NEA
drops pro-gay resolution: Task force to study issue of protecting, educating students
by Rhonda Smith
The National
Education Association on Wednesday dropped consideration of a resolution that
aimed to make public schools safer for gay students.
The Associated
Press reported Thursday that the NEA’s Gay and Lesbian Caucus recommended
dropping the measure, which urged the implementation of curricula aimed at gay
youth and education of all students on gay history and culture.
Instead of bringing
the resolution to a vote, the gay caucus opted to send the issue to a task
force to study.
"This is an
emotional topic for everyone and we believe a task force is the best way to
first hear everyone's voice and then develop actions that will create safer
schools for children and staff," said Cathy Figel, who co-chairs the Gay
and Lesbian Caucus, according to AP.
The decision to
drop the resolution came after hundreds of anti-gay protesters gathered outside
the Los Angeles Convention Center Tuesday to oppose the measure.
NEA representatives
were expected to consider the resolution Thursday at the organization’s annual
convention, which is being held July 4-7 in Los Angeles. Organizers said 10,000
of the NEA’s 2.6 million members are attending the group’s 139th annual
meeting.
Michael Pons, an
NEA spokesperson, said Wednesday that there had been discussions at the
convention about whether to vote on the pro-gay resolution or create a task
force that would meet to discuss the best strategies for eliminating discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation in schools and in society.
"I can’t
predict what will happen with the proposed language in the resolution. Truly,
anything could happen," Pons said before the caucus made its decision.
"It is possible that the resolution could be considered and passed, and
the task force appointed as well."
Various NEA
officials — from Bob Chase, the group’s president, to leaders of its Gay and
Lesbian Caucus — had suggested that a broad-based task force be created so this
thorny topic could be tackled in the year before the association’s annual
convention next summer.
NEA members from
California proposed the resolution. Pons said its proponents belong to the Gay
and Lesbian Caucus but are not in leadership positions.
The NEA’s current
policy related to sexism, racism, and sexual orientation generally calls for
eliminating discrimination in schools and in society. Pons said it outlines
strategies for doing this, with a particular focus on eliminating
discrimination and stereotypes in curricula and textbooks and fostering the use
of non-discriminatory practices and languages.
The proposed
resolution included many of the same elements as the current policy, as well as
language that supports developing materials and programs specifically for gay
male, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students. The resolution also called
for creating school-based programs that help all students and people who work
in schools by discouraging discrimination.
"The
resolution is consistent with the overall policy," Pons said, "but
more specific in prescribing approaches" to address the problem.
"The nation’s
largest teachers’ union has identified that anti-LGBT bias is a problem for
students and they’ve outlined a number of steps to eliminate that bias in the
classroom," said M.K. Cullen, public policy director for the Gay, Lesbian
and Straight Education Network in New York City. "We’re pleased that
they’ve taken steps to [discuss] this issue at their Representative Assembly
and to talk about it as urgent and important."
Resolutions adopted
at the convention are non-binding but carry symbolic weight because they
represent the will of a majority of NEA members who voted on them. Pons also
noted that the NEA does not set policy for what curricula school districts
adopt.
The aborted effort
to pass the pro-gay resolution followed the release in late May of a report by
the Human Rights Watch, an organization in New York City, that said gay youth
in the United States often suffer daily harassment, abuse, and violence at the
hands of their peers.
The report, titled Hatred
in the Hallways: Violence and Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
and Transgender Students in U.S. Schools, blamed "the abject failure
of the United States government to protect [gay] youth who attend public
schools."
Its authors said
there are social dynamics that create an unfriendly and non-supportive
atmosphere in most schools for gay students.
"The
entrenched societal prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
youth is based on rigidly enforced rules dictating how girls and boys should
look, walk, talk, dress, act, think, and feel," the report stated.
"The social regime in most schools is unforgiving: Youth who break these
rules will be punished. Their peers enforce the rules through harassment,
ostracism, and violence. School officials condone this cruel dynamic through
inaction or in some cases because they, too, judge [gay] youth to be
undeserving of respect."
The Associated
Press reported that about 600 demonstrators took part in the protest Tuesday,
saying the resolution would promote homosexuality to students. NEA officials
estimated the protest drew 250 people.
Various news
reports said the demonstrators were supporters of Focus on the Family, an
anti-gay, faith-based group in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the Capitol
Resource Institute, a similar grassroots group in California.
The Times
reported that 400 people took part in the protest and came because of appeals
made on a conservative Christian radio show.
Focus on the
Family, which James C. Dobson founded, produces syndicated radio programs heard
daily on 2,900 stations in North America and about 1,300 facilities in 70 other
countries, according to the group’s Web site.
The protesters held
signs that included messages such as: "Kindergarten &
Homosexuality?" and "Educate, Don’t Indoctrinate."
Pons said he saw at
least two NEA delegates at the demonstration but could not tell whether they
were supporting or opposing the resolution.
Alexandria
Coronado, a trustee for the Anaheim Union High School District, told AP that
the resolution "provides for a radical social agenda that the vast
majority of American people do not support."
Educator Donelle
Swanstrom, who teaches fourth grade in California, told the Times:
"I don’t think an organization should mandate what we teach. Issues such
as sexuality belong in the home."
Chase, NEA’s
president, said Focus on the Family appeared to be losing its focus on kids.
"We have
positions right now throughout our organization that protect the rights of
women, that protect the rights of ethnic minorities, that protect the rights of
physically challenged," he said. "Should gay and lesbian kids be
excluded from that? I don’t think so."
Info
box:
National Education Association
1201 16th St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Telephone: (202) 833-4000
Web site: www.nea.org
Focus on the Family
Colorado Springs, CO 80995
Telephone: (719) 531-5181
Web site: www.fotf.org
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299
Telephone: (212) 290-4700
Web site: www.hrw.org
E-mail: [email protected]