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The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) 2013 National School Climate Survey

May 19, 2013 in Blog

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LGBT YOUTH – SPEAK OUT ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL EXPERIENCES!

The 2013 National School Climate Survey is GLSEN’s eighth national survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. It is a crucial tool in GLSEN’s mission for fighting anti-LGBT bias in K-12 schools across the nation. The information gathered from this survey will help GLSEN to inform education policymakers and the public about the right of all students to be treated with respect in their schools. Many students in the past have also used the survey information to advocate with their teachers and principals for safer schools for LGBT students.

You can help GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) inform education policymakers and the public about what’s really going on in our nation’s schools by completing the 2013 National School Climate Survey. If you attended high school or middle school sometime during the last school year (2012-2013), identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and are at least 13 years old, tell us about your experiences in school. (If you did not complete the entire school year you can still participate in the survey.) The survey is completely anonymous.

The survey asks questions about your experiences in school, including hearing homophobic remarks, being harassed because of your sexual orientation and/or how you express your gender and how supportive your school is of LGBT students.

*from GLSEN

Reflections on the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

May 18, 2013 in Blog

IDAHOYesterday, May 17, 2013, marked the 9th Annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. After seeing the many Facebook posts, tweets, and blog entries that bore the badge of the day – I.D.A.H.O – I have been reflecting on the meaning of the day and have come to the conclusion that it was a perfect time to remind all of us that homophobia and transphobia are alive and well. As Mary Griggs, a fierce advocate for equality in Louisiana, wrote yesterday – it’s about privilege. We all have certain privileges afforded to us, whether we want them or not, because of our race, ethnicity, national origin, language ability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or even geographic location.

Twelve states and the District of Columbia have legalized marriage for same-sex couples, and the Supreme Court has the opportunity to overturn DOMA. But what about states where LGBT people still don’t have employment protections or effective anti-bullying policies in schools?

This year the Louisiana legislature was again presented with an employment nondiscrimination act that would protect employees of the state from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. And again, the representatives on the House and Governmental Affairs Committee voted against employment protections for LGBT people. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has a map showing other states that do not protect their LGBT employees.

Equality Louisiana, with other coalition members of Stop Bullying Louisiana, has been pushing a positive discipline bill that would provide for restorative practices in schools, rather than zero tolerance policies. This matters for LGBT youth in Louisiana schools because we know LGBT children, along with children of color and children with disabilities, are disproportionately affected by those policies.

HB 646: The Safe and Successful Students Act will come before the full Louisiana House of Representatives for a vote next Wednesday. I hope that we can all take the vigor and determination to end homophobia and transphobia that I saw yesterday into this next week. Take action to end the homophobia and transphobia in our schools by providing adequate training for our teachers, the opportunity for children to learn from their mistakes, and positive school climates that improve student performance – all things within the scope of HB 646. Please ask your representative to vote for this bill.

 

by Micah Caswell
Communications Coordinator

HB 646: The Right Idea for Marginalized Youth in Louisiana

May 14, 2013 in Blog

With HB 646, the Safe and Successful Students Act, on the eve of what we hope will be successful passage out of the Louisiana House of Representatives, it’s worth reminding ourselves why it’s so important for teachers and principals to have at their disposal methods of dealing with discipline problems other than out-of-school suspension and expulsion. In addition to the well-documented benefits of establishing positive school climates, the research is also quite clear that removing students from school is a very poor way to change negative behaviors.

First of all, it’s a well-known fact that some students are much more likely to be subject to out-of-school suspension than others. In Louisiana schools, black students are over twice as likely to be suspended from school as white students, students with disabilities are almost twice as likely as their peers to be suspended, and male students are more likely than females to be suspended regardless of race or disability. Although this is not yet a reporting category in federal law, LGBT students are also more likely to be suspended from school than their straight or cisgender peers.

Such a clear pattern of disparate impact on groups of students raises obvious civil rights questions that are very difficult to answer – it can’t be the case that there’s no other option for dealing with classroom discipline than depriving students of color and students with disabilities of their right to an education.

Furthermore, suspensions don’t even address the behavioral issues that motivate their use. In Jefferson County, KY (a large urban school district slightly larger than Baton Rouge or New Orleans), a study found that students who were suspended once or twice were 8 times more likely than their peers to wind up assigned to an alternative school, and students suspended three or more times were 25 times more likely to wind up removed to an alternative school. Clearly, repeated suspensions do not change behavior to the point where a student will successfully avoid ending up in an alternative school later on.

The same study found that just over 40% of students removed to alternative schools, on average, wound up in juvenile detention within a few years. Ultimately, it’s very clear that out-of-school suspension is the way kids are funneled into the institutional pipeline that ultimately leads to prison. This comes at significant financial cost – the state of Louisiana spends over ten times more per year on each incarcerated youth than we spend on each student in public schools, which is a number so absurd it hardly seems possible, but for the fact that many states report similarly inflated figures.

