Groundspark

GroundSpark has learned that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will turn its attention to peer-to-peer bullying, harassment, and violence in schools this May—and your stories are wanted. Beginning with a day-long briefing on peer-to-peer violence in K-12 public schools on May 13^th, the Commission’s report will examine bullying and other types of peer-to-peer violence where students are targeted due to their race, national origin, religion, disability, gender, or LGBT-status. According to Commissioner Roberta Achtenberg, the event breaks new ground as the first time the Civil Rights Commission will host a hearing on an LGBT-related issue.

GroundSpark will have the opportunity to submit testimony, along with many experts in social sciences, mental health, education and law. Commissioner Achtenberg is making a special effort to encourage those touched by peer-to-peer violence targeted against LGBT youth (and those perceived to be so) to share their stories. The collected stories will form a permanent record built from the contributions of people across the country, and these personal narratives will be an invaluable resource, aiding the Commission in understanding the nature, pervasiveness, geographic spread, and negative outcomes of such violence. Stories shared in this way will also help to set the stage for expert testimony and filings from professional perspectives.

Stories should be submitted in writing with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for inclusion in the public record. The Commission defines “inter-student violence,” as any verbal and physical assaults, teasing, bullying and any other form of harassment. The letters need not be formal or in any particular format. Each author is encouraged to write in their own voice and to tell their story in the terms in which it was experienced.  The Commission should learn of the personalities of the kids and families involved, the way things happened (or are still happening), what types of people were involved (other students, school staff, and/or others), and what impact these experiences are having on the student and for the rest of the family. Thoughts about what types of intervention might be helpful to address the causes could be important as well.

In order to humanize this issue as strongly as possible, families and individuals who are comfortable doing so are encouraged to attach a picture to the front of the letter. For those contributors who are not comfortable sharing their identity openly, they should use at least one initial to identify themselves and any people relevant to their stories since the letters will be submitted to the public record. It would be extremely helpful if writers who are maintaining anonymity could at least identify a region of a state in which they live (“Northern Maine,” or “Twin Cities Minnesota,” for example).

GroundSpark has been privileged over the years to see the power of your stories in action. We encourage stories about all forms of harassment, bullying and violence.  Don’t be afraid to make concrete suggestions about how schools, parents, teachers and communities should respond—the Commission can learn from what went wrong as well as what went right.

The Commission’s final report, to be issued in September 2011, will discuss student needs, promising programs, jurisdictional issues, and the enforcement efforts of the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice. Stories of how students, families, schools and communities are impacted by peer-to-peer bullying, harassment and violence are critical to the report’s effectiveness.

Letters should be sent, if possible, by May 1, 2011 for introduction into the Commission’s record in advance of the May 13 hearing in D.C. (the public record will remain open for 15 days following the hearing). The letter itself should be addressed to:

Kim Tolhurst, Esq., Acting General Counsel
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
624 Ninth St., N.W., Washington, D.C.  20001

Please note that the envelope should be addressed and mailed to Commissioner Achtenberg’s special assistant, Alec Duell at:

c/o Alec Deull
3102 Krueger Road North, Tonawanda, NY  14120

Last night the Vallejo Unified School District 30 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, voted 4 – 1 to continue its anti-bullying curriculum for students in its elementary, middle, and high schools.

The curriculum was put in place as the result of a settlement negotiated by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California on behalf of a lesbian student in the district who was being harassed —by faculty and staff at her school—because of her sexual orientation.

The district agreed to bring age-appropriate lessons about diversity and standing up against bullying and name-calling into every classroom, and also to provide training to all faculty and staff about anti-gay harassment and discrimination. GroundSpark’s films and educational resources are being used at all grade levels to help implement this plan.

At a contentious board meeting last night, parents were split in their opinions about the curriculum. Many, including the mother of the young woman who had been harassed, applauded the district’s efforts to prevent further harassment.

I saw how it affected her,” Sheree Hamilton said in reference to her daughter, Roxanne. “She fell into a deep depression. She didn’t laugh anymore. She fell behind in school.”

“Teenagers, gay teenagers committing suicide: why? Because this education was not there,” said another parent, Franklin Hernandez.

