CAPE COD TIMES, November 8, 1997
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P'town PTA chief quits over letter on gay lexicon

By K.C. MYERS
STAFF WRITER

PROVINCETOWN - For two years Diane Racine had no problem as vice president and then president of the Provincetown Parent Teachers Assocation, even though she was one of the few lesbian mothers in the school system.

Her sexual orientation was never an issue until Wednesday, when a group of parents voted for her to sign a letter stating the words "gay" and "lesbian" should not be part of a teacher's lexicon until the fifth grade.

Racine, the mother of an 11-year-old boy, said 13 parents, who had rarely attended meetings before, entered a PTA meeting Wednesday. In two hours, they all signed up and paid their dues to become members. Then they voted for Racine, as the president of the PTA, to send a letter to the school committee stating the PTA does not want the words gay and lesbian spoken to young, elementary-school children.

She said she could never sign a letter like that.

"I want teachers to be able to talk about the world in general, and my son, my family is part of the world in general," Racine said. "I want my son to feel like his life is acceptable.

"So if a teacher is going to bring up any kind of family in the classroom," she said, "then they better bring up all families."

Officials at the Veterans Elementary School, which has about 200 students, have not yet decided when to introduce alternative families as part of an Anti-Bias School and Community Project.

The project, which will teach children to treat all minorities equally, is still being developed.

The town stood together in opposing the notoriously anti-gay Rev. Fred Phelps, who came last Saturday from Kansas to protest the anti-bias mission. The fighting about the program started at a contentious meeting two days after he left.

Mary Ellen Spingler, who leads the movement to limit the use of gay and lesbian references, said, "I'm all for being fair, and I'm for educating children about what is going on around them in Provincetown. But I don't like being told what to do with my children."

She said those proponents of the anti-bias curriculum are "intellectual snobs" forcing their own "intellectual bias" on the majority of the parents.

"They act like they are the enlightened few besting their wisdom on the uneducated masses - it's insulting," Spingler said.

She said the words gay and lesbian automatically lead to a discussion about sex - a discussion young children don't need.

However, Spingler said, if a student brings up the words, a teacher should respond and not make the child feel weird.

Spingler said she is sorry Racine resigned. But, she said, if the majority of PTA members want something, they have a right to vote for it.

Margaret Bergman, a member of the anti-bias program, said she did not see herself as an intellectual snob.

In fact, she said, all the arguing over the school program ultimately means progress.

"Anything that sparks a parent's interest in his or her child's education is a good thing," she said.