California School Apologizes For Illegally Banning Sixth Grader’s Presentation On Harvey Milk
RAMONA, CA – A California school has apologized to a sixth grader for illegally censoring her classroom presentation about Harvey Milk last month, and school officials promise they won’t engage in unconstitutional restriction of similar free speech in the future. The apology comes after the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter on May 30 to the Ramona Unified School District about its violation of the student’s free speech rights when it refused to allow her to give the presentation in class. Wrongly citing a school policy on sex education, the school had improperly required classmates to get parental permission to see the presentation during a lunch recess. The student was allowed to give her presentation in class this morning.
“Harvey Milk always stood up for his beliefs and what was right, so I felt like I should do the same thing when my school told me they wouldn’t let me do my presentation,” said Natalie Jones, a sixth grader at Mt. Woodson Elementary School. “I worked really hard on my presentation and I’m glad I’m finally going to get to share it with all of my classmates like everyone else got to.”
The assignment, part of an independent research project class, was to prepare a written report on any topic. Natalie, who was inspired to write about Harvey Milk after watching Sean Penn win an Academy Award for portraying him, got a score of 49 out of a possible 50 points on the written report. Students were then told to make PowerPoint presentations about their reports, which they would show to other students in the class. The day before Natalie was to give her 12-page presentation she was called into the principal’s office and told she couldn’t do so. When her mother spoke with the superintendent about the presentation, she was told Natalie couldn’t give her presentation because of a district board policy on “Family Life/Sex Education.” A few days later, the school sent letters to parents of students in the class, explaining that her presentation would be held during a lunch recess on May 8, and that students could only attend if they had parental permission due to the allegedly “sensitive” nature of the topic.
“Instead of quaking at the mere mention of an LGBT person’s existence, schools must understand that talking about someone who happens to be gay is no more sexual in nature than talking about a person who happens to be heterosexual,” said David Blair-Loy, Legal Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “Censoring Natalie’s presentation violated the First Amendment and the California Education Code, and we’re pleased she will finally get to give her presentation on a historical figure who was such a fierce advocate for the rights of not just LGBT Californians but of all people.”
* The school has apologized in writing to Natalie and sent a letter about that apology to all the parents who were sent the school’s letter about the presentation.
* The school allowed Natalie to give her presentation to all the other members of her independent research project class.
* The school has agreed to bring its “Family Life/Sex Education” policy into compliance with state law, and acknowledged that the mention or acknowledgement of a person’s sexual orientation is not sufficient to invoke the statutes and policies on sex education.
“If the school had taken a moment to consider its legal obligation to respect and uphold its students’ free speech rights instead of jumping to erroneous conclusions and trying to justify its actions by wrongly conflating Natalie’s historical presentation with sex education, this would never have happened,” said Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU national LGBT Project. “There’s a tremendous difference between sex education and writing or talking about someone who happens to be gay, and we’re glad we were able to help the school finally understand that.”
“I’m always proud of my daughter, of course, but I’m even more proud of her for the way she stood up for her rights,” said Bonnie Jones, Natalie’s mother. “We’ve also heard from many people in town and other parents at Natalie’s school who have been amazingly supportive. I think if Harvey Milk were still here today, he’d be happy about how this all worked out.”
Harvey Milk, one of Time Magazine’s “Time 100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century” in 1999, has been the subject of several books, an opera, a documentary film that won the 1984 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, and a feature film released last year that won two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. Milk’s birthday is the subject of a bill pending in the California legislature that would make it a state holiday.
For additional information, including a video featuring an interview with Natalie, copies of the school’s apology to Natalie and its letter to parents of students in her class, Natalie’s presentation on Harvey Milk, the school’s letter to parents, and the Ramona U.S.D. “Family Life/Sex Education” policy, can be found online at www.aclu.org/milk
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Ellen DeGeneres proves a gay can win over America
Which celebrity would you feel most comfortable leaving your kids with?
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi; Jennifer Aniston; Rachel Ray; Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt; or Oprah Winfrey?
If you answered “Ellen and Portia,” you agreed with the 10,000 mostly moms who participated in a recent survey on AOL’s “Parent Dish.”
Thirty-one percent picked the lesbian couple, followed by Aniston (22 percent), Ray (20 percent), “Angelina and Brad” (18 percent), and Winfrey (9 percent).
The perky comedian has captured America’s heart since her huge coming out at age 39 in 1997, including on her award-winning “Ellen” situation comedy and the cover of Time magazine.
Twelve years ago, Ellen’s move was gutsy, potentially career-crushing. Tennis legend Martina Navratilova says her own earlier coming out cost her millions of dollars in endorsements from companies skittish about having a lesbian advertise their products.
But, over these dozen years, Ellen, her gifts, her personal life and her bank account have blossomed.