As has been true in other school districts, the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative activist organization opposed to any discussion of LGBT people in schools, played a role in organizing parents to oppose the district’s anti-bullying work.

At last night’s meeting, some speakers objected to the district having a curriculum that acknowledges families headed by gay or lesbian parents, or curriculum for teenage students that discusses anything related to sexual orientation or gender norms. Others claimed that the district’s implementation of this curriculum without giving them the option to “opt-out” their children from the lessons constitutes “bullying” by the district.

Despite this vocal opposition, the school board members stood behind the anti-bullying curriculum.

We are very proud that the district is using our Respect for All Project resources to help implement its initiative. Elementary school students watch That’s a Family! which introduces respectful awareness of what it means to grow up in families headed by parents who are divorced, single, different races, lesbian or gay, as well as those who are being raised by adoptive parents or guardians.

In middle school they are watching Let’s Get Real, which helps open up discussion about harassment connected to racial tension, religious differences, anti-gay stigma, difference in family income, immigration status and more.

And in high school, students are watching Straightlaced—How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up, a proven catalyst for helping all upper level students think about how pressures to conform to gender role norms can lead students to collude with anti-gay harassment, engage in risky sexual practices, or get violent.

As part of GroundSpark’s response to this fall’s wave of media attention on teen suicide related to homophobic bullying and harassment, we have been offering free streaming of all of our Respect for All Project films through the end of the year.

Just click on our anti-bullying spark to find out more.

(For That’s a Family! click here for free streaming in support of National Adoption Day)

I had planned to send out a blog post today announcing our new partnership with Google, but now I need to also let you know about another tragedy that has occurred in the midst of our gratitude.

Yesterday we learned of yet another young teenager who was being harassed daily with anti-gay slurs and who felt that the only solution was to end his life. Brandon Bitner was only 14. Last week, he apparently deliberately ran in front of a trailer truck and was killed. He left behind a note saying he was tired of being called “faggot” and “sissy.”

His classmates are planning on leaving class today and surrounding Mid-West High School in Middleburg, Pennsylvania, with a human chain to remember Brandon and call for an end to bullying.

And as I am writing this, I just learned of another harrowing story. A middle school girl, age 12, was beaten up by students after she attended her Christian fellowship group at Hernando Middle School in Tennessee last week just because her name is Randi.  Apparently her schoolmates objected to the fact that she had a “man’s name.”

These incidents are another powerful reminder of how the pressure to conform to gender norms and the homophobia that underlies those pressures must be addressed if we are ever going to put a halt to the national bullying epidemic.

These events make it all the more poignant for us to gratefully announce that Google has made a $20,000 gift to GroundSpark to support our documentary-film based campaigns to address bias-based bullying in schools.

We also recently received an additional significant infusion of support from our longtime partner, the Gill Foundation, to enable us to reach out to more communities with advice, films, curricula, and access to professional development to address anti-gay and all other forms of bullying.

These two remarkable gifts make it possible for us to continue distributing our anti-bullying “Spark” through the end of the year, to continue to provide leadership in the National Safe Schools Roundtable, to respond to school district requests for support to address homophobic and gender-non-conformity issues, and to support schools trying to incorporate LGBT-inclusive curricula.

Free Streaming of GroundSpark’s documentaries extended to December 31, 2010.

Tens of thousands of people have shared the Spark on Facebook, through email, Twitter, or by posting it on their blogs or websites.

The Spark allows anyone to stream four of our top documentary films for free, offers discounts on DVD and curriculum purchases, and easily connects users to downloadable resources.

So many people have clamored to tell LGBT youth that “It Gets Better” and have shared the stories of what they are doing to “Make It Better.”  I’m so proud that GroundSpark can help put real concrete tools at the disposal of all youth, parents, educators, social workers and anyone else who is looking for ways to get the people they care about to start taking action to make sure that it really does get better.

Please put Google and the Gill Foundation’s generosity to work. Click on the SHARE button in the Spark and post it as widely as you can.

Finally, I found this video that Brandon Bitner posted on Facebook earlier this year of him playing a solo in a school concert. Apparently, he was quite a skilled violinist. I can only imagine what kind of harassment he must have endured that could silence this music.

