Today's 'Day of Silence' Raises Awareness of Anti-LGBT Bullying

I haven't noticed as much publicity around the 'Day of Silence' this year, and I'm not sure why. It's a subject that has recently made the MSM with the bullycide of Carl Walker-Hoover. Today, according to his mother, would have been his 12th birthday.

Today, ABC News published a story on how tone-deaf teachers, like the ones complicit in Walker-Hoover and Eric Mohat's suicides, perpetuate the violence against LGBT youth.

Jason Mannino, writing in the Huffington Post, drew my attention to this video which I hadn't seen before, which will just make you sick to your stomach. According to the post on Metacafe, it's an anti-Day of Silence protest by some young fundies, posted a year ago:

"This was a protest at San Juan High School, Sacramento, California. Students came to school wearing T-shirts that had Bible Verses on them (1 Corinthians, 6:9-10) The verses say that Homosexuality is sin. About 40 students that wore those T-shirts got suspended. Those students who got suspended refused to take the star test until the administrators remove the suspensions and let them wore those shirts. This is a clip were they are in the library because the administrators made them sit for 5 hours..."

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Gay Event at Yogurt Shop Canceled 'for the Safety of Everyone'

If a Gay-Straight Alliance can't hold a fundraiser at a yogurt shop, then where can they hold it?!?

"The Gay Straight Alliance of Upland High School was to hold its first yogurt fundraiser at Yogurtime to raise money for the club, but the event was canceled due to complaints from shop customers. Club members contacted Daniel Solis, the Southern California program director for the Gay Straight Alliance Network, after they were told about the cancellation. 'Legally the yogurt shop does have the right to do that. But it's unfortunate that they would cave in from negative pressure from the community and not stand up to help show the community what GSA is about instead of feeding into the pressure,' Solis said. The students were given some pointers on how to deal with this type of situation, Solis said. "

Said Yogurtime manager Crystal Cho: "It was canceled for the safety of everyone. It's good to bring awareness to the community but apparently a lot of people did not accept that. I didn't expect people to call and read the Bible to me."

ACLU wins Gay-Straight Alliance Lawsuit Against Florida School

In a gay-straight alliance case that was closed at one time because the student who brought it, Yasmin Gonzalez, graduated, and then reopened when a current student was prevented from reviving the Okeechobee High School GSA, a judge in Florida has ruled that the group was discriminated against by the school board:

"The Gay-Straight Alliance of Okeechobee High School may now meet on campus like all other non-curricular school groups, and their case against the School Board of Okeechobee County is closed, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore wrote in an opinion signed Tuesday. Moore granted them Alliance’s otion for summary judgment and ruled the School Board violated the club’s First Amendment rights by refusing to recognize it as a non-curricular student organization. Moore also ruled that the School Board is statutorily obligated by the federal Equal Access Act to grant the club the same rights to meet on campus as other non-curricular student groups have."

Said the ACLU: "Moore broke the legal mold by asserting that schools must provide for the well-being of gay students the same as straight students and therefore, the school cannot discriminate against the GSA."

Previously
Federal Judge Says Gay-Straight Alliance May Continue [tr]

Two Princes: Gay Couple Elected Homecoming Royalty

Earlier this month, a gay couple, Brandon Raphael and his prince, Kiernan Gatewood, were elected "Princes" of Davis Senior High School's Homecoming in Davis, California. They rode the parade route in the back of a pick-up truck and were cheered on by the local comunity and their school.

The Sacramento Bee reports: "In the weeks since officials announced the homecoming court, there's been no public outcry -- not by campus leaders, not by students and not by the community. Students said they were encouraged that the election was not an issue for campus administrators. They said they were less surprised that a gay couple would win than they were that officials allowed it to happen."

Said Chandler Fox, co-president of the school's gay-straight alliance: "I think it's just such a good thing for our school. Just knowing that the other kids recognize them as a couple and would vote for a gay couple to be prince and prince of homecoming. ... I don't know, I just think it's awesome. I want people to know about it so maybe it can happen at another school."

