Washington, DC, October 26, 2004 -- The National Center for Transgender Equality released a guide to help protect the voting rights of transgender people. "Overcoming Voting Obstacles: Resources for Transgender People" explains and provides solutions for the most common voting problems that transgender people face.
If anyone has any news from the Ren Group or from the Transgendered Community or else where they would like to share with the membership and the Transgendered Community please send it to
Below are correspondence about a Schools news paper pulled over a gay Ad
Dear PFLAG Members and Friends,
As the webmaster and Chair of our group, I receive a good many items that are of importance, however, I try and weed through and select those that seem to be most critical. My goal is to not overwhelm you with this type of information but to submit those things that we can work on together to try and make a difference in our community.
When reading today's paper, one of those issues came up. Please see the attached article that was printed in our York Daily Record this morning. It deal with our good friends at Common Roads. I ask that you take the time to send a message to the Superintended of Lampeter School District, Mr. Robert Frick. His email address is robert_frick@l-spioneers.org. Based on the original article that was run in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, Mr. Frick bowed to the school district solicitor, a Robert M. Frankhouser.
This article goes against everything we stand for in the protection of our children in schools.
I'm personally going to send an email to Mr. Frick and I'll bcc the group with that message. Again I ask you to consider doing the same.
I'm writing you as the Chair of the York PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and I must tell you that we were very upset with the news paper article that ran in the York Daily Record this morning. We also had the opportunity to read the more in depth article that ran in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal.
The main purpose of our group is to help parents, family and friends, not only understand, but to truly accept their GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning) children, family members, and/or friends. While doing so we are trying to change the attitudes of the general public as well.
Situations like the one that has occurred in your district let us know that we have a lot of work to do. Our group works hand in hand with Common Roads in many situations and we feel that they are a very well run organization. In fact, my wife and I take our son to their meetings most Friday nights. They do so much for the community while giving our GLBTQ youth a place to feel comfortable. It is hard for our group to understand how a school district can be so blind to the needs of their children. Do you not realized that there are GLBTQ youth within your district who are having difficulty, not only understanding who they are, but also with the harassment of the other students?
It is time that you stand up and help these children not only by allowing advertisements by upstanding groups such as Common Roads, but to go even further in starting your own Gay Straight Alliance. We would be more than happy to help you with that understanding. Take a look at our website that is located at www.pflagyork.org . On that website we have dedicated an entire page to "Safe Schools". This page should be available to all of your teaching staff as well as your guidance staff. If you wish to just see that page, it can be found at http://www.pflagyork.org/Safe%20Schools%20Resources.htm .
I have copied this message to each of your High School Guidance Staff because it is important that they also are aware of our stance on this issue. We also want to make sure that they know who we are and that we are willing to help with whatever we can do.
Common Roads got a lot of publicity on the front page of the Lancaster, Pa. Newspaper this week.....
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - When student newspaper editor Evan Macy accepted
a small advertisement from Common Roads, a gay and lesbian support group, he wasn't trying to stir controversy.
But on Nov. 18, when the Lampeter-Strasburg High School senior tried to distribute The Limelight with the ad inside, he was told the 1,200 copies were on hold -- but he wasn't told why.The next day, the papers
were recalled before they could be distributed. The Limelight was reprinted without the Common Roads ad and distributed Dec. 2.
According to L-S officials, the ad was pulled on the advice of the school district's solicitor. Macy claims the action was a discriminatory move. "Symbolically, it's a gesture against the gay community, and that's offensive," he said. "I really think the reason they did it is they were uncomfortable and were afraid of backlash."
According to an e-mail from newspaper faculty adviser Adam Zurn to Macy's mother, Karyn Macy, the papers were pulled because solicitor Robert Frankhouser "advised against running (the advertisement)."
"I understand that Evan is disappointed. I am, too," Zurn said in the e-mail. "I would have liked for things to turn out differently." Zurn would not discuss the issue with a reporter Wednesday.
Each month, L-S principal Carroll Staub previews a copy of The Limelight for approval before it goes to press, but the Nov. 18 issue wasn't reviewed by Staub.
Zurn showed Staub a copy after it had been printed, according to Zurn's e-mail. Staub forwarded the copy to superintendent Robert Frick, who contacted Frankhouser.
Frick and Frankhouser refused to comment on the decision.
Staub is recovering from heart bypass surgery and did not return a reporter's calls seeking comment.
Common Roads executive director Carol Reisinger said the business card-size ad stated: "We're a support group with adult supervision for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered youth. Come check us out. We
meet on Friday nights."
The ad included the organization's telephone number.
Common Roads sponsors events every Friday night in Harrisburg, such as holiday parties and baking cookies. It also offers workshops at local schools to educate faculty and
students about gay issues.
"(The administration's action) doesn't shock me, but it does disappoint me," Reisinger said. "They didn't even check to see what kind of an agency we are." According to legal rulings, the administration was within its rights to pull the ad.
In a landmark 1988 case, Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the Supreme Court ruled educators are permitted to "exercise editorial control over the style and content of student speech in school-sponsored
expressive activities."
Macy, who will study journalism in the fall at Temple University, said no one at L-S offered him any justification for removing the ad.
Macy said he has started a petition opposing the administration's action that has garnered 100 signatures. He hopes to present it to the L-S school board.
"The petition says that if you're signing this, you're mature enough to handle that there's homosexuality out there," Macy said. ........... He also wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in the Intelligencer
Journal. .................. "I'm glad I created a buzz," Macy said. "It's just the perfect thing to
bring attention to the last bit of discrimination that exists in this
country."