On behalf of GroundSpark’s board of directors and staff, I am delighted to announce we now have a new executive director! Please join me in warmly welcoming Susan Mooney to GroundSpark, where she will work in partnership with our board, staff, and founder, Debra Chasnoff, to lead the organization into our next exciting chapter.

Susan brings to GroundSpark a unique blend of skills and experience in fostering change in organizations, groups and communities. A leader in the Violence Against Women movement for many years, Susan was instrumental in adding sexual assault prevention as a core component to the first Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), passed in 1994. Over the past 12 years, Susan has focused on supporting progressive organizations undergoing changes in leadership, direction and vision, including Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Law Caucus, California Labor Federation and Center for Domestic Violence Prevention. In this capacity, Susan has enhanced the effectiveness and impact of organizations working on a range of civil rights issues including immigrant rights, LGBTQI rights, domestic violence, workers rights and tenants rights. We are thrilled to have Susan’s values and expertise to help lead GroundSpark into the future.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to recognize the amazing work and dedication of Debra Chasnoff. For close to 30 years she has been at the helm of this organization, wearing multiple hats as executive director, filmmaker, producer, lead fundraiser and spokesperson. Debra has made exceptional contributions to the field of documentary filmmaking, the LGBT family rights and safe schools movements, and the environmental justice movement — just to name a few. Her passion, commitment and vision have been extraordinary. With Susan coming on board, Debra, in her evolving role as president and senior producer, will focus on developing new creative projects for GroundSpark and expanding our ability to bring the messages of our film-based campaigns to an even wider audience.

This is an important moment in the life of GroundSpark and we invite you to join us for our next exciting chapter. Your continued support is vital at this time as we transition GroundSpark’s leadership and prepare ourselves for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

If you’d like to send Susan your own personal welcome, you can reach her at smooney@groundspark.org. And thank you, as always, for being part of our work to create visionary films and dynamic education campaigns that move individuals and communities to take action for a more just world.

Sincerely,

Ruth Borenstein
Chair, GroundSpark Board of Directors

As news of five suicides committed by youth who were targeted with homophobic harassment has spread across the country, GroundSpark has redoubled our commitment to helping communities do a much better job of addressing anti-LGBT bias, particularly in school.

We are making some of our tools available for free for the next two months
in an effort to get them out far and wide during this time of intense public awareness.

But we need your help. And I don’t just mean by sending a donation.

We need your help in shaping the public conversation and getting GroundSpark’s powerful tools into the right hands.

Click on this “spark” to share our resources and analysis with everyone you know who works with youth. We’ve made it very easy to insert in an email, post on Facebook, Twitter, or any website.

There is a lot of talk right now about more stringent laws and punishment for bullying. We definitely need strong, federal and state anti-bullying legislation. The full solution, though, involves much more than tough laws and rules.

We need to go deeper and address the underlying ignorance and stereotypes that contribute so painfully to the bullying epidemic. We need to build a culture of empathy and compassion. We need to get everyone on board—every student, every parent, and every adult who works with youth.

In recent days, many excellent new initiatives have popped up to support LGBT-identified students and their allies. GroundSpark is building on the good work of our sister organizations by sharing what we do best: sparking the transformation of whole schools from places of conflict and alienation to communities of respect and support.

We know from experience that people get inspired and motivated when they can see moving examples of honest, caring discussion about tough issues like bias-based harassment.

That’s what GroundSpark—through our films, curriculum guides and trainings—can provide. So for the first time our curriculum guides are available for free online and parents and students can stream our films for free into their homes.

Talking about how all students are negatively affected by anti-gay bias, no matter how they identify, is not easy. Nor is talking about stigmas regarding gender norms, race and class. But we have been doing this work, thoughtfully, and with great success for close to fifteen years.

To do our job well, though, particularly at this moment, we need you to help us spread the word.

You can help us reach out to the parents of the youth who do the bullying, the parents of youth who are scared to death to speak up on a classmate’s behalf for fear of being targeted themselves, and the parents who don’t know what to do when their own kids are harassed.

