Tag: It Gets Better Doc

Minnesota Students Prove That ‘It Gets Better’

Ross

Five bullied students from Minnesota who won their challenge against the Anoka-Hennepin School District have a special message: It DOES Get Better.

Earlier this month, an agreement was reached to resolve two federal gender and sexual orientation harassment lawsuits brought against Anoka-Hennepin by six students. The agreement includes significant new protections designed to prevent harassment of students who are or perceived to be LGBT and gender non-conforming, as well as those who have friends or parents who are LGBT.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which sued on behalf of students, reports that under the decree, the students will receive a total of $270,000 in damages…

….Watch ‘MN’s Anoka-Hennepin Student Plaintiffs: It Gets Better’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aPE0-k1ADPQ

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/minnesota-students-prove-that-it-gets-better.html#ixzz1ptB5mUU8

 

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Rosie O’Donnell’s Disastrous Oprah Winfrey Network Experience

Ross

Rosie O’Donnell signed a multimillion-dollar deal with OWN for a talk show that was supposed to save Oprah’s failing network. Instead, it tanked. Ramin Setoodeh talked with staffers about what went wrong.

The St. Patrick’s Day episode of The Rosie Show on Friday opened with an unknown tenor crooning the hymn “Ireland (I’m Coming Home).” Sitting behind her desk in a small, audience-free studio, Rosie O’Donnell blabbed about how much she loved Chicago, her place of residence, and how she wore a coat for only two days this winter. She pontificated about her upcoming 50th birthday next week. She said that when she was born, her parents considered naming her after the season. “Spring O’Donnell,” she said with a chuckle. “It doesn’t really flow.”

The episode trudged along, rather inconspicuously, with the first guest: the tattoo artist, former reality star, and ex-fiancée of Jesse James, Kat Von D. The Rosie we all knew and loved—the one who built a $100 million empire with her landmark talk show that ran for 1,193 episodes from 1996 to 2002—was virtually absent, replaced by a subdued and checked-out host. “Um … so … you’ve been in the limelight, had a public romance?” O’Donnell asked. “I thought that was the first famous guy you went out with,” she said, not even mentioning James by name. Since the episode was pretaped, it made no reference to something else significant: the show’s demise…

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Op-Ed: Why I Stood Up to My School District

Brett

http://www.advocate.com/Politics/Commentary/Oped_Why_I_Stood_Up_to_my_School_District/

Ebonie Richardson is a 16-year-old lesbian student who challenged the Anoka-Hennepin School District with a lawsuit that just ended with new protections designed to protect students like her from bullying.

“Mom, I like girls … .”

That’s what I wrote five years ago in my coming out letter to my mom. I was 11 at the time I wrote the letter, and I didn’t know that my mom would become my fiercest supporter, giving me the courage and strength to walk through the halls of my schools as a proud, out lesbian.

It’s that same courage and strength that made me hopeful that the day would come when I’d no longer face physical attacks or name calling by other students at my school in Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District.

‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill On Hold After Lawmakers Realize Their Stupidity

Brett

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/dont-say-gay-bill-on-hold-after-lawmakers-realize-their-stupidity/politics/2012/03/14/36405

Tennessee’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill yesterday was placed on hold after lawmakers realized that the bill was not only unnecessary from their own standpoint, but counterproductive as well. In grades K -8, the bill would have made it illegal to discuss homosexuality in any manner at all, and allow only the discussion of heterosexual reproduction.

Lawmakers put a hold on the bill upon learning — after more than two years of debate — that Tennessee does not have sex education classes in grades K – 8.

“We found out there really is not sex education curriculum in K-8 right now,” GOP Rep. Bill Dunn, one of the bill’s sponsors said yesterday.

How Anoka-Hennepin Failed Its Bullied LGBT Students

Brett

As ThinkProgress reported earlier, the Department of Justice found through its investigation that Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District did not properly intervene when its students were harassed for their gender non-conforming identities. In the report, the DOJ profiled 10 current and former students, all of whom experienced verbal and often physical threats because of their perceived gender or sexual orientation and faced mental health and/or educational consequences when the district failed to mitigate the bullying. In most of the cases, the district placed burdens on the bullied student rather than take steps to interrupt the harassment, and in every case, the district had evidence that the harassment continued but did not take further action.

 

Childhood Gender Nonconformity: A Risk Indicator for Childhood Abuse and Posttraumatic Stress in Youth

Brett

RESULTS: Exposure to childhood physical, psychological, and sexual
abuse, and probable PTSD were elevated in youth in the top decile
of childhood gender nonconformity compared with youth below median nonconformity. Abuse victimization disparities partly mediated
PTSD disparities by gender nonconformity. Gender nonconformity predicted increased risk of lifetime probable PTSD in youth after adjustment for sexual orientation.

CONCLUSIONS: We identify gender nonconformity as an indicator of
children at increased risk of abuse and probable PTSD. Pediatricians
and school health providers should consider abuse screening for this
vulnerable population. Further research to understand how gender
nonconformity might increase risk of abuse and to develop family interventions to reduce abuse risk is needed.

 

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/02/15/peds.2011-1804.full.pdf+html

Homeless youth: the next battle for gay equality

Brett

NEW YORK — Iro Uikka clutches his throat as he describes the violent clash that led to spending his nights sleeping in New York City subway cars.

“When I told my mother I was gay, she grabbed me by the neck and threw me out,” he says. “Then she threw my coat on top of me and shut the door.”

That was five years ago when he was 18, still living at home in Florida.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP792f48e4f5f14b378e368178e4cdd2cd.html#printMode

Vida/SIDA Opens LGBT Homeless Shelter

Brett

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Vida-SIDA-opens-LGBT-homeless-shelter/36476.html

It took years of revised plans and fundraising, but on March 3 Vida/SIDA cut the ribbon on its much-anticipated LGBT homeless youth shelter, the first of its kind in the Midwest.

More than 75 people packed into the Humboldt Park organization to celebrate the opening of El Rescate.

“This is about hope,” said Cook County Commissioner Edwin Reyes. “It’s about dignity, and it’s about saving lives.”

The transitional housing facility, located on the 4th floor of Vida/SIDA ( 2703 W. Division ) , will house up to 12 LGBT youths ages 18-24 and provide young people with social services like employment and education resources, skills training and case management.

The brightly-painted space contains bedrooms with bunk beds and desks, a lounge and a full kitchen/ dining area.

Plans to open the shelter have been in the works for more than three years. Vida/SIDA had announced the housing as a 2010 goal but struggled through fundraising and red tape to make it happen.

But on March 3, the doors finally opened.

Vida/SIDA, the only local HIV/AIDS organization that specifically serves Latino/as, was founded 1988 to address a lack of culturally competent healthcare for HIV-positive Puerto Ricans. Roberto Sanabria, a longtime activist with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center ( PRCC ) which oversees Vida/SIDA, said that the organization has grown to respond to other gaps in services in the Latino/a community.

 

Anoka-Hennepin Timeline

Brett

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_20109301/anoka-hennepin-timeline?source=pkg

ANOKA-HENNEPIN TIMELINE

The controversy over handling issues of sexual orientation in the Anoka-Hennepin school district goes back more than 15 years.