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Saturday, December 25
Holidays Bring Extra Challenges for Gay and Lesbian Couples
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 25 Dec 2004 11:18 AM CST
 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)
 Happy holidays to everyone from Rapid Response-Iowa.
Thursday, December 23
Iowa School Board Overturns Committee Recommendation, Bans Book; Anti-bullying Workshop in Ames in January (GLBT)
by
Trish Nelson
on Thu 23 Dec 2004 08:31 AM CST
 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).
Click here for more information and to register your team
Brad Clark
Project Director,
GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force
PO Box 1797
Des Moines, IA 50306-1797
Contact Brad here:
Send an e-mail
Click here for more contact info:
www.iowasafeschools.org
Join your fellow Iowans in the fight to take back the media for ordinary citizens. Click here to join RapidResponse - Iowa.
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