You can help us reach the science teachers, baseball coaches, janitors, and school bus drivers so they understand that it is an important part of their job descriptions to model how to respond to anti-gay slurs.

You can help us give administrators and guidance counselors support and tools to launch in-depth dialogues and school-wide commitments that address bias and prejudice in serious, constructive ways, and not just through discipline.

Please take a moment to share GroundSpark’s Respect for All Project with everyone you know who cares about youth. We’ve brought together our best tools on addressing bias, particularly homophobia. All we need now is you to join our team and spread the word.

Just click here and you’ll see how easy it is to get started.

We’re committed to change. Join us.

Debra Chasnoff
President and Senior Producer

In April, Debra Chasnoff had an op-ed published in the Huffington Post about the underlying gender issues that haven’t been discussed very much in the community response to the suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince. We received a wide range of responses to the article, some published on the Huffington Post website, some on GroundSpark’s facebook page, others by email. As always, these issues, and our perspective on them, reach a wide range of people who connect to youth in different ways.

Here are some excerpts from the responses:

“Great article!!  I am so glad you wrote that.  Finally, someone is addressing the core of the bullying — youth are merely acting out the values of society.  It’s striking that most acts of bullying center around a boy – whether it’s competition for a boy, as in Phoebe’s case, or the accusation of being gay, such as in Carl Walker Hoover’s case…. I love how you recognize the ‘problem’ as being institutional/societal and the solution as being educational.”

Image from "Let's Get Real"

“Thank you! – I live in Springfield, MA, I sit in a men’s group in here with men whose children go to the South Hadley schools. I have been watching this closely – with sadness and anger. There are good people doing great work out there – like you! And I think that it is time for adult men to go into the shadows of their own adolescence and learn how to help boys become mature, compassionate men. I believe that there is a stunning lack of emotional intelligence and basic empathy in our modeling for teenagers – and this case demonstrates how stuck we are. We continue to use ‘carrot and stick’ approaches when these methods of motivating have been shown OVER and OVER to FAIL in psychological & social studies… Our culture is driven by adolescent boy mentality – consume, objectify, compete, detach, blame, hide, attack. Boys and girls need to be listened to, accepted, acknowledged, mentored and blessed … every day. In my opinion there aren’t enough adults in our society who know how to do this for each other, let alone for children. I think we need a new movement of adult males. Men who are willing to do the hard emotional inquiry it takes so we can raise the next generations to be healthy, safe and mature men rather than boys in men’s bodies. Ready? www.openmen.org or www.mankindproject.org.”

“Arresting and sentencing the students who criminally conspired to torment and abuse a young Irish immigrant will not solve any problems, you are correct in that. However, should the legal system turn a blind eye when peer abuse/bullying includes stalking, statutory rape (it’s a law on the books, and a reason why girls under 16 are called jailbait), and criminal harassment? Do kids get a get out of jail free card for abusing a fellow student? Actions have consequences, sometimes legal ones. Bullying is now 24/7 with social media like formspring.me, facebook, twitter, and texting. Is it time we consider peer abuse to be as harmful to our kids as child abuse.”

“Dear Debra, Thank you for this email.  I am a parent of a gay son (who is now thriving in SF as an IT project manager), have a local parent support group in Hawaii called Da Moms, and do projects for community outreach and education on GLBT.  We have used It’s Elementary in the past with the state department of education and am working to get greater interest and use of your harassment/bullying, and of Straightlaced videos.  I am lining up funding and a working committee to hold a 2 day conference for health and social service providers in about a year – and hope to bring in resources from the mainland too.  I plan to make a trip to SF in September and perhaps visit Groundspark then.  You do wonderful work!”

Image from "Straightlaced"

“I am an elementary teacher. Very little bullying ever happens in front of me. A LOT happens when adults aren’t looking. There is no perfect way to deal with it. Punishing the bullies makes the victim a bigger target…or provides reason to unleash their henchmen. Shielding the victim would require them being with an adult every second they are at school…totally impractical and it puts another target on their backs. …Ms. Chasnoff suggests schools take a more active role in helping students develop better skills in this area, but the girl who said, “We never get to talk about this stuff,” is correct. Curriculum is all tied to teaching the standards in order to cover the material that will be on the state test. Until educator’s heads are removed from the test guillotine, all the little social extras aren’t going to be done….”

