Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 18:45:01 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: GLAADLines September 14, 1998 GLAADLINES Contact: Sharen Shaw Johnson (202) 986-1360 x193 sjohnson@glaad.org http://www.glaad.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 14, 1998 News and Breaking Stories about the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community POLITICAL PROS TO TEACH CAMPAIGN SKILLS TO ACTIVISTS: The Rev. Jesse Jackson; AFL-CIO President John Sweeney; Assistant to the President Virginia Apuzzo; White House AIDS Policy Director Sandra Thurman; and Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga.; and Connie Morella, R-Md.; are to be among speakers at OutVote '98. The event is the second national political convention of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The event, intended to mobilize the vote and teach campaign skills to an estimated 1,000 lesbian and gay activists from across the country, will take place at the Washington, D.C., Marriott Wardman Park Hotel Sept. 18-19. The hotel also is to be the site that Saturday evening, Sept. 19, of HRC's National Dinner, at which Vice President Al Gore will deliver an address and receive the organization's National Leadership Award. For more information contact HRC's Wayne Besen at (202) 216-1580. TELLING TALES DOCUMENTS LESBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL STUDENT EXPERIENCES: Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Executive Director Kevin Jennings has edited a new book entitled, Telling Tales Out of School: Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals revisit their school days, inspired by GLSEN's Back-to-School Campaign, a program which encourages individuals to write their schools and share their experiences as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender alumni. Jennings says in the book's introduction, "People started sending me copies of their letters, and the stories were so incredible ... that I knew there was a book crying out to be made from them." More than 30 authors contributed with stories of harassment and strength, including Jennings himself; noted African-American author Larry Duplechan; Jon Barrett, an Advocate editor, and bisexual activist Loraine Hutchins. Jennings has edited two other anthologies, One Teacher in Ten and Becoming Visible. This book adds the voices of students to the teachers' stories and curricular information he had presented in the prior two. Telling Tales was released by Los Angeles-based Alyson Books. For more information, visit GLSEN's website, located at http://www.glsen.org , or contact Kate Frankfurt (GLSEN), (212) 727-0135, e-mail: kfrankfurt@glsen.org , or Dan Cullinane (Alyson Publications), (323) 860-6045, e-mail: dcullina@pdcdist.com . GAY MALE PARENTS TO SPEAK AT NATIONAL ACLU EVENT IN D.C.: Jon and Michael Galluccio of New Jersey, the first same-sex couple to jointly adopt a child in New Jersey, will be in Washington, D.C., Sept. 15-19. The Galluccios will spend the majority of their time lobbying members of Congress including Rep. Marge Roukema, R-N.J.; Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., about adoption rights. Among the highlights of their non-lobbying activities: taking part in an ACLU national panel on defending lesbian and gay families, led by ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project Director Matt Coles and meeting with Vice President Al Gore's staff. Accompanying the Galluccios will be their children, Adam, the son they adopted this fall, and their foster daughter Madison. The Galluccios have announced that they will take time to celebrate Adam's third birthday at D.C.'s National Zoo. For more information contact Jon Galluccio in New Jersey or Washington at (917) 806-1010. NEW NATIONAL STUDENT-RUN COLLEGE ORGANIZATION FORMED: The student-run National Collegiate Pride Association, believed to be the first U.S. student-run national organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender college students, was launched Sept. 9. Among its purposes: To provide networking and other support for such students and their allies, and to "create a viable communication network of all American collegiate based sexual minority organizations." The organization, based in Flagstaff, Ariz., says it's "especially dedicated to providing education and advocacy pertaining to issues concerning suicide of sexual minority youth and the continued oppression of sexual minorities within the realms of collegiate athletics." For more information contact Executive Director M. Shelby Blanton at (520) 214-5757. RECONCILING RELIGIOUS FAITH WITH SEXUAL IDENTITY: Authors Bruce Bawer, Alan Wolfe and Sally Lowe Whitehead will be among authors speaking at "Reclaiming Our Faith," sponsored by Maine Speakout and the Maine Council of Churches in Lewiston, Maine. The event is being held against the backdrop of a high-profile ad campaign by religious-political extremists condemning homosexuality. Sessions will take place at St. Mary's Hospital on Sept. 19 and in the Somesville Congregational Church on Sept. 20. Bawer is the author of Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity; Wolfe, of One Nation, After All, and Whitehead of The Truth Shall Set You Free: A Family's Passage from Fundamentalism to a New Understanding of Faith, Love and Sexual Identity. For more information contact Jonathan Lee at (207) 879-0480. GLAAD is the nation's lesbian & gay multimedia advocacy organization. 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