Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 16:42:33 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: GLAADLines 02.24.97 GLAADLINES contact: Don Romesburg (415) 861-2244 romesburg@glaad.org http://www.glaad.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 24, 1997 News, Tips and Breaking Stories about the Gay & Lesbian Community LESBIAN FILM AT HEART OF ATTACK ON ART: In an assault on arts funding, conservative extremist legislators and radical religious groups have targeted the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) with a particular lesbian film-Watermelon Woman. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) claims that Women Make Movies, Inc. (WMM), distributes the award-winning film (it doesn't) and received $112,700 over the last three years to produce and distribute it and other films showing "explicit sex and the use of drugs in a positive way." The American Family Association, an anti-gay radical religious group, has also attacked NEA's WMM grants as "the funding of pornography." The NEA funds were used both to distribute two series, one about Native American women and another about women's health concerns, and to produce Watermelon Woman and other women-oriented films. Hoekstra will hold hearings on WMM in an effort to eliminate NEA funding even as President Clinton's budget seeks an increase in funding to $136 million. "To try to eliminate the NEA, the right-wing is scapegoating Women Make Movies," said WMM Executive Director Debra Zimmerman. For more information contact Debra Zimmerman (Women Make Movies) at (212) 925-0606. SCHOOLS STRUGGLE UNDER "DON'T ASK" ROTC POLICY: An eleventh-hour statement by the Department of Education comes too late for several schools who rescinded a ban on military recruitment and the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) under threat of losing student aid. A new law set to go into effect in March states that institutions the Pentagon deems "anti-military" could lose federal grants and contracts. In direct conflict are 11 colleges who banned military recruitment and ROTC from their campuses because of policies against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Two other schools, California State University, Sacramento and Sonoma State University, acting under conflicting information about whether the law included student aid, begrudgingly reinstated the military presence on their campuses to protect their students before the March deadline. Last week, a lawyer for the DOE announced they had deemed that federal funding lost by "anti-military" schools will not include Pell Grants or federal student loans. "By obfuscation and delay, the Education and Defense Department have turned this into High Noon unnecessarily," said Sheldon E. Steinbach, vice-president and general counsel of the American Council on Education. For more information contact the American Council on Education at (202) 939-9310. TRANS-ACTIVISTS HOLD VIGIL FOR SLAIN SISTER: On February 27, as trial proceedings for the murder of transsexual Chanelle Pickett begin at the Middlesex Superior Courthouse in Cambridge, Mass.., transgender and lesbian and gay rights advocates will stage a vigil to remember the victim. On November 20, 1995, Picket was found strangled in the apartment of defendant William Palmer, who has invoked the "transsexual panic defense." Palmer's initial statements indicated that he had taken Picket home and, upon discovering she was biologically a man, flew into a rage and killed her. The prosecution, however, will introduce a series of witnesses who will testify that not only was Palmer a frequenter of Boston transsexual pick-up spots but that he knew Pickett. According to vigil organizer and Transexual Menace spokesperson Nancy Nangeroni, "We look forward to seeing justice done. We want to highlight the social conditions that foster such crimes against those who transgress the unwritten rules of gender." For more information contact Nancy Nangeroni (Transexual Menace) at (617) 497-6928 or e-mail: nrn@gendertalk.com. TEACHER LEARNS A BITTER LESSON: A Northboro, Mass. high school history teacher who distributed to his students a list of questions aimed at challenging homophobia may face dismissal as a result. At the February 26 meeting of the Northboro-Southboro Regional School Committee, a policy to deal with curriculum matters such as teacher Douglas Matthews' handout will be discussed after parent Leslie A. Kendall, complained that he gave her child the "Heterosexual Questionnaire" without her approval. School administrators have stated they believe Matthews' intent was to teach students to be empathetic towards gay people. A new state law, which does not go into effect until September, requires school districts to adopt a policy allowing parents to exempt their children from classes involving human sexuality issues. For more information contact Algonquin Regional High School Principal Romeo Marquis at (508) 351-7010, ext. 115. WOMEN'S NIGHT '97 BRINGS OUT ELLEN, KD LANG: On March 1, Ellen DeGeneres will present recording artist k.d. lang with the Creative Integrity at Women's Night '97. Past recipients of the award include Melissa Etheridge, Martina Navratilova and the Indigo Girls. In addition, the event, sponsored by the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, will honor breast cancer activist Dr. Susan M. Love with the Community Role Model Award. For more information contact Jim Key (LA Gay & Lesbian Center) at (213) 860-7357. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is the nation's lesbian & gay news bureau and the only national lesbian & gay multimedia watchdog organization. GLAAD promotes fair, accurate, and inclusive representation as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. To subscribe contact Don Romesburg at (415) 861-2244 or at romesburg@glaad.org. "GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are trademarks of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) glaad@glaad.org TO REPORT DEFAMATION IN THE MEDIA - Call GLAAD's Alertline at 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or go to the GLAAD Web Site at www.glaad.org and report through our Alertline Online. 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