Rainbow News - High School Alliances Get Gay/Straignt A's

CAPITAL COVERAGE NEWS SERVICE
media in the public interest

High School Alliances
Get Gay/Straight A's
'Life-saving' Teen Groups Fight Homophobia, Explore Larger Issues
by John Zeh, Senior CCN Writer, copyright 1998

Editor's note: Portions of this article and photos appeared in the May 29 Ohio Gay Peoples' Chronicle, now published weekly and distributed throughout Cincinnati. Some students okayed use of their full names, but with world-wide distribution on the Web, Rainbow has deleted their full identity. Call Brian DeWitt at (800) 426-5947 for locations, subscription, or free sample of the Chronicle, now published weekly.

CINCINNATI (May 28, 1998) - Walnut Hills High School's intensive college-prep program attracts some of the smartest and most diversified students in the Queen City. In the Class of 1998, 99 percent passed Ohio's 12th grade proficiency test for writing and 98 percent, the reading exam. Overall, 79 percent of Walnut students passed all of the test, best in the Queen City.

But despite its high levels of academic achievement, anti-gay hostility plagued the school. "My husband and I get harassed when I park what kids call our 'faggot-mobile' outside the school," says Dave Epplenhill, a parent adviser to Walnut's two-year-old Gay/Straight (G/S) Alliance, thought to be the first such student group in Ohio.

Youthful anti-gay sentiment is not unique to Walnut, of course. As cast members of "The Beauty and the Beast" proclaim at the Aronoff Center in the Fifth Third Bank's Broadway Series finale, "We don't like what we don't understand."

As classes wound down for summer break, Capital Coverage News administered its own final exam. CCN wanted to test the success of the unique extra-curricular activities at the east-side learning enclave -and at other schools with such safe havens for gay teens and pro-gay peers, who Epplenhill says "get as much shit as if they were gay themselves."

If imitation is indeed the best flattery, Walnut students, parents, and faculty adviser Betsy Shank passed their sophomore year with a rainbow of flying colors, gay and "straight" A's. But some conservative adults in the area's gay political community, Sycamore Township school officials, and even the Indigo Girls do not deserve such high marks, Epplenhill and others charge.

What's clear is that efforts to create gay groups in five city and suburban schools here have created bonding that is unique among gays in the Buckeye State. The adolescents' networking with AIDS groups and some adult gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) activists have created models for what's possible in other schools this summer and next fall.

Kids creating their own projects by and for themselves -but in concert with caring, glistening non-gay and openly gay adults- offer prototypes of enriched community-building for all. Moreover, ground-breaking work by the local chapter of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has built the foundation for more critical support for students, parent, educators, and friends plagued by homophobia's special risks.

Helping Halt Teen Angst

Before Walnut's project began in November, 1996, students say that expressions of anti-gay bigotry were rampant. But the alliance's existence has helped curb hateful or misguided remarks. "Now, in almost every class, some one will speak up and counter a bad comment," said Jana D., a sophomore. She, Epplenhill, and others helped staff the group's booth at the Greater Cincinnati AIDS Consortium's Lifefest held in Burnet Woods to cap off Ohio AIDS Awareness Week in early May.

Nearly 40 students in grades 9-12 did lunch together weekly at the prestigious school. "Our group's presence shows the student body that kids can't do gay bashing or put gay people down, said sophomore Dan W. His nuclear family's Christian upbringing made him feel "condemned and ready to crawl in a hole and die." But through the G/S Alliance's extended family, "Now I know others I can turn to. It's not as hard to live now."

Recent youth-at-risk studies that factored in sexual orientation found that gay high schoolers are four times more likely that non-gay youths to attempt suicide. They are also at higher risk to having been threatened or injured with a weapon at school, used harmful substances, and missed school due to fear for their safety, the studies showed.

But the surveys also demonstrated that teens are less likely to take risks when they feel support about their sexual orientation from peers and family, which is precisely why alliances such as the one at Walnut and three other schools here serve such an important purpose.

