www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

July 29, 2011

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 3

Situation 'bleak' for Ohio

LGBT students, report finds

by Anthony Glassman

Cleveland-Less than half of LGBT students in Ohio have access to queer information on their schools' internet, while over ninety percent reported verbal harassment based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation according to data put out on July 14 by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and its chapters in Cincinnati and Northeast Ohio.

The information in the research brief School Climate in Ohio came from the 2009 National School Climate Survey, the sixth biennial such study conducted by GLSEN.

The information in the study is, for lack of a better term, bleak. Less than one in ten LGBT students in Ohio was covered by a comprehensive bullying and harassment policy specifically covering sexual orientation or gender identity and expression, and a similarly small number had an LGBTinclusive curriculum. Less than two-fifths said that they had access to LGBT-positive library resources at their school.

Over ninety percent of students reported hearing "gay" used as a pejorative, homophobic remarks, disparaging comments on gender expression and sexist remarks. Statements like "That's so gay" clocked in with 98 percent of students reporting hearing them sometimes, often or frequently. Even with a margin of error of ±6 percent, that means over ninety percent of LGBT students were exposed to those statements. Compared to only two-thirds of LGBT

students who reported hearing racist remarks, it seems to indicate that schools do more to fight racism than sexism and homophobia.

While less than half of the students in the survey reported being physically harassed based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, and about a third on gender expression, over ninety percent reported verbal harassment based on sexual orientation and 70 percent based on gender expression.

Around 36 percent of the students were physically assaulted based either on their sexual orientation or gender expression, compared to 8 percent for race or ethnicity and 7 percent for disability.

Gene Ashley, the late chair of GLSEN Northeast Ohio, noted, “Students are clearly saying educators and policymakers are not doing enough to stop anti-LGBT bullying and harassment. Ohio legislators should hear their calls and pass a bullying law that specifically includes anti-LGBT harassment."

Ohio Reps. Nickie Antonio and Michael Stinziano, representing Cleveland and Columbus respectively, have introduced a bill doing exactly that, although its future is unclear in the Republican-dominated state legislature.

"The new research confirms the harassment we hear about from Ohio youth," said Patrick Moloughney, co-chair of GLSEN continued on page 10

newsbriefs

Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am

J.T. NEUFFER

The concept of a rod hitting balls reached amusing new lows on July 23 with the sixth installment of North Coast Softball's annual Drag Ball game.

This year's game saw the Lickers taking on the Rammers in front of about 200 cheering fans at Gordon Park.

The Lickers were ahead in the fourth inning when the game was called because of impending storms, leading to warnings that the Rammers would completely annihilate the Lickers next year.

-Anthony Glassman

Hundreds of couples marry on New York's first day

Niagara Falls, N.Y.-With the world-famous waterfalls thundering behind them, Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd of Buffalo became the first couple legally married in New York, at the moment the state's new marriage law took effect on July 24.

Lambert and Rudd stood on Luna Island, between the American Falls and

DOUG BRAUN

A croud escorts Rudd and Lambert to Luna Island.

the smaller Bridal Veil, dressed in white and blue gowns. They said "I do," before the tuxedoed Niagara Falls Mayor Paul A. Dyster said, "I now declare you legally married" at 12:01 am.

At the other end of the state, New York City had instituted a lottery system for couples who wanted to marry on the first day, but decided that it could handle all 823 of the applicants

anyway.

The line outside the city clerk's of fice in Manhattan formed before sunrise, at 4:30 am, with Phyllis Siegel, 76, and Connie Kopelov, 84, as the first couple to marry in the city. The pair have been together for 23 years.

In support of the state's law and opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman joined the lawsuit challenging the legislation. Schneiderman is supporting Edith Windsor, who had to pay $350,000 in estate taxes because the federal government does not recognize her marriage.

It is in that case which the federal Department of Justice refused to defend DOMA, leading the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to hire outside counsel to defend the law.

Schneiderman's brief pointed out that New York recognizes valid marriages performed outside the state, and that the state passed its own marriage law, the logical "next step along a path on which New York long ago embarked, the path of extending equal treatment under law to same-sex couples," according to LGBT newspaper Metro Weekly.

Ghana official orders all gays arrested Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana-The

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minister of Ghana's Western Region ordered police forces to arrest all gay men and lesbians in his district.

The story was reported on Ghanaian radio. on July 20..

Paul Evans Aidoo, the Western Region minister, ordered the Bureau of National Investigations and security forces to ferret out suspects. The move came after months of anti-gay campaigning by Christian organizations in the nation, which also urged the public not to vote for any candidates who favor civil rights based on sexual orientation.

Ghana's criminal code bars “unnatural carnal knowledge," but it is not well-defined and does not explicitly ban same-sex activity,

Ernest Kofi Abotsie, a lawyer at Kwame Nkrumah University, questioned whether politicians should be telling police forces how to enforce the law, and also noted that the “unnatural carnal knowledge" has not before been defined to cover homosexuality.

Senator catches anti-gays in a stretch

Washington, D.C.-Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota grilled Focus on the Family's Tim Minnery on July 20 during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, accusing him of misinter-

preting a 2010 Department of Health and Human Services study to back up his position.

The study in question states that children do better when raised in a "nuclear family." Minnery interpreted that as meaning an opposite-sex, married couple.

"It says that nuclear families, not opposite-sex married families, are associated with those positive outcomes," Franken noted. "Isn't it true, Mr. Minnery, that a married same-sex couple that has had or adopted kids would fall under the definition of 'nuclear family' in the study that you cite?"

"I would think that the study, when it cites nuclear families, would mean a family headed by a husband and a wife," Minnery replied.

"It doesn't," Franken deadpanned. “The study defines a nuclear family as one or more children living with two parents who are married to one another and are each biological or adoptive parents to all the children in the family."

"And I frankly don't really know how we can trust the rest of your testimony if you are reading studies these ways," Franken concludes.

continued on page 10

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