously these have a sexual connotation. See hotline for US ED - Office of Civil Rights at the end of this message followed by an attorney's comment on this. You should note in the below text "students who are, or are perceived to be, gay or lesbian." =================================================================== US Education Department (www.ed.gov) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime: A Guide for Schools - January 1999 (Obtain this free guide by calling toll free 1-800-USA-LEARN) Excerpts: There is an increasing awareness among school officials of the frequency and severity of harassment of students who are, or are perceived to be, gay or lesbian. Schools should consider whether there is a need to include harassment based expressly on sexual orientation in their anti-harassment programs. Harassment on the basis of sexual orientation may violate state discrimination laws or the U.S. Constitution. As described in Harassment Based on Sexual Orientation, a recent holding of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Nabozny v. Podlesny, 92 F.3d 446 (7th Cir. 1996), allowed a lawsuit for damages under the United States Constitution against a school district where school officials allegedly failed to protect a gay student from harassment to the same extent as other students because of his sex and sexual orientation. Of course, gay and lesbian students can also be targets of sexual harassment. See Sexual Harassment of Gay and Lesbian Students for a discussion of sexual harassment of gay and lesbian students. See also Part II of this Guide, Addressing Hate Crime, for a discussion of state and federal criminal laws that may be relevant to certain kinds of bias motivated incidents. HARASSMENT BASED ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Some state and local laws may prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Also, under certain circumstances, courts have permitted a remedy for harassment on the basis of sexual orientation under other federal legal authority. For example, a 1996 federal court of appeals case held that a gay student could recover for discrimination based on both sex and sexual orientation under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution in a case in which school district officials allegedly failed to protect the student to the same extent that other students were protected from harassment due to the student's sex and sexual orientation.33 School districts should consult appropriate state and local officials and legal counsel regarding the extent of their responsibility to address harassment of students based on sexual orientation. Harassment and criminal conduct based on actual or perceived sexual orientation has been recognized as a significant problem in many schools. School officials should consider whether adopting specific statements or policies regarding harassment based on sexual orientation will help to protect students from violence and damaging behavior of this sort.34 SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF GAY AND LESBIAN STUDENTS. Sexual harassment directed at gay or lesbian students may constitute unlawful sexual harassment. For example, targeting a gay or lesbian student for physical, sexual advances may constitute sexual harassment. However, nonsexual harassing behavior directed at a student because of the student's sexual orientation does not constitute sexual harassment under the federal discrimination laws enforced by OCR. For example, heckling comments made to students because of their sexual orientation, such as "gay students are not welcome here," does not constitute sexual harassment under Title IX.25 State laws may explicitly bar harassment based on sexual orientation or treat it as prohibited sex discrimination. In addition, other federal, state, or local laws may apply to harassment based on sexual orientation if the behavior is criminal or violent in nature. A district's policy may include a statement that harassing conduct of a sexual nature, which is otherwise prohibited, is not exempted based on the sex or sexual orientation of the harasser or target of harassment Note 25 See OCR's Sexual Harassment Guidance, 62 Federal Register 12039, for a discussion of sexual harassment of gay and lesbian students. Note 33 See Nabozny v. Podlesny, 92 F.3d 446 (7th Cir. 1996). Note 34 For example, the State of Vermont prohibits harassment based on sexual orientation. The example of harassing behavior based on sexual orientation given in the Vermont Department of Education's Model Policy is "unwelcome verbal, written, or physical conduct, directed at the characteristics of a person's sexual orientation, such as negative name calling and imitating behaviors." Civil Rights Hotline Call the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at 1-800-421-3481 to report any educational discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, etc., request information on civil rights compliance programs, procedures for filing discrimination complaints, or access to civil rights regulatory and policy documents. The local number in Washington, D.C. is 202-205-5413. TTY: 1-800-260-0471. Email: ocr@ed.gov. One attorney's comment: Title IX does NOT prohibit sexual orientation discrimination. It DOES prohibit sex discrimination. BUT lesbian and gay students suffer sex discrimination, often in the form of sexual harassment, often in the form of sex stereotyping. Here is the major problem for NY school attorneys, if they do not understand the above distinctions: they may believe incorrectly, as many do, that just because the targeted victim is gay, and the harassment or abuse or discriminatory conduct may involve some anti-gay sentiment, that there cannot be any