Court lets private schools expel lesbians

The state Supreme Court left intact Wednesday a lower-court ruling that said a private religious high school wasn’t covered by California civil rights law and could expel students it believed were lesbians.

Over Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar’s dissent, the court denied review of an appeal by parents of two girls who were expelled from a high school in Riverside County. A lawyer for the parents said the ruling, which is binding on trial courts statewide, would allow private schools to discriminate against students on any basis they chose, including sex and religion.

The girls were juniors at California Lutheran High School in the town of Wildomar when the principal, Gregory Bork, called them to his office in September 2005 and questioned them separately about their sexual orientation, after another student reported postings on their MySpace pages.

Bork suspended the girls based on their answers, and the school’s directors expelled them a month later. The girls, who later graduated from another high school, have not been identified and have not discussed their sexual orientation, said their parents’ attorney, Kirk Hanson.

The parents sued under the Unruh Act, a 1959 state law that forbids discrimination by businesses. It was amended in 2005 to include bias based on sexual orientation and someone else’s perception of sexual orientation. State education law also prohibits anti-gay bias, but that applies only to public schools.

In January, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Bernardino said the school is not a business but instead a social organization entitled to follow its principles.

Although California courts have defined such organizations as a Boys Club and the Rotary Club as businesses covered by the Unruh Act, the appeals court cited a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Boy Scouts to exclude gays and atheists. Like the Boy Scouts, the appellate panel said, a private religious school exists mainly to instill its values in young people.

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California’s Carrie Prejean Joins Movement Against Gay Marriage

When Miss California appeared Friday night on CNN (above), she insisted she wasn’t a poster girl for the movement against gay marriage—just a beauty pageant contestant answering a tough question.

But U.S. News Whisperer Paul Bedard reports that Carrie Prejean has now officially joined the movement. She’s coming to D.C. tomorrow to unveil a new ad by the National Organization for Marriage

that focuses on her Miss USA experience.

The National Organization for Marriage describes the ad this way:

“No Offense,” the next ad in NOM’s $1.5 million national ad campaign, will be previewed for the media. What happens when a young California beauty pageant contestant is asked “do you support same-sex marriage?” She is attacked viciously for having the courage to speak up for her truth and her values. But Carrie’s courage inspired a whole nation and a whole generation of young people because she chose to risk the Miss USA crown rather than be silent about her deepest moral values. “No Offense” calls gay marriage advocates to account for their unwillingness to debate the real issue: gay marriage has consequences.

The National Organization for Marriage’s first ad has gotten a lot of news attention: See California’s Carrie Prejean Joins Movement Against Gay Marriage

U.S. News & World Report

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LGBTQ Student Rights in the Wake of Tragic Suicides

‘Every student deserves the right to a respectful and affirming experience in school hallways and classrooms. We owe it to Jaheem Herrera and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover to make sure that school officials, teachers and fellow students take a stand against LGBT-related harassment every day.’

(New York, April 27 2009) — Lambda Legal today issued the following statement in response to the tragic suicides of Jaheem Herrera of Dekalb County, Georgia, and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, of Springfield, Massachusetts, both 11-year-olds who faced antigay harassment and bullying.
Statement from Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director of Lambda Legal:

“This has been a somber time for everyone who heard the terrible news of two young people taking their own lives after being the targets of antigay physical and emotional abuse. We extend our sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of these young boys.
“The tragic deaths of Jaheem Herrera and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover underscore the importance of safe schools where harassment and violence based on racist, sexist, antigay or other biased attitudes are not tolerated. Unfortunately, there is much work to be done. Harassment of LGBTQ students and those perceived to be LGBT remains a serious problem across the country. Lambda Legal pledges to continue to stand up for students and hold schools accountable for preserving their rights and integrity. We applaud schools that stand up for safety and respect for all students because any student can be the target of LGBT-related bullying and harassment.

“Lambda Legal has played a key role in securing equality for LGBTQ and allied youth and standing up for their rights in schools. We advocated for students’ rights to an environment of safety and respect in communities from New York and New Jersey to Oregon to California and Georgia. In 1996 we made history with the first legal challenge to antigay violence in public schools on behalf of Jamie Nabozny, in Nabozny v. Podlesny, and in our 2000 case, Colin v. Orange Unified School District, we established the obligation of schools to allow Gay Straight Alliance’s on equal terms with other student activities.

“Every student deserves the right to a respectful and affirming experience in school hallways and classrooms. We owe it to Jaheem Herrera and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover to make sure that school officials, teachers and fellow students take a stand against LGBT-related harassment every day, and at Lambda Legal we will continue our work in schools to help prevent similar tragedies from occurring.”
Lambda Legal will join the Faith and Community Alliance and other community groups at a vigil for Jaheem Herrera on Tuesday, April 28, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., First Christian Church of Decatur ,601 West Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur, GA.
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Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.

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Training on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youths

Riverside’s Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network will host its first lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Youth in Foster Care Training from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday for foster care workers.

Renowned trainer Robert Woronoff, who will be featured at the free event hosted at the Main Library, brings more than 20 years’ experience working with and for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in foster care, according to a news release. He is a former program director of the Child Welfare League of America and director of LGBTQ services and peer programs at The Home for Little Wanderers in Boston.

“We had housing programs for HIV-positive youth, and a lot of young people I was working with were not HIV positive, but they didn’t have housing,” Woronoff said in the release. “So I called up the largest child welfare organization and made them realize that young people needed housing before getting positive.”