HB 646 goes a long way toward ensuring that our schools have disciplinary policies that give kids a chance to change their behavior and succeed, strengthening the ability of teachers and principals to manage their schools in appropriate ways, and ultimately helping reduce the flow of kids into the school-to-prison pipeline. In this case, the financially sound thing to do is also the only moral thing to do – there’s simply no other option than to protect every child’s right to a safe school environment that makes it possible for them to succeed in life.

by Matthew Patterson
Legislative Co-Coordinator

History was made at the State Capitol last Wednesday!

May 6, 2013 in Blog

House Bill 85: The Louisiana Fair Employment Act, a measure that would have protected state employees against discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, failed to pass the House and Governmental Affairs Committee. This means it will not become law this year and we must continue to fight for this policy change again next year and every year after that until it is no longer legal in this state to fire someone for being LGBT.

Despite this setback, we can celebrate one thing. Today marks the first day in history that an openly transgender person has testified in front of the Louisiana Legislature. Elizabeth Jenkins, President of Louisiana Trans Advocates, spoke to the legislative committee about the need for an employment nondiscrimination act for transgender people.

EQLA could not be more proud of Elizabeth’s courage and determination. As one of the founding members of EQLA, Louisiana Trans Advocates is pushing for policies and legislation that will make the lives of ALL LGBT people in Louisiana better.

We applaud the hard work of Representative Austin Badon (D-New Orleans), a longtime LGBT ally in the legislature, who worked with Forum for Equality to bring this bill to the Capitol this legislative session.

Louisiana is among the 34 states that do not currently provide employment protections for LGBT employees. This kind of policy change is essential to ensuring that LGBT workers are safe and secure in their jobs and can put food on the table for their family.

We are committed to continuing this fight next year with Louisiana Trans Advocates and all of our other coalition members. Email us if you are interested in getting involved and helping make our state better for LGBT workers!

by Tucker Barry
Legislative Co-Coordinator

The Safe and Successful Students Act is on its way to the House floor!

May 5, 2013 in Blog

House Bill 646: The Safe and Successful Students Act has passed out of the House Education Committee.

This bill requires that school discipline be implemented in a way that provides necessary services and interventions for students, allows them to understand the consequences of their actions and make amends for negative behavior, and removes kids from school only as a last resort to preserve school safety when other measures fail.

We applaud the work of the Stop Bullying Louisiana Coalition, and we are proud to be a part of a group of organizations that stands up for our children.

The next stop for this bill is the House floor. Before the full House of Representatives debates and votes on this bill, it’s important that you contact your Representative and ask them to support this bill. You can look up your own Representative’s contact information here.

Thank you to everyone who continues to fight for the safety of Louisiana’s children.

by Micah Caswell
Communications Coordinator

NOTICE: HB 402 Committee Hearing Postponed Again

April 29, 2013 in Blog

New date has not yet been announced.

Who Needs Positive School Climates?

April 26, 2013 in Blog

You know, it seems to me that wanting to create positive school climates in which students can grow into responsible citizens. Isn’t that part of why we have schools to begin with? Our youth need a place where they can learn to interact with others and learn why certain behaviors are acceptable and others are not. This “utopian school” has been replaced with what I would call a wasteland. The trend to adopt zero tolerance policies has forced many children – most of whom have been traditionally marginalized – out of schools, onto the streets, and into the prison system, creating what we now call the School-to-Prison Pipeline.

Bullying and other disciplinary issues need to be addressed in schools. Zero tolerance policies don’t actually address these issues, but rather label certain children as “problem children” to be disposed of. The disposal of our children is not discipline. It’s genocide. We are stripping particular children – children of color, LGBT children, children with disabilities, etc. – of the best chance they have at a successful future.

Louisiana House Bill 646: The Safe and Successful Students Act is meant to break this pipeline. It calls for restorative justice disciplinary practices in schools so that children have opportunities to learn from their mistakes and to repair any relationships that may have been damaged by their behavior. Research in psychology and education shows that these kinds of policies create safer school environments where all students can thrive. In a policy brief put out by Stop Bullying Louisiana and Louisiana Progress, three positive effects are outlined as results of the implementation of restorative justice practices in schools:

  1. Restorative practices and positive school climates create safer schools and reduce the frequency of serious disciplinary incidents,
  2. Positive school climates reduce student risk behaviors, and
  3. Schools with positive climates see higher standardized test scores and academic achievement.

I don’t know about you, but those three results are answer enough for me. We need positive school climates to create safer and healthier schools for our children, to reduce risk behaviors by students, and to improve achievement and test scores. So Louisiana, I charge you with letting your legislators know that you want them to support HB 646: The Safe and Successful Students Act.

by Micah Caswell
Communications Coordinator

Is Rep. Seabaugh Really Doing What His Constituents Want?