sex discrimination. We will prove them otherwise in courts of law. For the sake of students, it is better to understand the distinctions, and make sure school administrators understand the distinctions, so the problems are solved without litigation, which is better for everyone. ==================================================================== "The Actual or Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project" A project of: Coalition for Safer Schools of New York State John Myers Director of Operations and Programs PO Box 2345 Malta, NY 12020 (518) 587-0176 Email: saratogany@aol.com (To join the CSS-NYS Email List, send request to saratogany@aol.com) ============================================================================ 2. CA: Independent religious schools balk at gay student protection law Orange County Register, April 30, 2000 625 N. Grand Avenue, Santa Ana, CA, 92711 (Fax 714-543-3904 ) (E-MAIL: ocregister@link.freedom.com ) ( http://www.ocregister.com/ ) Some religious schools fear new gay-rights law SOCIAL ISSUES: Non-affiliated campuses aren't sure if the ban on excluding homosexuals applies to them. By KIMBERLY KINDY, The Orange County Register Hundreds of independent religious schools and a handful of colleges in California believe they'll have to comply with a new gay-rights law for students despite potential conflicts with spiritual tenets. The law is designed to protect gay and lesbian students from mental and physical harassment by classmates and school employees on campus. [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] ================================================================================ 3. NY: LGBT educational initiatives in Long Island From: SARATOGANY@aol.com Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 07:42:54 EDT Subject: Educational Initiatives on Long Island re: GLBT Issues (Ellen Seigel, CSW) Msg fwd by: The Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020 Email to: saratogany@aol.com "The Actual or Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project" =================================================================== May 3, 2000 Subject: Educational Initiatives on Long Island re: GLBT Issues To Whom It May Concern, Since at 1993 at LEAST 80 school districts on Long Island have started and expanded their provision of sensitivity training regarding g/l/b/t issues for school personnel. Educators see the need to provide a safe learning environment for all students and have discovered that the invisible minority of gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgender students have gone totally unaddressed due to their need to hide in order to save their lives. G/L/B/T discrimination has been coined "the last societally permissible prejudice." Unless we eradicate this prejudice we are not providing a safe learning environment for ALL students and public schools are for ALL the public's children. The training comprises 1.) analysis of stereotypes and myths, 2.) the plight of gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgender children and youth at the hands of cruel discrimination when it comes to actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender differences (responses to society's condoning of and permission to denigrate g/l/b/t people include: being the victim of physical assault which in many cases has resulted in death, very high suicide rates, expulsion from family homes and from families-homelessness, living everyday hiding oneself which in addition to crippling one's internal self - keeps a child's creativity bottled up and unavailable to the learning process and more....) 3.) responding to the questions of school personnel which include "how to handle gay slurs," "how to intervene when discriminatory comments are made by fellow adults," "how to talk with gay parents," "how to ensure that the learning environment is safe for ALL students where ALL really means ALL." An emphasis that g/l/b/t students are in classes now/TODAY as an invisible minority.Students are coming out now at age 13 or earlier. There are many more g/l/b/t parents who are presenting themselves in parent/teacher conferences. G/L/B/T students need to see g/l/b/t adults comfortably accepted so they won't have to be distracted from learning by dodging anti g/l/b/t discrimination. Ensuring a learning environment in which all students feel safe enough to be open to the learning process includes acceptance of g/l/b/t children, of children with their g/l/b/t parents, and of g/l/b/t adults working in the district and in the world --- this acceptance must also acknowledge that as with the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement there is a documented history of the gay rights movement which is part of the real world in which all students live whether they are gay/lesbian/heterosexual/bisexual & transgender. Just as eye color is not debatable, neither is Sexual Orientation nor one's experience of gender (maleness and femaleness). As responsible adults in the field of education, we must protect the right of all students to live and learn in a safe environment. Ellen Seigel, CSW President Roslyn Public Schools Board of Education (Ellen Seigel is a CSS-NYS collaborator) ==================================================================== "The Actual or Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project" A project of: Coalition for Safer Schools of New York State John Myers Director of Operations and Programs PO Box 2345 Malta, NY 12020 (518) 587-0176 Email: saratogany@aol.com (To join the CSS-NYS Email List, send request to saratogany@aol.com) =========================================================================== 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/