NGLTF launches two new programs
Q-Notes T August?, 1999 .T PAGE 11''
by Jason Riggs
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINTON, DC—The Policy Institute
of the National Lesbian and ^ay'Task Force
(NGLTF), a think tank dedicated to research,
analysis, strategy development and coalition
building,- has announced the creation of two
major programs — one targeting the needs of
older GLBT people and the other concerned
with GLBT family issues.
Aging Initiative
The overall goal of NGLTF’s Aging Initia
tive is to ensure that GLBT people are a visible
and conscious part of public policy frameworks
and service programs that serve the elderly. The
initiative also will raise consciousness about all
forms of theism within the gay and lesbian com
munity.
“The graying of the GLBT community pre
sents new challenges to policy makers and to
GLBT organizations,” said Urvashi Vaid, di
rector of the Policy Institute. “Current estimates
put this population at more than one million
people and that number will explode when large
numbers of out-of-the-closet baby boomers
reach retirement. This initiative makes a
longterm commitment to research, policy de
velopment and advocacy to ensure that the
needs of old GLBT people are addressed in our
communities and throughout society.”
The NGLTF Policy Institute will network
with scholars and activists in the fields of ger
ontology and social services for the aging popu
lation to develop critical research on the reali
ties facing GLBT people. Over the next several
years, NGLTF will engage in vigorous advo
cacy and propose collaborations among non
profit agencies that serve and represent this
population to make sure gay and lesbian people
are included in their programs.
Rev. Ken South, a minister in the United
Church of Christ, has been hired to develop
the Aging Initiative. He is a policy advocate with
27 years of experience in social service systems
who recently stepped down as executive direc
tor of the AIDS National Interfaith Network
(ANIN). after 10 years.
F^ily Policy
Nationally-renowned lesbian attorney and
family advocate Paula Ettelbrick has been
tapped to direct NGLTF’s Family Policy Pro
gram. She has worked on local, state and na
tional family policy issues for the past 13 years
— having worked as legal director of Lambda
Legal Defense & Education Fund; public policy
director for the National Center for Lesbian
Rights; and most recently as legislative counsel
for the Empire State Pride Agenda in New York.
“We are in the midst of a revolution in fam
ily creation within GLBT communities, but
ironically, and inaccurately, our movement is
characterized as being anti-family,” said
NGLTF Executive Director Kerry Lobel. “This
program at NGLTF’s Policy Institute takes aim
at the myths that persist about our families and
will formulate a genuinely pro-family public
policy agenda from the vantage point of GLBT
people’s lives.”
Vaid observed that Ettelbrick’s expertise and
personal experience (she and her partner have
a two-year-old son and are expecting another
child in September) will be invaluable in the
efforts to organize around family issues. She
pointed out that as of June 1999, almost 50
anti-GLBT family bills had been filed in state
legislatures throughout the country. “This na
tionwide mobilization against our families
comes directly from the anti-gay religious right
and its think tanks,” Vaid said. “It is an effec
tive strategy because the GLBT political move
ment at the state level remains understaffed and
underfunded.”
The Family Policy program will pursue three
main objectives: 1) provide data to help activ
ists secure inclusive definitions of family in na
tional, state and local policies and refute the
right-wing’s rhetoric; 2) actively build an effec
tive and collaborative national pro-GLBT fam
ily network among gay and mainstream orga
nizations working on family issues; and 3) edu
cate the general public about the value and val
ues of GLBT families. T
GLSEN steps up efforts in South
by Jim Anderson
Special to Q-Notes
NEW YORK—The Gay, Lesbian and
Straight Education Network (GLSEN) “gradu
ated” 15 Southern activists from its fifth an
nual Leadership Training Institute in College
Park, MD. Seven representatives from North
Carolina joined attendees from Florida, Geor
gia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas on July 18-
24 for a week-long training regimen aimed at
increasing the ability of chapter leaders to or
ganize effectively in hometown schools and
communities.
According to Brenda Barron, GLSEN’s
newly-hired Assistant Director for Southern
Organizing, the seven-day event is a critical part
of the work to end homophobia in Southern
schools. “The safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender students is determined by local
school boards and individual principals; this is
not a beltway issue,” she said. “The Leadership
The NC contingent with three of their trainers. Top
Row: (left to right) Kevin Jennings (GLSEN exec,
dir.), Gary Palmer, Melissa Seibert, Joan Walker,
Brenda Barron (GLSEN Southern Field Organizer),
MK Cullen (Equality NC - Strategy Trainer).
Bottom Row: Janet Joyner, Kathie McKinney, Mike
Barringer, Nancy Origer Poole
Training Institute is one of the most important
tools that GLSEN offers communities. It not
only represents GLSEN’s commitment to
grassroots organizing, it helps create strong
chapters with a strategic and highly-localized
approach to fighting anti-gay bias in schools.”
The need to organize with and on behalf of
GLBT youth in Southern schools is great. Ac
cording to GLSEN’s 1998 “Back-to-School”
report, which measured 42 of the nation’s larg
est school districts. Southern schools faired well
below the national average in protecting and
serving GLBT students. Whereas the national
failure rate rested at 46 percent. Southern
schools rated far poorer with a 75 percent fail
ure rate.
“Change in Southern schools has come
slowly, with great struggle,” said GLSEN Na
tional Field Director John Spear. “But with the
Southern chapters having been well-represented
at the Leadership Training Institute, the recent
opening of our new field of
fice in Atlanta, and with
Brenda Barron leading our
Southern organizing efforts,
we’re in a better position
than ever to challenge anti
gay harassment in Southern
schools.”
GLSEN will also host its
third annual national confer
ence, Teaching Respect for
All ’99, in Atlanta from Oc
tober 1-3. Expected to be the
largest-ever gathering of ac
tivists dedicated to ending
anti-gay bias in K-12
schools, the event will feature
over 65 workshops, a key
note address by US Repre
sentative John Lewis (D-
GA), entertainment by co
median Margaret Cho and a
special workshop track on
organizing in Southern
schools.
For more information on
GLSEN, access www.glsen.
org on the Internet. T
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