"It's a great step for an inner-city school system," beams Jeff Bixby, a teacher and co-founder of the local GLSEN chapter. "Kids, not adults, are making the difference. They find a faculty adviser; GLSEN can't go in and initiate such groups."

Gays and Straights Together

Each alliances independent. "There's no unified effort to bring it all together," says GLSEN co-chair Kathy Laufman, a public school social worker who will retire in June. "That's what makes it so amazing. It's not just gay kids, but straight ones, too, who have this incredible sense of justice in their school environment. And in every school, there seems to be a similar potential, and an energy will emerge. That's what I marvel at. For GLSEN, it's simply a matter of supporting it."

Nationwide, such alliances are catching on, with GLSEN logging pro-gay groups in over 25 states. That's good news if recent incidents here are bellwethers of how homophobia manifests itself in classrooms, hallways, and playgrounds.

A gay, mixed-race 17-year-old male at Mt. Healthy High School was expelled after acting out against anti-gay bigotry despite GLSEN's direct intervention. And two teen-age females were suspended at Oak Hills High for showing affection in the hall.

School administrators must be told they need to deal with homophobic, hateful, or uncaring actions by students, staff, and teachers or face the consequences, Bixby insists.

"We are fully prepared," adds Laufman, "to advocate for gay kids and kids who appear to be gay who experience harassment." With help from a colleague who's also retiring from school work, GLSEN will be able to make daytime visits to schools with problems.

Here and nationwide, expansion of such supportive G/S alliances and adult outreach could save taxpayers big bucks. A Maryland student won $900,000 from school officials for failing to protect him from numerous beatings, Bixby said. And a student in San Jose, Ca., recently sued his school over anti-gay discrimination. And last month in nearby Williamsburg, a gay teacher won $71,492 after being fired.

The Indigo Girls' promoters are among adults who flunked CCN's report card. If the lesbian duo, barred from three southern high schools this spring, had been booked at Walnut, school officials would have allowed the show to go on, says Epplenhill. "Of course, the Christian right would have picketed."

He also knocked closeted members of activists planing Pride activities this year and last. "Some people wanted to merge the 1997 Pride Rally with the Public Library's book sale on Fountain Square so we wouldn't be as visible, he said. "Give me a break!"

Gays Do Breed, Don't They; Pass the Vegan Pancakes

The Walnut Alliance, which raises it own funds for projects such as a trip to the upcoming June 28 Pride Parade in Columbus and local AIDS efforts, has helped spawn similar groups at two other area schools. A fourth "support" group for gays sans straights was tried at Sycamore High but ran into roadblocks. A fifth was planned at a Fairfield school in Butler County. And, a sixth group has surfaced at a private, suburban all-girls school.

GLSEN's Laufman said she's not heard from any Northern Kentucky schools, but some teens in the Cincinnati (gay and straight) Youth Group (CYG) cross the river to attend weekly meetings and were expected at May's eight annual prom and June 6 Pancake Breakfast at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church.

The first G/S Alliance inspired by the Walnut experience was one at the city's School for the Creative and Performing Arts, which had the second highest ranking on the test that Walnut topped but is also no stranger to anti-gay epithets. "Students who attend (CYG) and non-gay friends heard about the Walnut group and saw no reason why we shouldn't have one here," said adviser Elissa Pogue, an SCPA student assistance counselor. "A climate where homophobia is the norm warranted it," she sighs.

In the wake of a sex scandal involving a former school official, at least one teacher, and what the previous principal called a purge of "pedophiles" on the staff and negative publicity over arson by students at SCPA, new principal Jeff Brokamp approached CORE carefully.

"He was iffy about the need for such a group and required permission slips, although no other group must use them. He consulted the school board's legal counsel," says Pogue. "But when he attended a meeting, the kids reamed him, and he's been supportive ever since. It's a non-issue now. He's glad CORE exists."

