In this issue of GSA Network News, you'll find:
You Are Cordially Invited to the Screening of:
* * * As If It Matters:six stories beneath the surface * * *
In the summer of 2001, 9 young people came together to create art for social change, to incite dialogue and challenge all forms of oppression. This art took the form of a video, As If It Matters entirely written and produced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender questioning and straight ally youth. As If It Matters is a video about identity and the intersection of lives.
Thursday, December 13th, 2001.
7:00 - 9:00pm
screening discussion free reception
SomArts - 934 Brannan Street (between 8th and 9th streets)
As If It Matters was created through a collaboration of Gay-Straight Alliance Network, Lavender Youth Recreation & Information Center (LYRIC) and Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools (TILT).
For more information, contact Robyn @LYRIC 415-703-6150 x24 or robyn@lyric.org.
*Donations requested on a sliding scale basis*
This event benefits future collaborative art programs between LYRIC and Gay-Straight Alliance Network. NO ONE turned away due to lack of funds.
*********************************************
2. Save the Date - Film Event Will Benefit GSA Network (Jan. 27th)
Bay Area Premiere "OLIVER BUTTON IS A STAR"
Sunday January 27, 2002 *** 10 AM to NOON ***
Castro Theater, San Francisco
A benefit for Frameline, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, and the Twin Cities Gay Men's Choir
Sponsored by The San Francisco Foundation
Admission:
$5 for students, $10 general admission, $15 includes reception following the
film.
Tickets at the door. Children under 12 free.
Summary of the PBS program (scheduled for national broadcast in early Spring):
OLIVER BUTTON IS A STAR, a 'docu-performance' for all families, is an hour-long video program that explores bullying, tolerance and positive alternatives for expressing children's gender differences.
Filmmakers John Scagliotti (Before & After Stonewall, In the Life) and Dan Hunt (After Stonewall) use the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus Production of Tomie dePaola's children's classic book, OLIVER BUTTON IS A SISSY as their narrative structure, interweaving a mix of animation, archival film, news stories, home movies and personal interviews with such well known figures as arctic explorer Ann Bancroft, dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones, makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin and Tomie dePaola, who offer moving accounts of the defining moment in their childhood when they were forced to confront conventional constructions of "masculine" and "feminine" (Tomie dePaola "acting like Shirley Temple or Mae West", Ann Bancroft playing Tarzan, Kevyn Aucoin being subjected to endless beatings in school because of his "effeminate" behavior, Bill T. Jones "sitting-like-a-girl").
Also sprinkled throughout this production is documentary footage of Northampton elementary school teacher, Mary Cowhey, reading dePaola's book to her first grade class as well as conducting engaging "tolerance" exercises.
OLIVER BUTTON IS A STAR is being released at an important time in America as its theme strikes a deep chord that is currently resonating throughout our society. The almost daily headlines about young boys, alienated and neglected, causing violence, hate crimes and needless suffering confront us with the question - What does it take to pass into manhood? In its whimsically powerful way Oliver Button's story presents a positively transforming answer.
For more information, contact Gregg DeChirico (415) 733-8571
*********************************************
3. Movie Night in Pleasant Hill (Dec. 7th)
Friday, December 7
At the Center for Human Development
From 7-9pm
We haven't decided on a movie yet so if you have any suggestions let us know!
Come hang out - relax - meet new folks (including youth from other GSA's) and watch a good movie - all youth and young adults welcome.
Folks will be watching the movie from 7-9pm in the training room of CHD in Pleasant Hill. This event is youth run, hosted by Ravi Rangi.
Movie nights are held the first and third Friday of every month!
Directions to CHD: 391 Taylor Blvd, Suite 120 Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
North 680 - take Willow Pass exit, turn left at the light, proceed west past the Sun Valley Mall, (Willow Pass becomes Taylor) to Lucille Lane - about 1 mile. Turn left onto Lucille and left again into complex. Drive to the back of complex and take a left. Suite 120 will be on your left side.
South 680 - Take willow Pass/Taylor exit, turn right at the light and proceed as above.
East 24 - Take Pleasant Hill Road North - becomes Taylor BLVD. Continue about 5 miles. Just past Shell Station and 7-11 (on left) turn right on Lucille Lane and proceed as above.
questions or need a ride e-mail myriamrahman@hotmail.com or call
(925) 687-8844 x307
*********************************************
4. NEWS:Lesbian Couple Allowed to Remain as "Class Sweethearts"
[FYI
DOVER HIGH SCHOOL
25 Alumni Dr or Durham Rd
Dover, New Hampshire 03820
Office:(603) 742-3176
Dover, New Hampshire School District
Municipal Building - 288 Central Avenue Dover,
New Hampshire 03820-4181
Phone:(603) 742-6400 - FAX:(603) 743-3234.]
Associated Press, December 4, 2001
http://www.citizen.com/news2001/Dec/04/ap1204ab.htm
Lesbian couple allowed to remain as 'class sweethearts'
By J.M. HIRSCH, Associated Press Writer
DOVER - Two girls will be listed as "class sweethearts" in their high school yearbook after a dispute over whether same-sex couples were eligible for the honor.
Nicole Salisbury and Ashley Lagasse, both 17, overwhelmingly led other couples when the yearbook staff conducted its annual "senior superlatives" survey two weeks ago.
But when Principal Robert Pedersen heard the results, he declared the vote invalid because the ballot asked students to choose one male and one female.
"I advised that according to the ballot, the first couple which qualified, i.e. male/female, ought to be the winner," he said in a statement. "I considered it unfair to change the rules and intent of the balloting after the event."
The yearbook staff then decided to eliminate the category rather than award the title to the second-place finishers. But as students began collecting signatures for a petition protesting the decision, Superintendent Armand LaSelva stepped in.
On Tuesday, LaSelva said the original results will stand. He noted that the girls received more than 77 percent of the vote.
"I believe that even if there was confusion about the ballot, the senior class members spoke," he said. "I don't believe I have the right to throw out the ballot, because we didn't have any hanging chads in this one."
Salisbury and Lagasse have been a couple for just over two years.
Both said their classmates have been very supportive, telling them to "just
keeping fighting."
"Dover High School is really a pretty safe place (for gays and lesbians)," Lagasse told Foster's Daily Democrat.
She also said Pedersen recently helped a group of students form the Gay and Straight Alliance at the school, making his decision on the yearbook all the more baffling.
"I just think he should be proud of this school," Salisbury said.
Instead, "he turned his back on us."
Tim Bradley, 17, said there was no confusion about the ballots.
"It was our pick. It was us," he said Tuesday. "It really showed a sort of ignorance on the part of the administration."
Mindy Gates, 18, a student at the school's vocational training program, agreed.
"I think it's wrong that they can't be free about how they (the class) feel. They should be able to express that. If people think they are the cutest couple in the school, then why not?"
"Not everything is traditional," she said. "People do things their own way."
Claire Ebel, director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, called the principal's decision outrageous.
School rules that bar gay and lesbian couples from attending dances or proms have been overturned in courts, and Dover's ballot rules likely would have met a similar fate, she said.
"I suspect (the rules) would be unconstitutional on their face," she said.
--
****************************************
empowering youth activists to fight homophobia in schools
Carolyn Laub
Executive Director
Gay-Straight Alliance Network
160 14th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
ph:415.552.4229
fax:415.552.4729
carolyn@gsanetwork.org
http://www.gsanetwork.org/
****************************************
Return to P.E.R.S.O.N. Project Home Page
Last updated 12/5/2001 by Jean Richter, richter@eecs.Berkeley.EDU