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Florida Times-Union

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World Television Premiere Event: The Film ‘Pedro’ Airs on MTV, MTV Tr3s, mtvU & LOGO on Wednesday, April 1 at 8:00 PM ET/PT

Introduced by President Bill Clinton, BMP Films and MTV Bring Academy Award-Winner Dustin Lance Black’s (“Milk”) Story of The Real World’s Pedro Zamora To Life

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — MTV, mtvU, LOGO and MTV Tr3s, with subtitles in Spanish, will present the world television premiere of Pedro, a movie based on the remarkable life of The Real World’s Pedro Zamora, on Wednesday, April 1 at 8:00 PM ET/PT. BMP Films, in association with MTV, produced this biopic written by Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”). For more information and to view the movie trailer, please visit www.pedro.mtv.com.

In 1994, Zamora captured the hearts of millions as the first-ever openly gay, HIV-positive main character on TV — on MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco. Zamora’s time in the house on Lombard Street brought a face to the AIDS crisis. President Bill Clinton has long credited Zamora with personalizing and humanizing the epidemic, and he will introduce Pedro when it makes its world television premiere April 1st.

“To this day, Pedro Zamora remains an extraordinary example of what a huge impact one young person can make in our world,” President Clinton said. “I’m glad to have known him, and I’m grateful his life has been able to inspire and enrich so many others.”

Told through the eyes of his friends and family, the film Pedro celebrates the extraordinary life a young man who found out he was HIV positive at 17, then made the courageous decision to dedicate his life to speaking out about the disease. Zamora testified before the United States Congress to argue for more explicit HIV/AIDS educational programs aimed at youth of color before auditioning for The Real World in 1993.

Zamora’s appearance on The Real World brought his story and message to a national audience; and when his health began to deteriorate in late 1994 (after he left the show), his condition quickly became front page news nationwide. His death at age 22, following the final episode of “The Real World,” provoked a worldwide outpouring of grief.

“Our historic, simultaneous premiere of the film across multiple networks demonstrates the power of Pedro’s journey to reach a vast array of audiences, just as it did 15 years ago,” said Brian Graden, President of Entertainment, MTV Networks Music Channels and President of Logo. “His story originally ignited a national dialogue, permanently impacted our consciousness around the challenges of HIV, and gave untold millions the courage to open up about their sexual orientation. For those of us who remember him as a treasured television friend, and for a new generation coming to his story for the first time, we remain grateful for the gift of his story.”

“Pedro made us promise to tell his story to his very last breath; this film delivers on that promise by telling his entire life story in a scripted film – including his early life in Cuba, his teen years in Miami and the final months of his life as he fought to stay alive,” said BMP Films President, Jon Murray. “For the first time viewers will see all the forces that made Pedro the man he was and gave him the courage to take his message of AIDS education to a nationwide audience.”

Nearly 15 years since Pedro heightened national awareness of HIV/AIDS, the epidemic in the U.S. remains a serious concern, especially among younger Americans (under 30) who account for a larger share of new infections than any other age group. Other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) – such as chlamydia and gonorrhea – are even more common, with one in two sexually active Americans being infected by age 25 – and most not knowing it. Since 1997, MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation have partnered to inform millions of young adults about HIV, other STDs and related sexual health issues. Beginning in April (STD Awareness Month), MTV and Kaiser will partner with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its nearly 880 affiliate health centers to make an aggressive push to inform America’s young people about STDs, as well as help normalize and drive increased testing. Full details on the rest of the campaign will be unveiled soon.

Planned Parenthood is also developing an educational discussion guide for teens, young adults, and parents to use when they watch the Pedro premiere on MTV. It will be available for download on MTV’s www.ItsYourSexLife.com and on Planned Parenthood’s website at www.plannedparenthood.org.

Pedro was Produced by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, Chris Panizzon and Anne Clements (“Quinceanera”). Jon Murray, Gil Goldschein and Scott Freeman of Bunim-Murray Productions served as Executive Producers along with Paris Barclay. Pedro was directed by Nick Oceano and written by Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) with story by Paris Barclay and Dustin Lance Black. Pedro stars Alex Loynaz as Pedro, Justina Machado (“Six Feet Under”) as Pedro’s sister Mily, and Hale Appleman (“Teeth”) as Pedro’s roommate from The Real World, Judd. Maggie Malina is executive producer for MTV.

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Study: Family behavior key to health of gay youth

(San Francisco) Young gay people whose parents or guardians responded negatively when they revealed their sexual orientation were more likely to attempt suicide, experience severe depression and use drugs than those whose families accepted the news, according to a new study. [Read 365gay.com's report]

The way in which parents or guardians …

New LGBT equality laws go into effect in Calif.

(Sacramento, California) Three new laws broadening protections for California’s LGBT community have gone into effect. The laws protect seniors in assisted living and young people in schools and foster care.

“We begin the New Year knowing that all LGBT people, …

Can you help vulnerable gay teenagers this Christmas?

The Albert Kennedy Trust helps lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people who do not live in accepting, supportive and caring homes.

It provides a range of services to meet the individual needs of those who would otherwise be homeless or living in a hostile environment.

This Christmas AKT is asking PinkNews.co.uk readers to help those vulnerable young people – AKT helped more than 1,400 in 2007. “If just 365 of your online readers donate £18 each to the appeal they will have raised the money needed to keep one young person off the streets and safe in a Carer household for one year,” said AKT chief executive Tim Sigsworth.

“To donate they can visit the AKT website and click donate.”

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