“As you know, there are a cadre of trainers who are ready to go to any school to educate faculty about these issues. I am one of the National Educaiton Association trainers and we use your films in our presentations. I believe prevention solves a lot of suffering. If you hear of anyone who needs a training for their staff you can contact PSathrum@NEA.org. Good luck and thanks for taking on this fight.”

“Thank you for making the connection to the Prince death; I think these reminders of relevance are very important. Our middle schoolers know and talk about these events, often seeing them as out there, as if there were little likelihood that their own unkindnesses were of a different order. ”

“I agree that arresting a few students will not stop bullying at that particular school or any other. I have been following this case closely and it shows that something awful must happen in our society to gain any attention on the issue of school bullying. Despite the attention, the response is not effective; like every aggressive or violent act that occurs, someone must be blamed and punished. As a public health student, my hope is for prevention. The problem is that prevention is not valued in our society because it does not produce readily observable effects like throwing someone in jail does.”

I was recently out in western Massacusetts for screenings of Straightlaced and Let’s Get Real. At one of them, the superintendent and assistant superintendent of the South Hadley, Massachusetts school district were in attendance. They were very moved by the films and said they thought they would be very helpful to their work in the district. Bullying, gender, and homophobia must be on their minds a lot right now, because of the suicide of 15-year old Phoebe Prince, who attended high school in their town. Since those screenings I have been following the Prince case closely and today have an opinion piece about it published in The Huffington Post.

We are reprinting it here as well.

Arresting Teenagers Doesn’t Solve Gender Pressures

“It is completely understandable why there has been so much pressure on government authorities in South Hadley, Massachusetts to find someone to blame for 15-year old Phoebe Prince’s suicide last month.

But the issues involved in this case, and in the case of Carl Walker Hoover, the ten-year old boy who committed suicide this time last year a few miles away in Springfield, Massachusetts, are far more complex and cultural than a tale of bullies run amuck who need to be dealt with as criminals.

We can lock up perpetrators and institute all the anti-bullying rules and policies we want, but unless the responsible adults in every community–educators, parents, administrators, and counselors–find a way to open up real, meaningful dialogue about gender and sexuality based pressures and bias–what happened to Phoebe and to Carl is likely to continue.

As a documentary filmmaker who has made several films about youth, bullying and prejudice, I have had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of diverse high school students about the internal struggles they face every day to feel good about themselves in our culture.

Invariably over half the students in every high school classroom I’ve visited–private or public, in rural, suburban, or inner city communities–have jumped at the chance to talk about the pressures they contend with which are connected to societal norms about gender and sexuality.

“Please don’t go,” a female sophomore begged when we visited her history class. “We never get to talk about this stuff but it’s what I think about all the time, every day.”

Phoebe Prince committed suicide after constant bullying at school.

When I read about Phoebe, I thought of the many female students we’ve interviewed who have confided about the daily stress they face trying to make sense of the mixed messages they receive from the media, their families, and their peers about how a young woman is supposed to look and act.

Young women are constantly told that their value as human beings is determined by how sexy they are, how much skin they reveal, how close to some ideal of perfection their body curves match. And then they are chastised for crossing some invisible line and “going too far.”

One high school senior told me about the spiral of pressures that led her to turn to serious drugs. “I feel that people are judging me all the time,” she said. “I’m just paranoid, like, what are they thinking, do they think my boobs are big, do they think they are small, do they think my butt’s big?”

If girls fail to tow the line, they are invariably subjected to negative slurs and accusations connected to their sexuality–”slut,” “whore,” “bitch” if they go too far one way, “dyke” if they go the other.

And when it comes to actual sexual activity, it is very challenging to grapple with our culture’s double standard. “Like when a man runs around or sleeps with a lot of women, ” one girl complained. “He’s a player. All the boys give him his props, and they go brag about it. But when a woman tends to sleep around, she’s a whore, a slut or a ripper.”

