Holidays Bring Extra Challenges for Gay and Lesbian Couples AlterNet
Christmas is supposed
to be a time where families and loved ones gather to share the season's
greetings. But this year, like the other three years since this lesbian
couple has been together, Beth and Liz will be miles apart on Christmas
day.
They agreed to tell their story on condition that their names be changed to protect their privacy.
But
their story is like so many other stories of lesbian and gay couples
who struggle with the love for their partners vs. the duty to their
families, and what to do when those two things clash, as they so often
do at the holidays.
This is
a Christmas story that seems as familiar and as old as the tale of Mary
and Joseph unable to find a room at the inn. Even today, for so many
gay and lesbian couples, there's no room at the inn when it comes to
their love.
Beth hails from a plain Midwestern family where things like homosexuality are very awkward to talk about.
(click here to read entire story)
Iowa School Board Overturns Committee Recommendation, Bans Book (GLBT)
The North Scott Press
by Bill Tubbs The
United Methodist Church defrocked the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud
on a 7-6 vote for being honest about her sexual orientation....The
church's decision appears to be, at best, an effort to achieve unity by
sacrificing reality and truth.
[That] very week, the networks, who flooded the airwaves all fall with half-truths
disguised as political ads, rejected as "too controversial" a 30-second
commercial of the United Church of Christ which showed a bouncer
standing guard outside a church and choosing whom to allow into
services. Among those rejected are people of color and a same-sex
couple.
Just when you think all the issues are national, the school board of
the Pleasant Valley [Iowa] School District sent shudders through
academia with a 4-3 vote to overturn a committee's recommendation that
it is OK to continue using the book, "The Misfits" by James Howe, in an
elementary classroom. Parents protested when they learned that Linda
Goetz, a sixth-grade teacher at Bridgeview Elementary in LeClaire, was
reading the book aloud in an effort to curb name-calling. Their
objection? One of the characters is gay.
(click here to read the entire story)
Iowa Department of Education Hosts Conference on Bullying and Harassment
"Bullying in Our Schools: Power and Empowerment"
The GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force is one of several
sponsors of this conference which will take place on Thursday,
January 27, 2005, at the Scheman Conference Center in Ames.
This conference is designed to help school teams (including youth and
community) create plans to prevent bullying and harassment
against all students, including those that are gay, lesbian, bisexual,
and transgender (GLBT).
Sessions will help team members learn what works, how to
effectively intervene when bullying happens, and how to recognize the
many forms that bullying can take. A special strand is being
offered for middle school and high school youth team members, in addition to a strand to address bullying/harassment against
diverse populations (GLBT students, students of color, students
with disabilities, religious minorities).
*IBLTV is a group of citizens from the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area who are concerned about the decline in the quality of local television. Fight local media consolidation, as it leads to an unaccountable medium that enriches itself while disregarding the need to serve the public good.
*The rational counter to 'The Point,' 'The Counterpoint' critiques and corrects the daily editorial by Sinclair Broadcasting's corporate vice president, Mark Hyman, that is broadcast on all Sinclair-owned television stations across the country
Holidays Bring Extra Challenges for Gay and Lesbian Couples
Happy holidays to everyone from Rapid Response-Iowa. 
Iowa School Board Overturns