District drops gay policy
Wayne-Westland schools delete 'sexual orientation' from protected category.
Critics worry about change

By Craig Garrett / The Detroit News

Wayne-Westland school officials are dropping a policy protecting gay students and staff from harassment or discrimination, only months after they approved the controversial provision.

The term "sexual orientation" is being deleted from the district's protected category of students and staff. That policy also covers race, creed and religion, and was overwhelmingly embraced by the district's school board in January.

The measure was supposed to protect gays and lesbians from taunting and discrimination on the job or in the classroom.

Board President Debra Fowlkes said she is "concerned" about the rights of gays and lesbians in the 15,000-student district, but said the sexual orientation protection policy isn't needed.

Fowlkes said existing codes of conduct and state law already protects students and staff from harassment and broad discrimination.

"It was a matter of duplication," she said.

Still, critics wonder why the district bothered adopting any changes in the first place -- if sexual orientation already was truly protected.

"They're saying they didn't really want to protect everyone's rights," said Jeff Montgomery, president of the Triangle Foundation, Metro Detroit's major gay rights group.

"That's a great lesson for the kids watching this happen."

Former board President Trish Brown, a lesbian, said the school board is "caving" in to angry parents and others who believe the district was catering to gays and lesbians.

Brown lost her bid for reelection this summer.

The campaign against her included nasty leaflets about her sexuality.

"The board has no backbone," she said. "Somebody was pushing their buttons."

Fowlkes said Brown sponsored a series of sexual orientation amendments to the local school code in January.

She said the board was "hoodwinked" and voted in the changes without really understanding why.

"Dumb us," she said.

But some said Tuesday that the board is backing down because of a strong push by the religious community.

"It's cowardice," said Michael Chiumento, a Westland resident who teaches band in Plymouth-Canton schools.

He spoke out at Monday's meeting, when the board voted 6-1 to rescind the orientation policy.

"The real people behind this are the ones hiding behind Christianity," Chiumento said.

After a heated debate, the board adopted a broader code but didn't include specific language protecting gays and lesbians.

A few Michigan school districts, including Birmingham, include protections for gays and lesbians.

But the issue is gaining ground.

Last year, a gay Allen Park student complained that he was taunted in school hallways for years. He asked the district to protect him and intervene with a sexual discrimination policy.

The 14-year-old student said he'd been bumped and checked in the halls, was called derogatory names and spit on at Allen Park High School.

The issue galvanzied many in the gay community by drawing attention to the problems of gay teen-agers, who have a suicide rate twice the national average for heterosexual teen-agers.

X-Sender: dcase@mail.sdsu.edu
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 11:48:48 -0800
From: "Channel Q" qnews@channelq.com
Sender: Doug Case Doug.Case@sdsu.edu
Subject: MI School Board Sends Dangerous Message

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People For the American Way Press Release
August 20, 1997 -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Delisa Saunders, Will Heyniger
(202) 467-4999
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SCHOOL BOARD DECISION SENDS DANGEROUS MESSAGE,
SAYS PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY

Carole Shields, President of People For the American Way, issued the following statement in reaction to the decision by a suburban Michigan school board to delete sexual orientation from its policy protecting students and employees from discrimination and harassment. The Wayne-Westland School District, outside Detroit, repealed its own policy on Monday.

"By deleting sexual orientation from its non-discrimination policies, the Wayne-Westland School Board is sending a dangerous message to bigots and the uninformed everywhere. Just earlier this summer, we saw a vivid example of the kind of harassment gays and lesbians face when anonymous anti-gay fliers appeared on the streets of Wayne County attacking Patricia Brown, the incumbent president of the school board. Such ugly anti-gay incidents are repeated every day at schools and in meeting rooms across the nation.

"At People For the American Way, we know that to be gay in America is to confront an entirely different environment from that which heterosexuals face. In addition to the all too real threat of anti-gay violence and the daily reality of prejudice, gays and lesbians also face a clear message of exclusion and rejection from many of the institutions of our society. The very least a school board could do to counter these messages which do harm to individual students is to provide protection from some of the most blatant forms of hatred -- harassment and discrimination. The Wayne-Westland School Board has instead chosen to reverse its own step in the right direction. We fear that the result of their action will be to make it that much more difficult for gay and lesbian students and teachers to learn and to teach."

People For the American Way is a national non-profit organization dedicated to defending civil rights; promoting the democratic values of religious freedom and respect for diversity; and developing a culture of opportunity and tolerance of individual difference. Last month, People For the American Way released Hostile Climate 1997, a state by state report of institutional anti-gay activity.

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People For the American Way
2000 M Street NW, Suite 400 | Washington DC 20036
202 467-4999 | fax: 202 293-2672
http://www.pfaw.org
pfaw@pfaw.org