Similarly, when I read about Carl Walker Hoover last year, I thought about the boys I interviewed who have shared their worries about how they dress, how physically affectionate they can be with their male friends, the expectations they face to lose their virginity and have lots of sexual partners, the way they talk, the way they hold their bodies when they walk–all to fit some unarticulated norm about the proper way to be masculine. They are painfully aware of how one little slip in behavior or appearance could lead to being the recipient of relentless anti-gay slurs.

“Having your sexuality questioned is a very powerful tool in controlling someone,” one male high school junior told me. “And I think that’s mainly why people say (things about that). Because it’s so easy to control someone by questioning something that they don’t know, by making fun of something they can’t help.”

Arresting those who bully may bring some brief consolation to one community. But it does nothing to create a culture where every single student is able to come of age in a supportive, nurturing way.

We need to demand that our school curricula help all students understand that they do not need to play into these destructive cultural messages and they can be allies to each other as they navigate these muddy cultural waters. And we need to work together to ensure that all young people have the space and respect to develop their sexuality and gender expression in authentic, safe ways that match who they really are inside.”

Our whole staff at GroundSpark is working hard to help everyone concerned about “bullying” to dig deeper and start dealing with the sexism and homophobia that fuels so much of it. Please get involved — share this article with your friends and colleagues, and consider making a donation to GroundSpark as well.

Last year I went to Greensboro, North Carolina to screen Straightlaced, It’s Elementary, It’s Still Elementary, Let’s Get Real, and That’s a Family! for several different groups of educators in the community. As often happens after these events, attendees left very inspired to take the next step in their communities to put these films to work so that the culture can change to create more safe, inclusive, and successful school environments. People who never before thought that they could take steps to pro-actively address homophobic and other kinds of bias change right before our eyes, and become empowered to take action. Take a look at some of the audience’s reaction to the film:

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Audience reactions to the Greensboro, NC premiere of
Straightlaced — How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up in 2009.
Join our Straightlaced group on facebook!

So, I am was very excited to learn that last week, educators in Greensboro did indeed take it to the next level. Annette Green, one of the main organizers, sent us this report:

These were words written on evaluations by the Guilford County Schools teachers, counselors, social workers, media specialists and administrators to describe the Respect In Our Schools training they attended on February 27. The six hours spent at Wesley Long Education Center were jam packed with thought provoking presentations, exercises and discussions to help them understand the issues involved with creating safe and welcoming schools, and give them some tools to do it. GSAFE, along with PFLAG and other community groups organized the training, which was largely sponsored by a grant from Guilford Green Foundation. Presenters were volunteers from GSAFE, Equality NC, GCS, Guilford College and the NC Association of Social Workers .

In addition to learning what state law and GCS policy require in terms of protecting LGBT students, training participants viewed films from GroundSpark’s “Respect For All Series” (by filmmaker Debra Chasnoff) and practiced how these could be applied to various grade levels in the schools. They also worked in teams to identify problems and create Action Plans for their schools.

There was tremendous excitement and a sense of empowerment among participants to take what they learned back to their classrooms. Some other comments on evaluations included:

WE WILL!!!

Hello to all the friends and fans of GroundSpark. I’m the new guy on the board of directors. Brittney Shepherd, our staff producer, asked me to introduce myself and answer the question: Why did you join the board?

Meet me, David Kundtz, GroundSpark's newest board member!

To learn more about my background and and our other amazing members of our board of directors, go here.

I’ll begin with John Hume and David Trimble, contemporary heroes of mine. Both politicians, Hume is from the Republic of Ireland and Trimble from Northern Ireland. They are rightly accredited with bringing about peace to the long and violent conflict in Northern Ireland with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Here’s a quote from Hume:

“Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace – respect for diversity.”

And here’s a quote from Trimble:

“There are two traditions in Northern Ireland. There are two main religious denominations. But there is only one true moral denomination. And it wants peace.”

We all want peace. Everywhere in the world. It’s possibly the most sought after and the most elusive of all human desires. And if you’re like me, you’ve often wondered, But what can I do to bring about peace? The thought can be overwhelming; I’m only one little person with very limited resources.

