Religious Left

by Ethan Jacobs Bay Windows In 2005 the film Hineini, a documentary about a student at a Boston Jewish day school trying to start a gay/straight alliance (GSA), helped jumpstart a debate on LGBT inclusion in Jewish schools and communities. The film, a collaboration between the Boston-based LGBT Jewish advocacy group Keshet and filmmaker Irena Fayngold, became a powerful teaching tool for Keshet, which has sponsored screenings at schools and synagogues across the country. On Sept. 21 Keshet and Fayngold will party to mark the DVD release of Hineini at Club Café, where attendees can meet Fayngold and the film’s subject, Shulamit Izen, and hear a performance by local folkster Catie Curtis. full article Video Excerpt:

by Kilian Melloy, EDGE Contributor EDGE Boston Schoolchildren in British Columbia are poised to learn about the social costs of bullying and homophobia thanks to a new high school elective and a classroom guide on diversity for that region’s teachers. Opponents have acted to smear the new teachers’ resources as an "authoritarian" attempt to override parents’ religious and moral convictions by requiring children to learn that gay individuals and families are normal. The high school course, Social Justice 12, is an elective, not a requirement; the teaching guide, titled Making Space, Giving Voice, contains suggested activities and readings relevant not only to gays and lesbians, but also to ethnic and racial minorities and students who are, for other reasons, perceived as "different." full article

State schools in Victoria must allow gay students to bring their partners to formals and functions, the State Government has said. The directive comes after a Year 12 student at an Anglican school in Brisbane was outraged after his request on behalf of eight classmates at the all boys' school to bring their partners to a formal was met with a lukewarm response. The boy claimed the school told him it might change regulations requiring formal partners be of the opposite sex if it was done with a minimum of fuss. He and his friends are now likely to boycott the event, claiming they have been discriminated against. A Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Devlopment spokeswoman told News Limited that schools were not allowed to disrciminate against gay students. full article

One of Australia's top private schools says it is happy for its students to bring gay partners to the end-of year formal following news that a leading Brisbane school will enforce a ban on the practice. Scotch College in Adelaide said it had no restrictions on students who want to take same-sex partners to college events and they support openly gay students. Deputy principal Craig Rogers said the school promotes student freedoms and the students themselves are very supportive of same sex couples. "We've had students who are openly gay and it hasn't had an effect on their happiness in the school," he said "It's a non-issue to be honest." However, headmaster Mark Merry from Marcellin College in Melbourne said the boys school expects students to bring a female guest or come alone. "We would expect that it would be a female guest, being a boys school and we invite females for a gender balance," he said. Mr Merry said the school would not allow ...

The American Family Association is urging parents to keep their children home from school April 25, the National Day of Silence. The Day of Silence, first organized in 1996, encourages students to remain voiceless for a day to represent the silence faced by LGBT people and their allies. Hundreds of schools across the country now participate in the event. "DOS leads the students to believe that every person who identifies as a homosexual, bisexual or cross-dresser is a victim of ongoing, unrelenting harassment and hate ," the AFA said in its mass email. "Students are taught that homosexuality is a worthy lifestyle, homosexuality has few or no risks, and individuals are born homosexual and cannot change. Those who oppose such teaching are characterized as ignorant and hateful bigots." The AFA is asking parents to inform their school that they will not allow their children to attend that day. They also want parents to explain to their children that "homosexual beh...

(San Diego, California) Two conservative Christian groups have asked a federal judge to overturn a California law prohibiting discrimination against gays and transgendered students. In a lawsuit filed in San Diego, Advocates for Faith and Freedom and the Alliance Defense Fund claim portions of the legislation - particularly those covering "gender identity" - are unconstitutionally vague and violate student privacy. The author of the legislation, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) calls the lawsuit frivolous. Kuehl said the bill did not change existing California law, only made it clearer so that school districts would have less trouble adhering to it. A law banning LGBT discrimination in schools has been on the books in California since 1999, said Kuehl, who is one of several gay members of the California legislature. "There's no change in the law; it was always the same. All of these truly silly claims that they make about what could happen could have been hap...

WASHINGTON, DC October 30, 2007 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) – The president of prestigious Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in the United States, has promised homosexual activists that the school will fully fund a center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and “questioning” (LGBTQ) students by next fall. The pro-homosexual nature of the center is rejection of what is considered a serious Catholic moral teaching. President John DeGioia told media, “How do we respond to legitimate requests for a more supportive environment? We can continue to do this in a somewhat informal manner … or we can move forward in a more organized way, through more formal and institutional structures and processes. In this case, it is time for the latter.” The announcement comes in response to an upsurge of pressure from homosexual activists on campus that began after a Georgetown sophomore was arrested for assaulting another student early on the morning of September 9. The incident is being...

The Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity and the juvenile court system have begun their investigation of an alleged anti-gay hate crime that occurred on campus. An undergraduate student and a recent graduate of the Divinity School, both male, alleged that their affectionate behavior drew anti-gay comments and slurs from another undergraduate and a non-student guest as they ordered food from the Carmichael Towers West Quiznos on Sept. 9 around 10:45 p.m. The suspects became argumentative and told the alumnus to “get out of (their) face,” said the report, obtained Saturday from the Metro Nashville Police Department Central Records Division. When the couple left Towers West they were accosted by the two suspects in what “appeared to be a premeditated, unprovoked attack,” said Dean of Students Mark Bandas. The police report narrative does not mention the anti-gay language used in Quiznos, but it does indicate suspicion of a hate crime. http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/node/47...