It's not unusual to see homophobia rear its ugly head at SCPA, she adds. "The way kids put someone down is to say, 'You're gay.' It's not physically safe for African-American students to be out (of the closet) here,' but some do attend meetings." Some Hispanic youth don't have bus fare to attend, she laments.

The word-of-mouth group of about 10 core students and others drop in weekly after school for "CORE" meetings.

Walnut's G/S Alliance may have been the first, but SCPA's CORE is breaking new ground by allowing young teens to participate, and Walnut is moving to catch up.

This year, students from grades 7 and 8 are allowed to attend meetings at SCPA, thought to be the only U.S. public performing arts school that includes grades 4-12. Because of lunch-time schedule conflicts and possible confusion over gender identity, says Walnut adviser Betsy Shank, 7th and 8th graders can attend meetings only with special permission. That works out out okay for Alec, 14. "If I have a (personal) problem, I could attend," he says. "There's still a lot of prejudice and homophobia at Walnut, but the school is more open now. And I have made friends through the Alliance I can talk to individually."

Contemporary realities of life in school and out create challenges for the student groups to transcend serving as mere support groups. "This is a political issue that moves them," says Pogue. "There's a common world view, a deeper approach than support (that is directly gay-related). CORE has three rabid vegans (who eat no animal products). Some students have parents who are gay. One's brother is dying of AIDS. Local conservatives (on such matters as Issue 3-based discrimination and a speaker from PFLAG about anti-gay bias at St. Xavier Catholic High) push us to the wall. But things have come together. This kind of group can address these issues while being supportive."

Walnut's gay students are also very outspoken about broader issues than personal ones, says adviser Shank, "Part of society is hurting. We're all hurting. Non-gay friends of gay Walnut students see their mutual struggle in society, but they feel impotent. With a group they feel they can do something." At Christmas, her charges adopted a large family with AIDS because it could have been its last holiday together. They raised $1200 in a raffle for FACE, which helps families facing AIDS. "Straight parents of kids are getting divorced," says Shank, an English and drama teacher. "One is coming out. Kids have no one to talk to about it. They need some place to go where they don't have to explain stuff," she says. "If they mention gay relatives in class, there were often very negative results."

The start-up of such pioneering groups here is "something of a paradox," says Leslie Bush, a teacher for 28 years at suburban Finneytown High School. "We live in a very conservative religious community, but in many ways our students are very liberal."

Get Out or Come Out?

She is faculty adviser for the school's "Alliance," so called because "parents would be upset" if other words in the GLBT lexicon were in the title. Some complained about Alliance posters urging students to "Come out" to meetings. "People 30 and above take really negative stands," she says. "Youth, being naturally rebellious, don't understand why people say and do what they do."

Finneytown students face anti-gay discrimination not unlike that at Walnut. A physics class contest was lost because one team "had a dyke" on it, winners said. One female student, despite not being visibly gay, found "lesbian" scrawled on her locker.

Junior Ryvka Barnard, who approached Bush about starting the Alliance, said she was moved to take action. "Maybe we can at least inform people that gay students have real struggles," she told reporter Mark Curnete of the Cincinnati Enquirer, which published three pages on "Gay Teens" illustrated by photog Yoni Pozner Feb. 12.

Bush gives low marks to University of Cincinnati officials who failed to utilize Alliance volunteers when UC brought the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt to campus in April. "A few of the kids went. We had an AIDS Awareness Week here, had a vigil, and we're planting a weeping cherry tree. These are sensitive kids who want to make the world good for everyone. Their approach is, 'Lets look and see what needs to be done now'".

my nose and mouth and throat
soaks up my tears
I stand there
No longer alone.