Which brings me, finally, to the answer to Brittney’s question: Why did you join the board? To increase and support and create peace. GroundSpark is a practical and real embodiment of the conviction that, in Hume’s words, “respect for diversity is an essential way to peace.” There will always be many factions, identity groups, and denominations but, in the words of Trimble, “there is only one true moral denomination. And it wants peace.” The work of GroundSpark is something we can all do to bring about peace. “Respect for All” says it all.

That’s the main and underlying reason for accepting the invitation to join the board. But there are many more. A few of them: Being part of a group of amazingly talented and caring staff and board members; being part of an organization respected and influential throughout the country and world; helping to give voice to children and families who are often invisible and ignored. Grateful and honored is how I am feeling as we look to the opportunities offered by the challenges of hard economic times and changing cultural realities. GroundSpark is doing immensely important work. May it continue and prosper.

Thanks for the chance to share some thoughts.

Sincelerly,
David Kundtz

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Wedding video of Del Martin and Phylis Lyon.

One year after Del Martin’s passing, we here at GroundSpark would like to remember her and celebrate her life. Here she is at her wedding to Phyllis Lyon in May 2008. Our thoughts go out to Del’s family as we remember this incredible hero and amazing woman.

Just a note to say that we have some great new Respect for All Project trailers that are now up on YouTube and the New Day Films website. If you’ve been curious about these films in the past and need a reminder of their power, these trailers are a great reminder! Check them out and let us know what you think!

A few weeks ago, I received an email from one of the teachers who helped us find some of the students in Straightlaced, letting me know that Bonnie Tinker, the founder of Love Makes a Family in Portland, Oregon had died. Here is an article about the accident. 

Bonnie, who was 61, was hit by a truck while biking in Virginia. I think I first met Bonnie in 2002, when Love Makes a Family helped organize the Oregon premiere of our film That’s a Family! Over the years she also interviewed me for her radio show, and always lent a hand to get the word out about GroundSpark’s work. 

Bonnie was a tireless advocate on many issues, but what I admired about her in particular was her dedication to speaking out about race and its intersection with family diversity issues. I am grateful to Adrienne Ratner for bringing this article to my attention in which Bonnie protested how 20/20 “edited out” the African-American members of her multiracial lesbian-headed family!

We hope to be organizing a Portland screening of Straightlaced in the fall and hope there will be an opportunity to honor Bonnie’s contributions at that time.

One Wedding and a Revolution has been accepted for the 4th Annual Gero-Ed Film Festival held at the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Annual Program Meeting. The festival features films that show positive images of older adults or that highlight aging issues.

Since 2006 the Gero-Ed Film Festival, which is sponsored by the CSWE Gero-Ed Center, has introduced social work educators, students, and leaders to important films, such as One Wedding and a Revolution. With remarkable footage of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, long-time lesbian activists, marrying on their 51st anniversary, this film demonstrates that marriage equality affects people of all ages.

GroundSpark looks forward to having our film featured again this year!

GroundSpark Needs Volunteers!

We are looking for a few special people to help with mailings, processing film sales, data entry and database maintenance (must know Filemaker). If you are in the Bay Area and can commit to a few hours per week, please join us!

Please contact Zeena Batliwalla, Development Associate, to get involved.

Great news from the Alameda School Board! Last night, the board approved their LGBT-inclusive bullying prevention curriculum, despite the outspoken conservative critics from outside the district who flooded their town hall meetings. Their approval contains no opt-out provision, which means every student in the district will receive instruction on learning empathy and respect for difference. While opponents of the curriculum are now threatening lawsuits, the board heard support from folks like you, and knows they have the strength of their community to move forward creating classrooms that are safe and welcoming for every student.

You can read more about the decision in today’s San Francisco Chronicle.

Debra Chasnoff was on the Laura Ingraham show on May 19th where she debated Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute about the Alameda School District’s plan to include sexual orientation non-discrimination in their anti-bullying programs.

Chasnoff stated, “Anti-gay harassment is increasingly contributing to some of the worst cases of bullying and of mental health problems in schools. I just want to say really really clearly, I applaud the school district in Alameda for taking pro-active action because in the last month alone there have been two children…who hung themselves in their own closets at home because of suffering from anti-gay bullying that the schools were doing nothing about.”

