Excluded From Community Wide Conference On Bullying

[Guest ricka]

October 8th the community in which I work will be holding a one day conferenc

on bullying. A nationally known speaker is being brought in and there will

be a panel discussion and resource booths available. The conference is

geared to the general public, both adults and students. The local conference

is being held in a local Baptist church. It came to my attention that no

GLBTQ organizations were invited to present or even to attend. Curious, huh?

given the rash of GLTBQ teen suicides in the past weeks which have made

national news!

I approached the planning committee chair armed with a recent GLAAD study of

over 5000 GLBTQ students around bullying and school safety, as well as several

articles about GLBTQ teens who had committed suicide in the last week because

of bullying. I was told representatives of the GLBTQ community were not invited

so as not to offend the church in which the event was being held. I was then

told by way of an attempt to mollify me that people from the GLBTQ community

could attend but that the speaker forum and area for resource booths was full.

So in essence GLBTQ people could attend as long as they remained "invisible."

Next stop: met with the director of the hosting community agency who happened to

be the boss of the woman chairing the committee. Fortunately I knew her to be

an outspoken straight ally of the GLBTQ community. She informed me that she was

aware of the homophobic bias of the chairperson though she herself had not been

aware of the GLBTQ exculsion for the conference. I had by this time arranged for

the community coordinator of the area Gay/Straight Alliance to attend the conference

along with 4 student interns from the program. We are set to have a meeting tomorrow,

four days before the conference. The agency director told me that she would

insist for inclusion and that if the church where the conference is being held

objects that the conference would be moved to another venue. It's not a done

deal but at this point I am optimistic. A pleasant and encouraging surprise

that emerged from my activist pursuits is that the pastor of the largest evangelical

church in the community who is also on the committee offered his church to

host a GLBTQ student conference in the future. I and several of the committee

members will be meeting with this pastor at a later date and it is our hope

that his invitation would mean that GLBTQ youth would also be welcomed into

their youth program, which is the largest and most active church youth program

in the community.

Miss Ricka

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Ms Ricka - good work - you keep after those people now! Grin! We need to have some awareness of how our transyouth is so mistreated!

Lizzy

[JJ]

Thank you for being a voice in the community. It is people like you having the courage and determination to be heard that will make te difference for the future so these tragic deaths don't have to continue.

JohnJ

[Guest Donna Jean]

.

Ricka....

Hon, I just want to say "Thank You" for the work that you're doing on our behalf...

Hang in there, Hon...

Huggs

Donna Jean

[Guest Charlene_Leona]

Great job on your behalf, keep up the fight and don't let the homophobes rule.

Take Care

Charlene Leona

[Guest ricka]

The reason I posted here is to say that all of us can get involved and take a

stand in our own communities. It's really not as much about being out and

going public as it is about doing the political footwork behind the scenes--that is to say our own gender orientation and sexual preference is totally incidental to being an

activist.

Miss Ricka

[Guest meridian]

Good point, Miss Ricka, and thank you from me, a parent. To omit any mention of the bullying of GLBTQ youth is to imply, in a way, that it's OK. And it is not! I hope the gay-straight alliance people speak out at the forum, or that you are able to move the event to a place where all victims of bullying can be represented, respected and heard. That's good news about the megachurch leader. All of us need to speak up in our communities, as you did.

With love,

Meridian

[Guest stranger]

Rock on, lady!

But wow...I mean the spate of deaths from bullying seems to have been almost exclusively GLBTQ youth, or at least perceived as such...AND THEY WERE GOING TO NOT ALLOW GAY PEOPLE TO SPEAK??? Not allow the reason the kids were bullied to the point of suicide to be talked about???? :mad:

Somehow the hypocrisy and rampant cluelessness escaped the bigot in charge, I'm sure.

[Guest TracieV3]

Perhaps you should take the approach of that the GLBTQ community considers being excluded from the conference as a form of "bullying" by the "Community Wide Conference On Bullying" against the GLBTQ community.

Nobody respects hypocrites. And I am sure they will realize how they will look in doing this.

[Carolyn Marie]

Thank you so much for your efforts, Ricka. I am very proud that you are representing our Community.

Just a thought here: If the church refuses to allow GLBT participation in the event, the Gay/Straight Alliance could make a "notification" to the media of the slight, on the chance they will make it a newsworthy issue. Granted, such an approach has its drawbacks, but at that point I wuoldn't be too concerned about alienating that particular church. They would be reaping what they sowed.

Caroyn Marie