LGBT

Recently, three Kennewick High School students formed a gay-straight alliance (GSA), the first among all Kennewick schools. They did so in the face of months-long opposition by some members of the Kennewick School Board to recognizing GSAs as non-curricular student clubs. Now, to its credit, the Kennewick School Board has voted 3-2 to give GSAs the same access to school resources enjoyed by other non-curricular student clubs.

Many students may not be aware of the extent to which schools are censoring and blocking their access to these sites. The ACLU’s Don’t Filter Me campaign has set up a useful quiz to help you find out if your school is filtering your access to LGBT webpages.  

Great news! In “recognition of different types of families,” the U.S. State Department has announced its decision to offer gender neutral passport applications. These revised applications, which become available next month, will replace the terms “mother” and “father” with “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” and “remove significant challenges for the two million children being parented by [LGBTQ] parents.” This is another positive step by the State Department in relationship to LGBTQ community; last year the department modified a previous rule that transgender applicants could not modify their passport gender designation unless they had undergone gender reassignment surgery.

The ACLU-WA was recently contacted by a transgender woman who experienced discrimination at the Ross Dress for Less in Lynnwood, Washington. While trying on clothes in the women’s dressing room, this woman was interrupted by the store manager, sternly told to put on her “regular clothes,” and loudly and repeatedly instructed to leave the dressing room area immediately. The ACLU-WA contacted Ross’ headquarters to explain that the Lynnwood store manager’s actions clearly violated the Washington Law Against Discrimination.

When is a happy, healthy, and well-to-do family considered censorship-worthy?  According to a grocery store in Arkansas, censorship is necessary when the family includes same-sex parents.

The benefits to students of playing high school and collegiate sports have been well-documented, from improved academic performance to better physical and emotional health.  In October 2010, the Women’s Sports Foundation and the National Center for Lesbian Rights released a ground-breaking report that provides policy recommendations for high school and college institutions on the inclusion of transgender student athletes.  On the Team: Equal Opportunities for Transgender Student-Athletes was drafted after WSF and NCLR held a national think tank in Indianapolis in October 2009, bringing together medical, legal, and athletic experts from all over the country. The report contains the think tank’s policy recommendations about how to include transgender students in sports while taking into account the competitive contexts of high school and collegiate athletics, along with medical and legal concerns.  

LGBT teenagers are more likely than their peers to be punished by schools, police and the courts, according to a recent Washington Post article which cites the first nationwide study of its kind to highlight these important issues. The study found that LGBT youth are 40% more likely to receive educational and criminal justice-related punishments, such as expulsions, police stops, arrests and incarceration.  These studies confirm what the ACLU has known for a long time: that LGBT students are often discriminated against from a young age, which denies them equal access to education and robs them of future opportunities.