I am so overwhelmed.

I am so privileged to teach in a school and district where our kids are truly important!

I should start off by saying I am in Kissimmee, Florida... a small city by most standards. Granted, it was 12,000 when I moved here in 1974 and now has about 75,000 as its share of Metro Orlando. It's nickname is The Cow Town and is still pretty conservative even though the population has become much more diverse.

I just got a glimpse of my school's yearbook and found a double page color spread about our GSA and it's honoring of Lawrence King. I am overwhelmed. I hear of others in places that I think would be so much more progressive than Central Florida yet are facing obstacles. I am truly grateful as are our kids here at Poinciana High School.

dg

What's wrong with this picture?

The president of the United States spends his time, energy, and taxpayer money fighting for marriage between one man, one woman while the government of Communist Cuba...

Raul Castro's daughter spearheads anti-homophobia drive
Monday May 12, 11:54 AMSource: Agence France-PresseHAVANA (AFP) - President Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, is organizing Cuba's second anti-homophobia festival this week to boost public awareness of the country's long-marginalized gay community, this time with the approval of her dad's government. "There's political support for this educational strategy. It's the best thing that's happened to us," Mariela Castro said about the backing the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX) she heads is receiving from Cuba's Communist Party.(snip) For as long as Cuba's communist revolution began nearly 50 years ago, Mariela and her mother have been busy trying to whittle away at the country's machismo tradition. The week-long festival in Havana and six of Cuba's 14 provinces, aims to increase public awareness about gay rights through television programs, movies, theater, debates and book fairs, culminating with the International Day Against Homophobia, on May 17. Besides the educational efforts, Mariela's group is also busy reforming Cuba's Family Code and has proposed in parliament a bill on freedom of gender -- the right to choose one's gender, and the right to "legal union" for gays. The legal union issue is an effort to sidestep the Catholic Church's determined opposition to gay marriage rights.

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Maybe someday our country will provide all her citizens with the same non-homophobic legislation.

CONGRATULATIONS CALIFORNIA!

dg

Summit Reminder

Hope you're having a wonderful mid-May weekend!

Just a reminder to register and make your reservations for the NEA GLBT Summit being held in Chicago this July! It is going to be a wonderful opportunity for GLBT Educators and Friends to learn more about how we can help ourselves, our kids and our colleagues!

There's more info just a few pages away...
http://nea-glbtc.org/summit_info.html

This is also an opportunity for those who do not attend the NEA RA's to learn more about the NEA-GLBT Caucus and join this growing community!

dg

A week after Day of Silence

It's now been a week since the Day of Silence. I've been pretty busy but have watched the national news on television nearly every day. I didn't see much info... in fact I don't recall seeing any!

Did you? Was it positive, negative? Did you have a DOS at your school? How many do you estimate participated? What was the reaction of the students and faculty?

I will be e-mailing a survey to NEA-GLBTC members who are on our ListServe. Please participate.

dg