Royal yes to diversity at Davis Senior High [sacramento bee]
(via queerty)

News: Hairspray, Knut, Day of Silence, Cannes Film Festival

"Day of Silence" tensions, combined with the recent fever over violence at Virginia Tech, lead to lockdown at Indiana High School: "The Day of Silence at New Castle Chrysler High School coincided with a national Day of Silence and aimed to support gay, bisexual and transgender students. 'People were in their shirts for it, people were in their shirts against it, and it just caused a lot of drama that I didn't think was needed,' said student Kayla Boyles."

Berlin's global warming icon, Knut the baby polar bear, is the target of an anonymous death threat.

Middlebury College in Vermont, one of the Advocate's top 100 colleges for gays and lesbians, is tagged with anti-gay graffiti.

Netflix cashes in on Virginia Tech killings, featuring Oldboy, film killer modeled himself after.

Line-up announced for Cannes Film Festival: Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights to open fest; Gus van Sant back in competition with Paranoid Park...

ERUPTING: Thousands flee Colombian volcano.

Purported David Beckham nude an instant internet hit!

Gaydar founder Gary Frisch, who plunged to his death from an eighth-floor balcony in early February, was found to have raised levels of ketamine in his body: "Estate agent Stephen Ruddock was standing outside a nearby building when he saw Mr Frisch's body hit the ground. He said Mr Frisch shouted 'Waheey' moments before he plunged to his death. Mr Ruddock said: 'It was a celebratory thing. I saw his body come into my line of sight. It arced in the air and hit the ground.' Pathologist Dr Peter Wilkins said raised levels of ketamine were found in Mr Frisch's blood and liver. He added: 'It can have similar effects to LSD, confusion and hallucinations.' Recording a verdict of misadventure, the coroner, Dr Paul Knapman, said: "I don't think that it can be said he intended to kill himself. 'This is not suicide at all. He jumped to his death from the balcony of his flat on the eighth floor while under the influence of drugs.'"

Baby pilot whale found swimming in Brooklyn, dies.

Hairspray trailer hits the internet Aqua Net.

Kathmandu, Nepal gets its first gay beauty salon: "The salon, which offers regular beauty parlour services like haircuts, facials, manicures and pedicures, is also a training academy for members of the gay community who want to train as beauticians. The first batch of 10 young metis - gay men who dress as women - is running the salon under the aegis of the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), Nepal's sole gay rights group." The Blue Diamond Society recently received two awards from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission for grassroots groups making an impact in gay rights.

The Emma dilemma: "A 7-year-old girl is at the center of a court battle that is equal parts gay rights struggle, jurisdictional quandary and legal ethics question."

Federal Judge Says Gay-Straight Alliance May Continue

Saying there was no evidence that the club would not "dedicate itself to the purposes, such as tolerance, that it has outlined without involving obscene or explicit sexual material," a federal judge ordered Okeechobee High School to allow a gay-straight alliance there to continue holding meetings while a lawsuit, filed by the ACLU, is ongoing.

The school had claimed, according to the NYT, that the club was "'sex-based' and violated the school’s abstinence-only education policy."

The ACLU's lead attorney in the case, Rob Rosenwald, who is representing the gay-straight alliance's president Yasmin Gonzalez, said, "This decision sends a clear message to other schools that they face a similar fate in federal court if they choose to discriminate by deliberately misrepresenting GSAs as something they're not. Violence and harassment against gay students is a rampant problem in Florida."

The attorney for the Okeechobee County School Board said he thought the board would be satisfied, given the judge's determination of the club's purpose: "It appears that the judge will hold club members to the limitations they presented in court that they will not discuss sex or promote sexual acts in school. I think the concern that club members would discuss sexual activity in school will be alleviated by this order."

Gay-straight alliances are formed to promote tolerance, however, they are often the target of bigoted and ignorant parents and school board members who eitehr don't understand their mission, or choose not to accept it.

Judge Orders a Florida School to Allow a Gay Tolerance Club [nyt]
Federal Judge Rules Okeechobee, FL Students Can Form Gay-Straight Alliance Club [aclu]