The monthly magazine, Lesbian News, featured a fun interview with me this past April. We discussed everything from why I decided to start making films, to my family and GroundSpark’s latest film–Straightlaced!

While the article isn’t available online, you can view the first page here and the second page here.

The find out more about Lesbian News, please visit their website, www.theLNMag.com

News from around the world that directly connects to the issues GroundSpark works on in our Respect for All Project!

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News from around the world that directly connects to the issues GroundSpark works on in our Respect for All Project!

This week is a special news roundup featuring the latest blog post from Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, regarding yet another tragic suicide of a young person due to bullying.
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News from around the world that directly connects to the issues GroundSpark works on in our Respect for All Project!

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Our op ed got published in the Huffington Post about the Eric Mohat suicide, Matthew Shepard and Straightlaced.

Here’s a link to the page on the Huffington Post, or you can read it below:

On Wednesday, 250 educators and students from Laramie, Wyoming opened the 10th Matthew Shepard Symposium for Social Justice by watching the film Straightlaced? How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up. Before the screening, a reporter asked me how today’s climate has changed since Matthew’s brutal murder in 1998. “It’s deceptive,” I said. “We see gay characters on TV regularly now, but after spending five years interviewing teenagers about their experiences with gender-based stereotypes, I’ve learned that popular culture doesn’t necessarily translate into school climates improving around this issue.”

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News from around the world that directly connects to the issues GroundSpark works on in our Respect for All Project!

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If there is anything that the kids in Thats A Family! teach us, it’s that it doesn’t matter where your parents are from, or what gender they are, but it’s growing up in a loving home that makes a family. For many young people with same-sex parents, one parent is prohibited from being with their family because they are not eligible to immigrate.
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News from around the world that directly connects to the issues GroundSpark works on in our Respect for All Project!

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EDGE, “the largest network of local Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) news and entertainment portals in the world,” interviewed Debra Chasnoff about her work to end bullying and harassment in schools and featured the piece in EDGE Boston. The article highlights not only Straightlaced, but the work of GroundSpark and GLSEN, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

To read the article, please click here

Last November, the GroundSpark team was in Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee with our Respect For All Project workshops. We heard teachers and social workers and counselors tell us of their desire to help the youth they work with overcome prejudice and hate. They also told us how a proposition to mandate english-only policies was dividing their community. The policy was eventually defeated, but we were shocked to hear this week that our allies in Tennessee will now have to heal from another divisive bill introduced in their state legislature.

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After experiencing a controversy over a small school district’s use of our family diversity film that amplified into a national news story, GroundSpark realized that the LGBT safe schools movement needed more coordination to create an effective response when our efforts come under attack by the right wing. With this vision, we called together leaders of dozens of national organizations, many of which had rarely discussed issues related to LGBT issues in schools.
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News from around the world that directly connects to the issues GroundSpark works on in our Respect for All Project!
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I wanted to let you all know about our latest milestone in GroundSpark’s online presence–we’ve reached over 500 “friends” on the Straightlaced Facebook page.

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IN THE LIFE, which recently featured It’s STILL Elementary is commemorating Women’s History Month by focusing its lens on the representation of LGBT women in television and cinema.

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GroundSpark will be recognized this Friday by Community United Against Violence (CUAV) at their annual benefit gala. CUAV will be celebrating 30 years of “supporting LGBTQQ survivors of hate violence and domestic violence, and educating our broader communities.” We are thrilled to be honored for our work by such a great organization and are proud to stand alongside fellow honorees: Tom Ammiano & Hank Wilson, Early Gay Safety Advocates; Fresh Meat Productions and INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence.

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News from around the world that directly connects to the issues GroundSpark works on in our Respect for All Project!
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Great news! GroundSpark’s Respect For All Project films are now available for streaming right onto your computer! If you would like to watch It’s Elementary, It’s STILL Elementary, That’s A Family! or Let’s Get Real online you can–just go to www.newdaydigital.com and look for any of our films by title.
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