After hosting the Emmys and the Grammys, Ellen in 2007 became the first out gay person to host the Academy Awards.
She has done ads for American Express and Advil, teamed up with One-a-Day multivitamins to urge women to get checked for breast cancer and, get this, is a Cover Girl.
Pop culture, I’m quick to admit, is my weak suit. So when I found myself shouting “No way!” at the delightful “Parent Dish” results, it was time to do a little TiVoing of Ellen’s daytime talk show: How has this wonder woman pulled off being so 100 percent gay, beloved and successful?
Three shows — and a lot of chuckles — later, I understand. Ellen creates an enchanting, playful land, where she, contestants and the audience embrace the basic goodness in themselves and others.
There are winners — and the also-winners. In one particularly funny contest, audience members Aimee and Pennylane donned huge, padded sumo wrestler outfits and had to answer goofy questions — “How many inches are in 12 inches?” — and waddle to grab a football to win a key that might start a $40,000 Ford Taurus.
When it became clear that Aimee had found her true calling, Ellen gave the last key to Pennylane. No foul was called by Aimee.
SEE Ellen DeGeneres proves a gay can win over America The Detroit News * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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California School Bans Sixth I Presentation on Harvey Milk
California School Bans Sixth
Grader’s Presentation on Harvey MilkFaces Possible
ACLU Lawsuit For Violation Of State Education Code
RAMONA, CA – Wrongly citing a school policy on sex education, a
California
school illegally censored a sixth grader’s classroom presentation about Harvey
Milk earlier this month. According
to a demand letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union to the
Ramona Unified School
District today, the school violated Natalie Jones’s
free speech rights when it refused to allow her to give the presentation in
class. Instead, the school
improperly required classmates to get parental permission to see the
presentation during a lunch recess.
“This whole thing is unbelievable –
first my daughter got called into the principal’s office as if she were in some
kind of trouble, and then they treated her presentation like it was something
icky,” said Bonnie Jones, mother of the Mt. Woodson Elementary School
student. “Harvey Milk was an
elected official in this state and an important person in history. To
say my daughter’s presentation is
‘sex education’ because Harvey Milk happened to be gay is completely
wrong.”
The assignment, part of an
independent research project class, was originally to prepare a written report
on any topic. Natalie Jones, who
was inspired to write about Harvey Milk after watching Sean Penn win an Academy
Award for portraying him, got a score of 49 out of a possible 50 points on the
written report. Students were then
told to make PowerPoint presentations about their reports, which they
would show
to other students in the class. The
day before Natalie was to give her 12-page presentation she was called into the
principal’s office and told she couldn’t do so.
When Bonnie Jones spoke with the
superintendent about the presentation, he said Natalie couldn’t give her
presentation because of a district board policy on “Family Life/Sex
Education.” A few days later, the
school sent letters to parents of students in the class, explaining that her
presentation would be held during a lunch recess on May 8, and that students
could only attend if they had parental permission.
“The principal and superintendent
grossly misinterpreted school policy.
They illegally censored student speech protected by the First Amendment
and the California Education Code,” said David
Blair-Loy, Legal Director of the ACLU of San Diego and
Imperial
Counties. “Writing or talking about a gay
historical figure who advocated for equal rights for LGBT Californians is in no
way the same thing as talking about sex, and school officials should
not pretend
otherwise.”
The Ramona Unified School
District policy on “Family Life/Sex
Education” reads in part:
“(P)arents/guardians shall be
notified in writing about any instruction in which human reproductive
organs and
their functions, processes, or sexually transmitted diseases are described,
illustrated, or discussed. In
addition, before any instruction on family life, human sexuality, AIDS or
sexually transmitted diseases is given, the parent/guardian shall be provided
with written notice explaining that the instruction will be
given…”
“Schools that act as if any mention
of the existence of gay people is something too controversial or ‘sensitive’ to
discuss are doing a disservice to their students,” said Elizabeth
Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s
national LGBT Project. “This school
completely overstepped its bounds in trying to silence Natalie Jones
by shunting
her presentation off to a lunch recess time and misusing a school policy to
justify requiring parental permission to see it.”
In today’s letter, the ACLU is
demanding that the school:
·
Apologize in writing to Natalie
Jones and send a letter about that apology to all the parents who were sent the
principal’s letter about the presentation
·
Give
Natalie Jones an opportunity to give her presentation to all the other members
of her independent research project class
·
Clarify
in writing that the parental notification and permission portion of the “Family
Life/Sex Education” policy only applies to the curricula identified as “course
content” for “Family Life/Sex Education instruction”
The ACLU is giving the district
five days to respond or it may file a lawsuit on Bonnie and Natalie Jones’s
behalf.
