Help keep gay-straight alliance at BU Academy alive!

[pax]

What follows is some excerpts from an e-mail I received today. I am a member of a mailing list that periodically sends out news alerts related to civil rights issues, mostly ones that involve gay and bisexual persons. The guy who runs it, John Aravosis, is one of the people who helped launch StopDrLaura.com--the website that helped get Dr. Laura kicked off television. If you'd like to help keep a gay-straight alliance in the Boston area going, please contact some of the people Aravosis mentions. Thanks!

This is a rather disturbing story from Boston. At the end of this
story, I'm going to ask you to please take action to help these kids.

The chancellor of Boston University (BU) has ordered a local school (grades 8-12) run under the university's auspices, the prestigious BU Academy, to disband its two-year-old gay-straight alliance. BU Chancellor John Silber's apparently thinks gay-straight alliances "get involved in the sexuality" of young students, when in fact, gay-straight alliances are about promoting tolerance in high schools so that gays
kids don't face violence, either at their own hands or at the hands of their fellow students. According to one press report, Silber is so upset at the alliance's existence that he allegedly threatened to cut funding to the academy if it did not drop the gay tolerance group.

40% OF MASS GAY AND BI YOUTH ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

According to the Boston Globe, "gay-straight alliances started in
Massachusetts nine years ago as an antidote to the exceptionally high suicide rate among gay and bisexual high school students. According to a Massachusetts Department of Public Health report released in May 2001, about 40 percent of that student population have attempted suicide. Since the 1993-94 school year, Massachusetts has helped pay for gay-straight alliances at schools that want them. It is the only state that does so..."

MILITANT FUNDAMENTALISTS LAUD BU'S ANTI-GAY MOVE

...One Massachusetts anti-gay activist responded to Silber's decision: "This is a behavior that is medically and psychologically extremely self-destructive, and they are telling kids that they should feel good about doing it."

...What's extremely self-destructive is telling kids who have a
40% record of attempting suicide that in fact they are sick and not deserving of acceptance or tolerance.

PLEASE CONTACT BU ON BEHALF OF GAY KIDS

So, please contact BU Chancellor John Silber and the other contacts I provide you below, including the BU alumni association, and the various trustees. Also, among the university's trustees is Jeffrey Katzenberg, who launched Dreamworks SKG along with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. If anyone out there has contacts with Katzenberg, Spielberg or Geffen - or any of the other BU trustees - can you please let them know about this issue.

PEOPLE TO CONTACT (please contact everyone below):

BU Chancellor John Silber - phone: 617-353-4300

BU Alumni & Development Office - email: mailto:alumweb@bu.edu - phone:
617-353-9500 - Fax: 617-353-5838

BU Board of Trustees:
- Elaine Kirshenbaum, director of health policy for the Massachusetts
Medical Society - mailto:ekirshenbaum@mms.org - call toll-free, 1-800-
322-2303, and ask for extension 7223 or dial direct: (781) 434 7223

- Richard DeWolfe, chairman of the board of trustees, and chairman and
CEO of DeWolfe Companies, Inc - phone: 781-863-5858 - email:
mailto:info@dewolfe.com

- Frederick Bertino, president and creative director of McCarthy Mambro
Bertino LLC - phone: 617-670-9700 - fax: 617-670-9711

- Dexter Dodge, president and chief executive officer of Freedom Capital
Management - phone 617-725-2300

- Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dreamworks (again, if anyone has a contact to
Katzenberg or Dreamworks, please pass the word to them).

For more background on this issue:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/24...y_group+.shtml

Boston Globe editorial on this issue:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/25...n_at_BU+.shtml

[Dreadsox]

Dr. Silber is a notorious trouble maker. He has single handedly hurt education in my state more than any person I can think of. While he was on his six year leave from BU he was in charge of education for the state of Massachusetts.

How do I put this.....He is one un-open minded person. It is my way or the highway kind of person. He was days away from becoming governor in this state when he self-destructed when his stubborness was questioned by local news reporter Natalie Jacobson.


As for the kids of this state, they need this organization. Please help support if you can. I know how important these organizations are from my colleagues in the Middle and High School. These kids need our support an love.


Peace to all.

[KhanadaRhodes]

Originally posted by Dreadsox
How do I put this.....He is one un-open minded person. It is my way or the highway kind of person. He was days away from becoming governor in this state when he self-destructed when his stubborness was questioned by local news reporter Natalie Jacobson.

i hate people like that, especially when they have some authority.

first thing tomorrow i'll e-mail all of them, as my mind isn't working well right now and i'd probably make no sense anyway!

[BAW]

Originally posted by Dreadsox

As for the kids of this state, they need this organization. Please help support if you can. I know how important these organizations are from my colleages in the Middle and High School. These kids need our support an love.


Peace to all.

Bias of any kind really bothers me but this particular issue bothers me more than most. These kids need to know that they are just fine the way they are and that there is nothing wrong with them. They do need our support and love and I will be sending out my emails tomorrow.

I've never understood the logic behind the belief that a gay-straight alliance promotes or encourages a gay lifestyle...like kids are so open to brainwashing that they can be "converted". No one worries that being straight might rub off on the gay kids...but then again, the kind of people who are against these organizations would problably like that idea I suppose.

[pax]

bumperoo

[ouizy]

WHAT A BUNCH OF FOCKERS.

I cannot say anything about this really, except that I love Boston and this seems to be a good cause...

[Moonlit_Angel]

They do need that alliance.

Anti-gay people tick me off. Homosexuality will not kill anyone. Homosexuality is harmless. There is nothing wrong with it. Sheesh.

Sorry...anti-gay comments like the ones in that article just frustrate me.

I'll be glad to help keep this alliance going.

Angela

[bonoman]

Even though these people dont respect gay peoples choices and thoughts that doesnt mean we shouldnt respect theirs. I'm neither nor on this issue. I dont live there. I dont know any of the backround and dont know the WHOLE story. An email from the organization thats being shut down is not enough for me to sign anything.

But if they think its caused by this or self destructive then thats their opionin.

[pax]

I don't think it's a question of respecting people's beliefs. I think it's a question of this organization being shut down because of *one* person's beliefs, especially when the organization was established for such a purpose as preventing suicide and reaching out to members of a marginalized community with compassion and support.