well i can see you lot have been busy with the business of living!!!
kudos all, for your willingness to embrace an authentic life.....
so, as it happens, as was adroitly surmised by serenitynow,
my upcoming spectacle of villiany and betrayal of my dedication
will be in the service of a national advocacy group for LGBT
>>> PFLAG (P-FLAG) Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
trying not to create a teal deer here, i must give some back story
- in mid 1990s, a landmark, precedent setting case was heard in federal court of appeals involving a lawsuit against a school district that had failed to protect a gay student from bullying, harrassment and assault
- the school district in question settled out of court for $900,000
- this year, the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) Teach Tolernace Project has produced a 40 minute documentary
- BULLIED: A Student, A School and a Case that Made History
- the documentary is being distributed free to any school that requests a copy
- since september 15th, they have distributed 25,000 copies
- our PFLAG chapter is hosting a screening of this doco next week
- THE school district is in the next town over
- the student, now a 35 year old man, who still has his family in that town, will be our guest panelist, along with a teacher, still in the school district, who also appears in the doco
- the school board in that city showed the film this past monday
- every local paper (both) plus a duluth, mn regional paper, carried a headline about the reactions, some good, some inflammatory
ok, so... the big deal is.... there is no other school district in the whole country besides this one, that has the ignoble distinction of being THAT school, even though, without a doubt, under slightly different circumstance, MOST schools could have been sued and lost! lots of ill will, bad blood, hurt feelings and other negative emotional garbage still being touted... even tho we STRESS the point of the doco is to call attention to bullying and start the dialogue about how to make schools safer!!!!
anyway, i will be the moderator for the panel after the screening.... our venue is expected to exceed capacity (according to the amount of inquiry the manager is fielding)... we have been contacted by a PR rep who was warning us to be prepared for multiple scenarios of negative displays, and I have been in contact with SPLC's Teach Tolerance Projects director and their security specialist... we are advised to have ON-DUTY law enforcement present and visible, because now that there has been press, SPLC is worried about hate groups that target their events.... even tho this isnt their event, their name has appeared with ours..... we have been told to expect film crews....
granted, this could all be a tempest in a tea pot.... but it could also be something we never anticipated.....
come hell or high water, i am going to be there!! i just hope i can handle a stage part without a sister sitting across from me, agonizing thru some of the lamest dialogue ever imagined
if you get the chance to see the documentary, or you have kids in school, see if your schools are screening it (comes with a guided study manual)
every one who loves a child sends their heart thru the school doors every day, and wants that to be a safe place..... for every child!