Harvey Milk, one of Time Magazine’s “Time 100 Heroes and
Icons of the 20th Century” in 1999, has been the subject of several books, an
opera, a documentary film that won the 1984 Academy Award for Documentary
Feature, and a feature film released last year that won two Academy Awards for
Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
Milk’s birthday, the subject of a bill pending in the California legislature
that would make it a state holiday, is this Friday.
For additional information,
including copies of Natalie Jones’s presentation on Harvey Milk, the school’s
letter to parents, and the Ramona U.S.D. “Family Life/Sex Education” policy,
visit http://www.aclu.org/Milk.
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Oscar Winner Dustin Lance Black Testifies in Support of Harvey Milk Day, Which Promply Passes Key Committee
Sacramento – Dustin Lance Black, the Academy Award winning writer of the film Milk, testified before the California State Senate Education Committee shortly before it passed the Harvey Milk Day Bill, SB 572, in a 7-2 vote that included bipartisan support from Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) who voted for the bill.
“When I was 14 years old, a theatre director in the Bay Area told me the story of Harvey Milk,” said Black, an advocate for equal rights. “It was a story about an out gay man who stood up to prejudice and bigotry, lived openly as who he was, was elected to public office, and lit the fire of today’s national and global LGBT civil rights movement. Not surprisingly, his story gave me hope,” he said.
The bill, sponsored by Equality California (EQCA) and introduced by Senator Mark Leno (D – San Francisco) calls for a “day of special significance” honoring Milk and is designed to educate Californians about the former San Francisco City Supervisor, who became the nation’s first openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) person elected to political office in a major city.
“We may have lost Harvey Milk, but we have not lost his passion, his commitment, and his courage,” said Geoff Kors, EQCA Executive Director. “Harvey Milk’s endurance in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges is a source of pride and inspiration for every Californian.”
Milk’s groundbreaking service as an openly gay official helped bring LGBT people out of the closet and into civic life. During his time in office, he was responsible for both passing San Francisco’s first gay-rights ordinance and helping to defeat the controversial Briggs Initiative, which sought to ban gay and lesbian teachers from public schools. Milk, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated in November 1978.
“Harvey Milk gave hope to an entire generation of gay and lesbian people whose basic humanity and freedom had been denied and dishonored,” said Senator Leno. “He literally gave his life so that I and other LGBT elected officials could serve in public office. Thanks to Dustin Lance Black and the creators and stars of the movie “Milk,” Harvey’s incredible story continues to be told around the world. It is only fitting that we continue our work to preserve his legacy for generations to come,” he said.
The legislation was originally introduced last year by Sen. Leno, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the measure at the time, claiming Harvey Milk was not well known enough beyond San Francisco. Since that time, however, Harvey Milk has become a focal point of national conversation following the successful release of Milk, the critically acclaimed film depicting the life of the slain civil rights leader for which Black and actor Sean Penn received Academy Awards.
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How Beijing Butchered Sean Penn’s “Commie, Homo-Loving” Oscar Speech
In recent days, journalists around the globe have reported on the efforts of Asian governments to censor speech and images in support of gay rights from the broadcast of last Sunday’s Oscars. According to the AP, the Hong Kong-based, Murdoch-owned STAR network, reaching more than 300 million viewers in 53 countries, muted any mention of “gay” or “lesbian” during its tape-delayed, English-language re-broadcast of the Oscars. Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black, who both won Oscars for their work on the film Milk, used their time at the podium to voice support for same-sex marriage and equal rights for gays and lesbians.
In mainland China, where the Academy awards was broadcast with Chinese subtitles on state-run China Central Television (CCTV), censors did not mute out material deemed sensitive, but rather, and even more shamefully, omitted or mistranslated all language and images dealing with homosexuality. According to a Monday post on the China-based blog Shanghaiist, the CCTV broadcast cut out two gay kisses shown during the broadcast and completely eliminated Dustin Lance Black’s acceptance speech after he won for best original screenplay.
Black, who is openly gay, invoked Harvey Milk in his speech and promised equal rights “very soon” to the nation’s gay youth. “If Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago,” Black said, “I think he’d want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches or by the government or by their families that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value.” While Black’s speech was widely considered one of the more moving and memorable moments from this year’s Oscars, for viewers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Taiwan and Thailand, the speech was heavily censored, while those in mainland China didn’t hear a word of it.
For anyone who missed it, here’s Dustin Lance Black’s speech: @ How Beijing Butchered Sean Penn’s “Commie, Homo-Loving” Oscar Speech
Huffington Post –
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Gay Asians criticize Oscar censorship
(Kuala Lumpur) Gay Asians voiced indignation Wednesday after television broadcasts of the Academy Awards in their region censored the words “gay” and “lesbian” in speeches that called for equal rights.
The speeches by actor Sean Penn and writer Dustin Lance Black – who won Oscars for their work in “Milk” – …
Gay misery wins Academy Awards
Cinematic acclaim for gay characters… as long as they are unhappy and/or end up dead?