Reisinger said she received a phone call from a young boy yesterday who said he heard about what happened at L-S High School and wanted to talk with someone about his sexuality.
"That's the perfect example of why we exist," Reisinger said. "(The L-S administration) didn't want to publish a small business card ad, and now it has been taken to a whole new level. I am absolutely amazed that in a time when we have people losing pensions, elderly can't get medicine and some schools don't have books,
this is what they're worried about," Reisinger said. "These are young people who have been isolated and been harassed."
A survey conducted by Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network found 84 percent of gay students reported being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation. Gay students are three times as likely as
straight students to feel unsafe in school, the survey found. "I think (the L-S administration) saw gay and lesbian and were afraid," Reisinger said. "If they actually talked to people, they would find out
Thank you for your note. I will share it with the School Board. Please know that you know only a small part of the story. Lampeter-Strasburg School District cares about and cares for all of its students.
On Wednesday, December 14, 2005 6:11 PM, Pthfndr57@aol.com wrote:
Mr. Firck, IM writing to you to let you know the displeasure I feel in what has happen in the L-S School district. As a Managing Director of Renaissance Education Association from Harrisburg and a person that lives in this area I find this piece of information disturbing.
Sir, you will find that we are also into the Education of the Gay and Lesbian and Gender Issues. I find that it was just an
excuse to pull it out of the paper. That is when you must go back into history to find something that happened so long ago.
Sir, also you have by doing this act put another mark against the community in which they will remember and they will not easily forget. And we will have to work harder to fix what you
did and move on. This Issue will not go away its been around since the beginning of time. When are we going to wake up and smell the coffee?
And we must importantly have to remember the individual without these Organizations, these individuals will not have a place to go, where they may find themselves both physically and mentally, this is what we give our members that come to us a chance. It will not happen at school.
Renaissance Transgender Association is a 501 [c][3] non-profit organization and a member of The Penna. Association of Non-profit Organizations We exist on the dues of our membership, grants, and donations.
SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP THE ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTION AMENDEMENT!
Pennsylvania's families are under attack by the right-wing Pennsylvania Family Institute. On Tuesday, January 24, 2006, they will introduce an amendment that would ban civil unions and threaten domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights and much more for all unmarried couples.
Same-sex couples are already denied the right to marry under Pennsylvania's Defense of Marriage Act. This amendment is unnecessary and divisive.
Please sign our petition to protect Pennsylvania's families and ask your friends to do the same. We will hand-deliver a message to your Representative on January 23 urging them NOT to support this hurtful amendment.
Commuications Recieved from: Ben Turner -- Co-chair of the local Stonewall Democrats in Harrisburg, PA.
Kristen
Ben wrote:
Here's the bad news:
As of this writing, some members of your state legislature are still planning to introduce an anti-gay "marriage" amendment to the state Constitution on Jan. 24. In fact, this amendment would be a "bait and switch" proposal that would ban public domestic-partner benefits, the possibility of civil unions, and even put at risk partners' medical decision-making rights, wills and contracts. A similar amendment in Ohio has even caused several domestic-violence cases to be thrown out (the two people involved weren't married and God forbid we give their relationships any "legal recognition").
Here's the good news:
Our best chance of stopping this amendment is now, before it can go to the House floor. (Trust me: I work at the Capitol.) So several pro-LGBT groups are joining together to ask people across the state to do the most effective thing in these critical two weeks -- contact your state representative's local office and ask to meet with him or her. Meeting face-to-face with someone who's affected personally is often the most persuasive thing for an elected official. And it's much harder for a state legislator to say homophobic things when someone who votes in their district asks -- in person, "Why would you risk my right to visit my partner in the hospital, or to make medical or financial decisions if she (or he) is incapacitated? Why would you take away my health insurance?"
To help you, we've been constantly updating our new, non-partisan resource page on this issue: www.capitalstonewall.org/amendnew.html
Or click here for a short letter you can print and mail in. We can look up your state representative's name and deliver your letter for you. If you're sending the letter through us, please mail it to us by Jan. 17 so we can deliver it before the amendment is introduced.
If you want to contact your state representative directly but you're not 100 percent sure who that is:
If you're not sure which district you live in, you can look it up at www.legis.state.pa.us (top right corner). You may need your full zip+4 zip code -- to get that, visit http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp
If the site says your representative's last name is Buxton, Stetler or Sturla, you can e-mail him through http://www.pahouse.com/contact/contact_all.asp
If you live in South Central PA and your state representative is *not* Buxton, Stetler or Sturla, you should be able to e-mail your state rep through their website -- you can find it through www.pahousegop.com.
If you have a question, please e-mail us at crstonewalldems@yahoo.com.
Need a little motivation? Here's something from our NON-partisan resource page:
Since July 1, 2000, when civil unions became legal in Vermont, more than 7,500 couples have united. Only 78 have been dissolved in court. (source: 365gay.com, Dec. 15, 2005) That's the equivalent of a 1 percent divorce rate after 5 years. How are things going for opposite-sex couples? “Given the divorce rates of recent years, the risk of a marriage ending in divorce in the United States is close to 50 percent.” (source: State of Our Unions 2005, National Marriage Project)
Again, if you have a question, please e-mail us at crstonewalldems@yahoo.com.
Thanks for all you do.
Ben Turner
Co-chair, Capital Region Stonewall Democrats
P.S. Please let us know what you hear from your state representative.
P.P.S. Please forward this update to friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and others who might be willing to help -- including straight friends!
