COMMUNITY GROUPS

December 22, 1995 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 13

Statewide effort stops Ohio kalang

sex ed restriction bill

by Bill Henderson

The local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community organizations which work to serve you now have a legislative issues coordinator at the Ohio Statehouse.

Ohioans Against Discrimination has formed a working board to focus on political education and communication between local communities and legislators on issues affecting the men and women who are homosexual, bisexual, or transgender. And this new group has had its first success in responding to the restrictive Ohio House Bill 89.

House Bill 89, dubbed the "Parental Rights" bill, would

have reversed Ohio

vote. Through Bader's rallying of OAD participants and local organizations across Ohio, Salerno's voice mail and fax were jammed with messages from progressive groups and voters. Salerno voted against releasing the bill. Her "no" vote became the tie-maker, preventing the bill from proceeding to the full House.

Organizations cooperating through OAD included the Stonewall Cleveland Action Network and Stonewall members in Columbus, Cincinnati, Akron, and Canton, Gays and Lesbians United of Toledo, and Out Voice of northern Ohio. The tenmonth long effort to educate Ohioans to respond directly to House Education Committee mem-

OUTVOICE

law making information about sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, required in public school sex education classes. It would further have reversed availability of sex education classes themselves by requiring all parents to request such education for their child, rather than the current system allowing a parent to withhold such education from a child. Additionally, HB 89 would have restricted discussion of homosexuality, pregnancy prevention, and condoms, and removed counseling for children with sexual identity

concerns.

OAD legislative coordinator Susan Bader, along with other progressive organizations' lobbyists, tracked progress of HB 89 through the hearings and revisions process of the House Education Committee, chaired by Republican Mike Wise of Broadview Heights and eastern Cuyahoga County.

Pressure grew continuously from many groups to moderate the original proposal introduced by Wise, who is a Christian Coalition member and donor to the Roundtables of Ohio. (Roundtables is an evangelical political group headquartered in Solon and affiliated with Focus on the Family of Colorado Springs, Colorado.) Five rewrites of the bill attempted to make it more acceptable to the politically aware public and elected representatives.

Final voting at Thanksgiving time to release HB 89 from committee for approval in the House became a cliffhanger. The Education Committee, minus Republican Amy Salerno of Columbus, approved releasing the bill to the house by one vote. Procedure allowed Salerno 24 hours to log in with her chronicle classifieds are

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bers saved comprehensive sexuality education for Ohio children. Lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender people, through local political organizations and Susan Bader's efforts at OAD, stepped up to the plate and scored!

Give each other a hand on this one!

Bader urges more of us to join local Stonewalls, political groups, and to support their hard work. "We have dozens of similarly restricting bills on many issues affecting men and women in our communities. I'm so excited that we proved we can work together this well."

Donations to support OAD should be sent to 250 E. Broad St., #201, Columbus 43215. Donations to support OutVoice should be sent to 1263 West Blvd., Cleveland 44102. Political use makes these non-deductible.

Karen Masulis

Kathleen Snyder

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