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Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 13, Number 9 • September 19, 1998 • FREE
Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools get failing grade on GLBT issues
by David Stout and Brian M. Myer
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE—On September 10, the
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
(GLSEN), the nation’s larg
est organization addressing
anti-gay bias in schools, re
leased its second annual *
“Report Card” grading
school’s efforts to provide a
safe and supportive environ
ment for GLBT students.
The average grade
among the 42 public school
districts surveyed was a “D,”
only slightly better than
Charlotte-Mecklenburg —
the only Carolinas school
district included — which
received an “F.”
The findings represent
the experiences of nearly she
million students in the as
sessed districts — chosen ’
based on size of student
population and geographic diversity. While
there are 15,995 school districts in the coun
Report Card
4 on making schools safe for all students
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Cuy/State: 013.(161
Charlotte, DC
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students. The smallest district included in
GLSEN’s “BackTo School Campaign” has over
20,000 students. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg
system has approximately 99,000 students, ac
cording to Janice Rucker,
the district’s Public Infor
mation Supervisor.
Surveyed districts were
asked to submit evidence of
six points of compliance for
grading purposes: 1) a writ
ten policy protecting stu
dents from discrimination
based on sexual orientation;
2) a written policy protect
ing staff from discrimina
tion based on sexual orien
tation 3) a written policy
protecting students and
staff from harassment based
on their real or perceived
sexual orientation; 4) train
ing for staff on issues facing
GLBT youth; 5) support for
curricula that recognize the
lives and contributions of GLBT people; and
6) support for extracurricular student activities
try, the majority of them have less than 2500 and clubs that challenge homophobia and
heterosexism.
School systems that met all six criteria were
given an “A.” Those that met five received an
“A-,” four a “B,” three a “C,” two a “D” and
one or none an “F.” The
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Public School district met
none of GLSEN’s criteria.
Rucker challenged Char-
lotte-Mecklenburg’s failing
grade, although she ac
knowledged that the district
had no written policies deal
ing with sexual orientation.
“We don’t have a policy that
specifically addresses gay
and lesbian students, hut
our policies protect all stu
dents.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Assistant Superintendent
for Student, Family and
Community Services, Barb
Pellin, also disputed
GLSEN’s findings. She con
tended that the policies covering sex discrimi
nation apply to sexual orientation, as well. “In
that [policy] context, ‘sex’ and ‘sexual orienta
Honor Roll
Dade County Public Schools
Los Angeles School District
Philadelphia PubKc Schools
San Diego School District
San Francisco School District
Boston lAihlic Schools
Seatde lAihlic Schools
Dishonor Roll
Charlotte/Mecklenhurg
Chicago Public Schools
Indianapolis Public Schools
Memphis City
School District
Houston Independent
School District
Cleveland Public Schools
tion’ are the same thing.”
Charlotte attorney Connie Vetter was un
aware of any policies that would cover sexual
orientation. “To my knowledge, there is not a
Charlotte/Mecklenburg
policy in place — and more
importantly, enforced —
that deals with sexual orien
tation. If there is. I’m very
excited to hear about it and
look forward to seeing it
enforced.”
Based on data from
Youth Risk Behavior sur
veys conducted by the states
of Massachusetts and Ver
mont and Seattle’s Safe
Schools Coalition, it is
documented that the typi
cal high school student
hears as many as 26 anti-gay
slurs each day. When this
occurs, faculty intervene
only 3 percent of the time.
As a result of this lack of
intervention, 19 percent of GLBT students suf
fer physical attacks associated with their sexual
See SCHOOL on page 22
ACLU ad decries
anti-gay bigohy
by Emily WhitHeld
Special to Q-Notes
NEW YORK—As political and religious
conservatives increase public attacks on gays and
lesbians, the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) is asking Americans to consider the
morality of bigotry.
In the sixth installment of its year-long pub
lic policy advertising campaign running on the
op-ed page of the New York Times and The New
Republic, the ACLU pointed out that morality
was once used as a justification for widespread
discrimination against African Americans.
“Belief in the innate immorality of black
people, buttressed by selected scriptural refer
ences, formed the basis for slavery, segregation
and lynchings,” the September 1 advertisement
noted.
The advertising campaign, a first-ever effort
for the 78-year-old organization, runs on the
Times op-ed page once a month through De
cember 1998. Each ad contains a briefly-
worded message from ACLU Executive Direc
tor Ira Glasser on topical subjects ranging from
the war on drugs to religious freedom to gov
ernment intrusions in the bedroom.
Linking the campaign theme of public vs.
private morality to the ad, Glasser points out
that claims of moral inferiority have been used
throughout American history as a justification
for denying civil rights to disenfranchised
groups.
“We were once told that it would be im
moral for women to work or vote. Jews, Irish,
Italians — virtually every immigrant group in
fact — were once said to be morally inferior,”
he stated. “Any time we hear discrimination
justified by claims that its victims are immoral,
we should remember this regrettable part of our
history.”
The latest round of attacks on lesbians and
gay men come in the wake of recent legal and
legislative civil rights victories. Just last month,
the House overwhelmingly rejected an anti-gay
measure that would have permitted discrimi
nation against gay men and lesbians employed
by the federal government. And in a landmark
1996 decision, the Supreme Court for the first
time ruled that the government may not treat
“5ure, they can try
to hide behind
morality but we all
know a bigot when
we see one.”
