GLSEN director cancels school appearance
by Matt | March 31st, 2006 |According to an article on 365gay.com News, Kevin Jennings, the Executive Director of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) and Winston-Salem, NC, native, has cancelled an appearance at a New York high school’s human rights club after mounting pressure from parents claiming the visit added up to nothing more than “propaganda for the gay agenda.”
Jennings was scheduled to speak to the Human Rights Club of Somers High School after several students invited him after hearing him give a speech at another school.
According to the article:
A group of parents organized Concerned Citizens and demanded the school cancel the invitation.
“Our issue is whether or not their personal choice of private sexual behavior should be publicly promoted as an equally valid option for our children,” Judy Birdsall, the mother of a ninth-grader told the Journal News.
“We do not believe this should be sanctioned by the school in a daytime school assembly.”
As the pressure mounted, Jennings decided to cancel his engagement at the school - something other parents and Principal Linda Horisk said they regretted.
Horisk and the Human Rights Club had been planning the event for more than a year.
“We aren’t trying to promote anything, except making our school a comfortable community for all our students, regardless of their race, religion or sexual orientation,” said 16-year old Jacqueline Palumbo, the club’s president.
Earlier this month the principal of a Vermont school cancelled an anti-bullying presentation by a local LGBT group after some parents objected. (story)
Outright Vermont co-executive director Kate Jerman and volunteer Connor McFadden, a gay Burlington High School student, were turned away when they arrived to speak, despite having an invitation from the school.
I really wonder if this is the event that Mr. Jennings had scheduled when I invited him to speak at UNCG PRIDE!’s LGBT Politics Panel next Tuesday. If so, then this situation really sucks because now that he has cancelled his appearance there, he definitely could have come here. But… oh well, he’s a busy guy. I’m sure he’ll find something worthwhile to do (either that or maybe he should just go home and take a well deserved break).
One Response to “GLSEN director cancels school appearance”
I am a student at somers high school when the Kevin Jennings speech was canceled a group of students and I pretty much freaked out. We could not believe that the school’s atmosphere was so homophobic that they would not allow Kevin Jennings to come. We feel that it was more of Linda Horisk’s decision more than anything. She has now resgined from the position of principal and we now hope that someone with a little more tolerance for the world will take her position.
By Lea on May 8, 2006