April 25, 2013 in Blog

Representative Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport) continues to claim that he is not targeting LGBT people with HB 402 – the bill that has come to be known, both in Louisiana and across the nation, as another attempt backdoor bigotry in Louisiana. Hes says he is only trying to protect business owners and is responding to the concerns of his constituents. However, we have yet to see any of those constituents come forward supporting his bill.

What we have seen is a huge amount of opposition to HB 402. Lampton Enochs, founding partner and managing director of the Oscar winning Moonbot Studios (located in Shreveport), has written a letter to the editor condemning the bill for “making intolerance and discrimination the policy of Louisiana.” Enochs also calls attention the adverse effects the bill will most likely have on the brain drain that is an obvious problem Louisiana faces.

On Red River Radio (a local NPR affiliate), Adrienne Critcher and Frances Kelley of People Acting for Change and Equality (P.A.C.E.) say Rep. Seabaugh is just “trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist” and announce their plans to visit Seabaugh’s office to explain the concerns they have with the bill. Little did they know they would be barred from entering the office building only a few hours later. Rightfully so, Critcher expresses her frustration on local TV News channel KSLA when she and other community members who oppose the bill are not allowed to enter the building.

Rep. Seabaugh’s response to this incident was a brief email to the local NBC News Channel stating it was not his decision to lock Critcher and other concerned citizens out, but the decision was made by building management.

Another source of opposition to HB 402 comes from the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce thanks to a memo sent by P.A.C.E. (2013 Legislative bills – PACE position). In the bill tracking report released by the Chamber, HB 402 is opposed. Further, the report supports HB 85: The Louisiana Fair Employment Act, a bill that would add employment protections for LGBT people. It seems the business owners who make up Seabaugh’s constituency want to create employment protections for LGBT people, not ensure that they have none as HB 402 would do.

by Micah Caswell
Communications Coordinator

Why Louisiana Needs an ENDA

April 22, 2013 in Blog

When we talk about jobs, taxes, or revenue in Louisiana – anything that involves any kind of money, really – we’re usually carefully talking around the issue of poverty. According to Census data, Louisiana has the second-highest poverty rate in the country, the third-highest rate of uninsured residents, and the fourth-lowest median income. Anyone privileged enough to read this blog post is probably not at the rock bottom of our income distribution, but you cannot help but notice that people are hurting here. Our policymakers may not always like to admit that our people are in trouble, but you can’t live in Louisiana and not see this on some level.

If we don’t pay enough attention to poverty overall in this state, it shouldn’t be a surprise at all that the economic problems that LGBT people face aren’t even a blip on the radar of most of our state lawmakers. (Although some, like Rep. Alan Seabaugh, seem to take pleasure in making them worse.) Even members of our own community aren’t always aware that we often face economic hardships worse than our heterosexual, cisgender peers. According to a Williams Institute report, same-sex couples are significantly more likely to be poor than married heterosexual couples, children of same-sex couples are twice as likely to be poor than children of married heterosexual couples, and African-Americans and lesbians are much more likely to live in poverty than LGB whites or gay men.

In the transgender community, the figures are even more tragic. According to the recent National Transgender Discrimination Survey, transgender people are nearly four times more likely to live in extreme poverty than the general population, they experience twice the national unemployment rate, they almost universally experience discrimination at work, and 26% have been fired from a job just for being transgender or gender non-conforming.

Obviously, a large number of factors go into determining any individual person’s economic situation, but both the Williams Institute report and the NTDS identify structural anti-LGBT bias and racism in the workplace as major contributors to the high rates of poverty and joblessness in the LGBT community. Even in 2013, 29 states still have no state-level prohibitions on employment discrimination (including, of course, Louisiana), and it’s been years since the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act has come up for a vote in Congress. A significant number of LGBT people in the United States have to live in work in places where it is perfectly legal to fire them from their job because of who they are or whom they love, and the research shows that as long as this kind of discrimination is still legal, it will take its toll on our community.

Louisiana, of course, is one of those states where it’s still acceptable to fire LGBT people because of the mere fact of their identity. We have legislation on the table right now, HB 85 by Rep. Austin Badon, that would forbid this kind of discrimination for public sector jobs. Although this would only cover state workers, which we know is not an ideal situation, its passage into law nonetheless would represent a significant step forward for equality in our state, and would set a clear example for private companies who want to do business here that Louisiana is a place where we treat our neighbors fairly. Please join us in calling for its passage so that we can begin to address the economic injustice being done to our state’s LGBT community.

by Matthew Patterson
Legislative Co-Coordinator, Equality Louisiana

Notice: HB 402 Committee Hearing Postponed to May 2

April 22, 2013 in Blog

Join the Facebook event for all of the latest information as the date draws closer and we find out more about the time and place.