Pogue feels that her experience at SCPA also illustrates the paradox Bush sees. Cincinnati, where a Republican judge threw out four felony charges each against this reporter and WAIF FM for "Gaydreams" in 1981 and a Hamilton County working-class jury in October 1990 acquitted the Contemporary Arts Center of exhibiting allegedly obscene photographs by the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, "doesn't always go along with paternalism and racism. People see it for what it is."

High school students here want to be a part of nationwide movements, she said. "It's the issues that move them - racism, feminism, classism."

Finneytown's Bush agrees. "For our generation in the late '60s, race and civil rights were the issues. But for this (group), one of the last bastions where kids flock to naturally to make a difference is on gender-identity issues," she says. As many as 40 students met every Friday over lunch.

"Participating in Pride month is part of the political picture for the kids," SCPA's Pogue said. "There's a lot to learn because this is about the Steve Chabots (the conservative Republican U.S. Representative running against pro-gay Mayor Roxanne Qualls for Congress), Issue 3, Jesse Helms. These guys want to change the way the world looks at people - domestic partners, children, young people choosing sexuality, abortion and choice. I'm proud to be a part of CORE. This encapsulates so much of what we need to work on in this culture. and the kids know that."

Another lesson for the city's new school superintendent Steven J. Adamowski and other officials confronted by revolting gay students and adult mentors is dangers of downsizing. At Walnut (unlike SCPA), students no longer have "health and wellness" counselors because of budget cuts. Walnut's four academic counselors serve 2100 students and have no time for other issues, says Shank. "Straight parents of kids are getting divorced. One is coming out. Kids have no one to talk to about it. They need some place to go where they don't have to explain stuff," she says. "If they mention gay relatives in the classroom, there were often very negative results."

As school lets out, homework for GLSEN is incomplete. It's board will map plans at a summer retreat to find co-sponsors for benefit screenings of "Out of the Past," which won an award at Robert Redford's prestigious Sundance Film Festival and will air on PBS TV. It chronicles five figures in lesbian and gay history, weaving in the ongoing battle of Salt Lake City, Utah, activists against homophobic school administrators.

One ally GLSEN will want to enlist is PFLAG, the international group which here adds Families to its Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians moniker. Curiously, PFLAG has not been involved in the three alliances CCN profiled, but has garnered publicity for its inclusion in classes at St. Xavier (Catholic) High School.

But PFLAG is clearly a fellow-traveler. Judy Schmeling, its local president notes that one of PFLAG's priorities is to create safe places for gay youth, including all classrooms. "The high schools that provide a forum for both gay and straight youth to come together, discuss ideas, and promote understanding are to be applauded," she says, "as are those teachers and counselors willing to provide counsel and support....Parents, peers, teachers, counselors, and administrators are truly lifesavers for at-risk youths."

Her words should help keep the GLSEN campfires burning brightly, along with those of one SCPA CORE student published in the Greater Cincinnati GLBT News: "We have stories to tell and open hearts to listen. We are less afraid today and build on the strength we have gained from each other to help make the world a better place for everyone."

This adolescent generation of website and CD ROM documentarians will have exciting Cincinnatian subjects to shine in their graying but bright lavender tributes.

Veteran journalist John Zeh covered gay news for The advocate and National Public Radio in the early '70s. After a decade in DC growing up, he's back home writing for Everybody's News and other periodicals.

To learn more about starting student group like the Gay-Straight Alliances covered here, GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educators Network) offers publications and local referrals.

Pick up GLSEN's Publications Guide at Pink Pyramid or Crazy Ladies bookstores. "Organizing a Gay-Straight Alliance," a comprehensive look at starting a student support group to discuss issues relating to sexual orientation is available for $5 plus $3 handling from GLSEN, 121 W. 27th, #804, NYC, NY 10001.

Call GLSEN's local chapter at 221-1670 or 624-6963. Other area GLBT resources are listed in the weekly Ohio Gay People's Chronicle available at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, 214 E. 9th St. (651-0040) and other outlets. For a free sample of the Chronicle, call Brian DeWitt at (800) 426-5947.