Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Climate for young gays improving
Doolen students want to form a club
While 25 HS groups exist, the alliance would be the 1st in an Az middle school.
B. POOLE
Tucson Citizen
Student interest in starting a Gay-Straight Alliance at Tucson's Doolen Middle School is the latest sign that support is growing here for gay teens.
Despite daily complaints of harassment and sometimes physical abuse in schools, teens and others in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community see more efforts under way to deal with issues they, their friends and families face.
Wingspan, University of Arizona's Pride Alliance and other organizations offer support groups and classes so educators, families and the teens can get the information they need to deal with budding sexuality.
In 1998, Tucson had two Gay-Straight Alliances. Now there are 25. The extracurricular clubs are for gay teens and their straight allies.
Last year, students at Apollo Middle School in Sunnyside Unified School District started to create an alliance, but then they moved on to high school. This year, students at the Tucson Unified School District's Doolen, at Grant and Country Club roads, have asked about starting an alliance, said Lisa Rodrigue, an eighth-grade language teacher there.
She's ready to be a faculty adviser if Doolen students decide to go ahead, she said.
"It's not something adults do for kids; it's something kids do for themselves," Rodrigue said.
Amanda Haywood, 15, is president of the alliance at Canyon del Oro High School, where she is a sophomore. She came out as bisexual at age 11, she said.
She appreciates the array of support available to the teens in the Old Pueblo.
"Just knowing it's there makes us feel safer," she said.
"Big money" lawsuits in the mid-1990s - not in Arizona - started a national trend toward inclusion and acceptance of the teens in schools, said Alan L. Storm, a clinical psychologist and assistant superintendent of the Sunnyside district who founded a local chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
The 1984 Equal Access Act requires schools to offer equal access and treatment to students in any extracurricular club, including clubs for LGBT students, Storm said.
The network helps ensure equal treatment by supporting the alliances and training school administrators and counselors, he said. But the trend toward acceptance didn't happen just because of lawsuits, Storm said. "It's happened because of parents who said, 'I'm going to protect my kids.' "
RESOURCES
Eon: Wingspan's youth center has a drop-in lounge, tutoring and mentoring and community outreach. Prism, a seven-part discussion series that meets weekly, helps LGBT teens and straight friends deal with a broad array of issues. Eon also sponsors dinners, movie nights and dances. Web site: www.eonyouth.org
GLSEN: The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is aimed at making schools safe for LGBT youths. The national organization helps students who ask for help form extracurricular clubs at schools and trains educators and school counselors on dealing with LGBT issues. Web site: www.glsen.org
Wingspan: Southern Arizona's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community center offers a long list of classes and support groups for the community, families and straight allies. Wingspan has a library and computer center and is active in lobbying local, state and national legislators on issues that affect the LGBT community. Web site: www.wingspan.org
PFLAG: A support group that offers a chance for families, friends and LGBT people a place to talk confidentially about issues they face. Web site: www.pflag.org
