Group uses grant to battle homophobia

By Abra DeGeare, Senior Staff Writer

The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Student Union will use a $3,000 grant to help future teachers educate their students about homophobia.

The money - given to the group over the summer by the San Diego Foundation for Change - will enable LGBTSU members to compile packets of information directed at the root of homophobia through a program called Queer Community Outreach Promoting Education, Ben Cartwright, executive director of LGBTSU, said.

The packets will be distributed free of charge to students enrolled in San Diego State's Education 451:Introduction to Multicultural Education.

It will be the responsibility of that teacher to get the curriculum into the classroom, but LGBTSU is providing the tools, Cartwright said.

"It's important future teachers are aware and sensitive about diversity issues," liberal studies junior Sara Collins said.

Cartwright said he hopes future teachers will use the tools because LGBT issues are huge, and its an ever-growing population.

Cheri Ritter, director of operations for the San Diego Foundation for Change, said the organization gave LGBTSU the grant to fund positive permanent change.

Ritter said LGBTSU met the grant guidelines because the packets are directed at the root of a problem - homophobia - and it would help create positive changes.

The LGBT community felt the main obstacle to overcoming homophobia was lack of awareness, and the education packets are meant to create social change to solve that problem, Ritter said.

Cartwright said the packets will be comprehensive guide books with everything teachers would need to know about explaining to principals and parents the necessity of LGBT issues as diversity training, even though this training may not be a requirement of the schools.

"We will break it down to each grade level from K-12," he said.

The book will be an extensive guide on how to deal with homophobia, including lesson plans, activities, frequently asked questions and how to deal with certain incidents, Cartwright said.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are at a suicide risk rate that is two to six times higher than their straight peers, according to the Web site http://www.glccftl.org.

"We wanted to do a project that would try to prevent homophobia before it starts, rather than combating it once it happens," Cartwright said.

Most people fear things because they are different, he said. School is a place to educate students on diversity, especially if they are not receiving that education from their parents.

"I am hoping we can push these teachers to incorporate at least some LGBT issues into diversity training," Cartwright said.

"Maybe they won't want to use the whole guidebook, but maybe they'll take a lesson plan or an activity and incorporate it in their overall diversity training for their students."

A committee of 10 LGBTSU members will research for the packets. Cartwright said it will be mostly the work of the LGBTSU, but they are hoping to collaborate with the department of education. They want professors to edit the packets in order to give academic credibility to the project.

The new program attacks homophobia before it starts, but LGBTSU has other programs that combat homophobia. The Speakers Bureau Program, which has been around for about 30 years, consists of 25 various speakers who go to classes on campus and at high schools to discuss homosexuality.

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