Subject: strictly fyi: RIGHT WING WATCH
From: Ryan Schwartz <ryan@hummingbirdink.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:10:41 -0800
To: NEWS@safeschoolscoalition.org

Dear Safe Schools Coalition members and friends:

RIGHT WING WATCH  
(1) Fox commentator calls accurate textbooks "not the point of history"
(2) 
MN school board continues to disregard parents, teachers and students
(3) National Organization for Marriage chair starts new 'research' center to back propaganda
(4) Australian Christian Lobby tries to weaken school communities

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(1) 
Fox commentator calls accurate textbooks "not the point of history"
In response to California's proposed bill to include LGBT people in history textbooks, extreme conservatives have been trying to argue that LGBT people aren't relevant to the discussion of our nation's past. By keeping historical LGBT struggles invisible and ignoring all of the ways LGBT people have shaped America, groups like Focus on the Family are clinging to their preferred version of history where only they exist. Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson called the bill "blackmail," arguing that including LGBT stories and struggles is "not the point of history. The point of history is to teach you what happened." Media Matters for America caught the hypocrisy and exposed Carlson's delinquent reporting. Of course, LGBT history did happen, and you can find tons of teaching tools on the Safe Schools Coalition website.

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(2) 
MN school board continues to disregard parents, teachers and students

The Anoka-Hennepin School Board, representing the largest district in Minnesota, has ignored community requests to confront anti-gay bullying in its schools. Despite the suicides of several students, testimony from students and teachers about harmful bullying, and a report from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, district leadership shrugged off complaints last month when they denied the suicides were related to bullying. The conservative school board is hanging on to one of the last anti-gay censorship laws in the country, forbidding the discussion of LGBT issues such as anti-gay bullying on school property.  National outrage is pouring into the district as the board and superintendent play politics at expense of their students' lives. In an interview with Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, a representative for the Minnesota Family Council claimed a victory out of this fatal stubbornness before sharing her fear-mongering, misleading conspiracy theories on safe schools. 

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(3) 
National Organization for Marriage chair starts new 'research' center to back propaganda
Maggie Gallagher, the president of the Institute for Marriage and Public, has teamed up with the Ave Maria School of Law in Florida to start the "Center for Research on Marriage, Religion and Public Policy." The center will attempt to provide a legitimate social science veil for Gallagher's derogatory propaganda, although there has been little effort to hide the purpose of the stunt. "We need an academic home for certain conversations to advance the debate on marriage," said Gallagher. A guiding question for her new 'research:" "What institutions and practices can parents, schools, neighborhoods...adopt that help make marriage not a theory but a lived reality?" Be on the lookout for her misinformation in your school community. 

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(4) 
Australian Christian Lobby tries to weaken school communities
Safe Schools Coalition Victoria, a government funded program to develop safe school communities, has invited a strong educational presence to this year's Victoria pride march. In an effort to show solidarity for strong, respectful school communities, the group asked educators and students to march under the banner of "School's Out Against Homophobia." Australian Christian Lobby president Rob Ward responded to the announcement by arguing that building strong community bonds are not the purpose of schools. 
 

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Got a problem at school with anti-gay harassment?
In Washington State:
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Ryan Schwartz
Hummingbird INK