NYC has an out City Council Speaker. That's pretty inspiring for local LGBT kids, letting them know that they can be whatever they want to be, and that nobody's biases against them are allowed to stop their dreams. Especially since virtually nobody in the five boroughs has ever turned Christine Quinn's seat into a controversy simply because of her sexual orientation. That's just not the spirit of New York City. But leave it to the self-appointed moral authoritarians on the religious right to take what the vast majority of Big Apple residents have come to know as benign, easy, peace, and ...

The 'Chase Bank Community Giving' contest is in the final voting round and the organization with the most votes will win 1 million dollars, the subsequent five will receive 100,000 dollars. Of the top 100 organizations voted in so far, three are LGBT. Choose your favorite one and make sure that an LGBT organization receives the funds.Select from the following three LGBT organizations:*The Matthew Shepard Foundation*The Trevor Project*GLSEN (Gay/Lesbian, Straight Education Network)Please head over to the facebook contest to place your vote between Jan 15-22nd. ...

Those who believe homosexuality to be morally wrong often make a big fuss about the prospect of homosexuality even being mentioned in schools. Many anti-gays are quite opposed to events like the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network's (GLSEN) Day of Silence, which is designed to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying, and harassment in schools, believing this event to really be about the promotion of an unhealthy, immoral homosexual lifestyle.I wonder, then, what anti-gays think about students who make other kids feel unsafe and unwelcome in schools by using slurs? I wonder, also, what they think when ...

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is celebrating Ally Week Oct. 19 – 23. The week is devoted to raising awareness about LGBT issues and bullying in schools, increasing the number of allies and commemorating people who are already allies of the LGBT community. For resources on Ally Week and ... ...

This week is the Gay-Straight Education Network's 'Ally Week', an opportunity for schools and communities nationwide to encourage straight allies to speak out against anti-LGBT bullying and harassment, whether it be physical, verbal, or psychological.Take GLSEN's Ally Week Pledge:I believe all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression,deserve to feel safe and supported. That means I pledge to: 1. Not use anti-LGBT language and slurs; 2. Intervene, if I safely can, in situations where other students are being harassed; 3. Support efforts to end bullying and harassment. Take the pledge online here.What is an Ally?Often referred ...

Kevin Jennings (right)Photo: Alan LightI really admire Truth Wins Out for standing up to the bigoted smear campaign against Kevin Jennings, the Obama Administration official who used to run the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. Here's an excerpt from their 10/16/09 press release:NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out criticized the on-going smear campaign that anti-gay organizations and politicians are orchestrating against Kevin Jennings, who is serving as the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools.“We are witnessing a disgraceful political hit job filled with baseless allegations, ugly innuendo and ...

Grown adults who spend their workdays using their personal faith views to work up histrionics around what should be and could be the benign acceptance of all human beings: **SOURCE: Issues Update Broadcast (Part 2 of 2) [Focus On The Family] Our "favorite" part? Around the 6:16 mark, when Candi Cushman claims that Kevin Jennings "attacked" Young Life and a Texas law in a 2007 Huff Po column. It's of course one of the most widely used anti-gay tactics to claim that any and every bit of push back from our side against their discrimination ...

One gay student in Cobb County is receiving a national honor for his work to end bullying while another has dropped out of school over concerns about wearing women’s clothing to class. Austin Laufersweiler (top photo) is in Los Angeles this weekend to receive the first-ever Student Advocate of the Year Award from the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network for his work in making the lives of gay students at Lassiter High School a little more tolerable. He was among 75 nominations of budding LGBT activists across the country for the award, but beat out the others with his work ...

GLSEN, The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, has struggled since 1990 to make schools safer for gay kids.  Here’s their mission statement: GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established nationally in 1995, GLSEN envisions a world in which every [...] ...

Disgusting, negligent, easily verifiable lies in the name of Jesus: Now, of course the websites for which the ACLU of TN actually fought included those for groups like Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Marriage Equality USA, Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and Dignity USA (an organization for LGBT Catholics). But why should a little thing like factual information get in the way of Coral Ridge Ministries' agenda? After all, gay porn exists -- so ...

The New York Times Magazine has this surprising article about kids coming out in middle school. The article starts out describing a dance organized for gay middle school students in, of all places, Oklahoma! It drew about 130 kids (plus their mothers) from across the state. What is clear is that for many gay youth, middle school is more survival than learning — one parent of a gay teenager I spent time with likened her child’s middle school to a “war zone.” In a 2007 survey of 626 gay, bisexual and transgender middle-schoolers from across the country by ...

Don't miss Benoit Denizet-Lewis' article for The New York Times Magazine this weekend on gay, lesbian, and bisexual kids who are coming out in middle school. Writes Denizet-Lewis: "What is clear is that for many gay youth, middle school is more survival than learning — one parent of a gay teenager I spent time with likened her child’s middle school to a 'war zone.' In a 2007 survey of 626 gay, bisexual and transgender middle-schoolers from across the country by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (Glsen), 81 percent reported being regularly harassed on campus because of their sexual orientation. Another 39 percent ...