Ex-gay” couple raises questions
lesbians and gay men differently simply out of
hostility and fear.
Political operatives and religious extremists
are now determined to take back those victo
ries, the ACLU said. Leading the fight is Sen
ate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), who
in a recent television interview equated homo
sexuality with “sins” like “kleptomania” and
“alcoholism.” Backing him up. House Major
ity Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) assured the
public that “the Bible is very clear on this.”
Saying that homosexuality is a matter of
“lifestyle” choice, a coalition of Christian con
servative groups have placed a series of full-page
ads in major newspapers making the scientifi
cally rejected claim that gays can be “converted.”
In a recent interview with the Times, one of the
architects of the “conversion” ad campaign said
the advertising ploy was intended to strike at
the assumption that homosexuality is immu
table and that gay people therefore need pro
tection under anti-discrimination laws.
The ad campaign is clearly an attempt to
set up a phony debate ever whether gay men
and lesbians can, in fact, change, Glasser said.
The real issue, he observed, is whether loving
someone of the same sex should condemn les
bians and gay men to random violence, harass
ment, job and housing discrimination and loss
of rights as a parent.
In the ACLU ad, Glasser concludes: “Sure,
they can try to hide behind morality, but we all
know a bigot when we see one. Think about
it.”
To further stimulate public discussion, the
ads have an interactive component through the
ACLU’s Freedom Network website at
www.aclu.org/features/nytimesad090198.html.
Visitors to the website can access background
information on the subject of the current
month’s ad and are invited to post their own
thoughts to an interactive message boatd. T
by Wanda Pico
Special to Q-Notes
NEW YORK—In a forgotten Wall Street
Journal interview from several years ago, John
Paulk, one-half of the nation’s most prominent
“ex-gay” couple, admitted that he was not 100
percent “cured” of his homosexuality. Now,
Time magazine has published an article ques
tioning whether Anne Paulk was ever a lesbian
at all. In light of these discrepancies, some are
beginning to wonder if the Paulk’s “ex-gay”
house of cards is starting to crumble down
around them.
On April 21, 1993, John Paulk — who re
cently appeared on the cover of Newsweek maga
zine with his “ex-lesbian” wife Anne — told
the* Wall Street Journal that his new-found het
erosexual orientation was not as intense as that
of the “average man on the street.” He also
stated that he was unsure if he would ever have
the “intensity for sex with women” that most
straight men have.
In the interview, he also put cold water on ■
the notion that he and his wife were actually
“cured” of their gay orientations: “To say that
we’ve arrived at this place of total heterosexual
ity — that we’re totally healed — is mislead
ing,” Paulk admitted.
Time further clouded the Paulk’s claims
when it reported that writers couldn’t find even
one past girlfriend of the supposedly former-
lesbian Anne. She refused to offer the name of
a single lesbian lover, but “conceded that her
ties to women in college were ‘more emotional
than sexual.’”
Gay and lesbian activists immediately chal
lenged the Paulks’ standing as conversion icons
within the “ex-gay” movement. “We don’t know
if he’s still gay or whether she was ever really a
lesbian,” said John Aravosis, an online activist
who has been monitoring the situation. “A lot
of people are wondering whether the Paulks are
‘ex-gays’ after all.”
He concluded, “If the Paulks are the best
the radical right has to offer, it’s not clear there
are any ‘ex-gays’ out there at all.” T
Sheriff pleads guilty to wiretapping
by Dan Van Mourik
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE, NC—Mitchell County
Sheriff Vernon Bishop, 37, pleaded guilty in
federal court to illegal wiretapping, a felony that
will end his law enforcement career in NC.
Bishop admitted that he intentionally in
tercepted and recorded a local high school foot
ball coach’s cordless telephone conversation in
an attempt to get the coach, who he suspected
of being gay, fired.
Bishop was indicted June 1 by a federal
grand jury after an investigation by the State
Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. The first count of the
indictment charged Bishop with getting a
sheriff’s deputy to record a conversation Leland
Riddle had on a cordless phone at his house in
January 1995. The second and third counts
charged him with disclosing the contents of the
illegal recording to the local school officials.
Bishop pleaded guilty to the first count and
prosecutors agreed to drop the other two. They
also agreed to recommend that Bishop be sen
tenced to home detention or probation. No sen
tencing date has been set.
As a condition of the plea agreement. Bishop
will pay more than $15,300 to Riddle as com
pensation for lost wages.
“It is especially troubling when those who
are charged with protecting the public abuse
their positions of power and violate the public
trust,” said US Attorney Mark Calloway.
In September 1997, Bishop apologized for
the incident, ending a three-day hearing that
was held after a local district attorney petitioned
Mitchell Superior Court to remove Bishop from
office. District Attorney Tom Rusher dropped
the petition in exchange for the apology. Bishop
also agreed to forfeit a half-month’s salary or
about $ 1590 as part of the deal.
An SBI agent testified during last year’s hear
ing that the sheriff lied to agents, telling them
an anonymous person left a tape of the conver
sation on his desk. Bishop acknowledged that
he asked deputies to record conversations they
might pick up on their police scanners. He said
it was part of an investigation into whether
Riddle was conspiring to commit sodomy.
Riddle resigned in February 1996. T