One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is calling donors to say thank you for their gifts. I can’t call everyone, but when someone makes a significant gift that’s a big jump from their previous contributions, I try to be sure to pick up the phone. Last week I called Leslie and David Lagerstrom in Edina, MN. All I knew about them is that they had driven into Minneapolis a couple of years ago to attend the Twin Cities premiere of Straightlaced—How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up, our documentary about teenagers grappling with pressures to conform to gender norms.
I had to leave a voicemail for them and then received this from Leslie:
Dear Debra,
I tried to return your call but wasn’t able to reach you so I thought I’d drop you an email. You had called to thank my husband and me for our donation to your wonderful organization, which was our pleasure!
You also mentioned that you were curious about our interest in your organization, which I am happy to share. Our 15 year-old son Sam is transgender. Born female, he has told us ever since he could speak that he was really a boy, and when he was 12 years old he began to transition. As you know from your work, life for kids like this is incredibly hard – society seems to have such a hard time grasping this concept and therefore what they do not understand they must persecute.
Sam has experienced so much bullying and rejection over the years, yet he remains strong and true to himself. Quite honestly, I don’t know how he does it. He is an ‘A’ student in one of the best school districts in the nation (Edina, MN). We investigated switching schools when the bullying was at its worst, but when Sam posed the question to us, “…why should I have to be the one to leave?” we decided to allow him to stay put. He is a member of the high school debate team, recently winning the JV State of MN tournament and in the winter he volunteers to teach downhill skiing to developmentally disabled youth. He’s a good kid but it is hard for people to see past the fact that he is transgender. That is why we believe your work is SO important! The more we can educate society about LGBT issues, the more likely we are to reduce and hopefully remove the stigma surrounding these communities. At least this is our hope.
I started a blog last July that chronicles our experience raising Sam – you can find it at www.transparenthood.net.
Keep up the great work at Groundspark! It is appreciated more than you know!
Since we released Straightlaced, we’ve seen more and more parents become visible advocates for their transgender and gender non-conforming children. Sam’s story makes us more determined than ever to get Straightlaced screened in as many high schools as possible this year.
As the organizers were closing up the main meeting room Friday night at the Northwest LGBTQ Youth Conference for Hope, in Meridian, Idaho, one of them approached me and whispered, “there’s a young woman in the audience who is in tears and she’s asked to speak with you.”
I looked up and saw her. Cute with spiky blond hair, her eyes red from crying. I had noticed her earlier, burrowed into the arms of a tall transgendered woman who was slated to speak on a panel the following day.
The room cleared out and Kyle (not her real name) finally stopped sobbing. She told me she was going into eighth grade next fall and that she just didn’t know what to do. “I’ve lost so many friends, just because of the way I am.”
She had asked for me because I had just facilitated a discussion after screening our film It’s STILL Elementary as the kickoff for the conference. It tells the story of why Helen Cohen and I made It’s Elementary—Talking About Gay Issues in School back in 1996, what happened to many of the students in that original film, and how we had coped with vicious attacks from conservative right wing organizations that had tried to stop the film from airing on public television. (The only other time I have been to Idaho is when I came in 2006 to interview the staff at Idaho public TV about how they handled the pressures around the broadcast.)
The group had stayed afterwards for almost two hours after the credits rolled. It’s STILL Elementaryopened up a floodgate of topics they wanted to discuss: Idaho politics (because some of the most heated battles were right here in their state), coming out, organizing Gay-Straight Alliances in schools, reading books with two moms, gratitude for supportive parents, and a wide array of teens’ experiences in Idaho’s high schools today.
“It’s a Christian school,” Kyle explained. “I just wish there was something at my school that was like you showed in the movie.” At her school, there is no GSA, no curriculum that fosters awareness of and respect for LGBT people, and not a single teacher at the school who she could imagine going to with her pain and loneliness. She said she knows there are many kids in the school who are LGBT or Q, but there is nothing to connect or support them.
“My mom is great though,” she said. “She’s here with me.” We agreed that maybe her mom could speak with other parents at the school and see if they could get something to happen.
The next day we screened Straightlaced, and when the audience questions were just about over, a middle-aged man took the microphone and haltingly told us that the part of the film that affected him the most was one of the last interview clips, when a student looks into the camera and reveals that he could lose his Eagle Scout status with the Boy Scouts because of coming out on camera in the film.
“My son was on track to get his Eagle Scout,” he said in almost a whisper, “but he wouldn’t do it because he was afraid they would do something to him. Why? Why would they do anything to my son?” No one in the room made a sound.
“He has all the leadership qualities they want Eagle Scouts to have.” It was clear that his heart had been broken to see his talented son back down from his goals because of the Boy Scouts’ homophobia.
I later learned that this father, who is Mormon, had attended the conference at his son’s request. “It’s amazing that he’s here,” the organizers told me.
When I meet people—like this father, like Kyle and her mom, and like Emilie Jackson-Edney, who proudly shared her experiences changing gender in the workshop after mine—in places as conservative as Meridian Idaho, I feel the arc of change bending. These are all good Christian people, who are struggling with their churches, their schools, and their community groups to ensure that all children are safe and loved.
“Do you think if you made It’s Elementary today that you would face as much opposition as you did in the early ‘90’s?” one person asked. I’m not sure, but I don’t think so.
We’re inching forward, but there is no going back.
Last week, the White House hosted a conference on combating bullying. The same day, both houses of Congress reintroduced the Student Non-Discrimination Act to protect the rights of LGBT and gender non-conforming students in our nation’s schools.
We can’t think of better timing to proudly announce our national partners for the expanded outreach and education campaign for documentary film, Straightlaced—How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up, about the pressures teens face today because of gender role expectations and homophobia.
We’re honored to have such an esteemed group of organizations working with us to share Straightlaced as a critical tool to help improve school social climates, particularly when it comes to addressing stigma and social pressures connected to gender roles, sexuality, and sexual orientation.
Anti Defamation League
ANSWER
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence
COLAGE
Facing History & Ourselves
Gender Spectrum
Girls For A Change
Girls Incorporated
GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network
Gay-Straight Alliance Network
National Youth Advocacy Coalition
National Center for Lesbian Rights
True Colors
PFLAG: Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays
Safe Schools Coalition
Teaching Tolerance
They are helping spread the word about the film, showcasing it at their conferences, writing about it in their newsletters and websites, promoting its distribution with partner discounts, and working with GroundSpark in a variety of exciting ways.
You can help too. Is there a school you know that could use a copy? A social service agency or community group? Does your organization want to become a Straightlaced partner?
Hats off to the Obamas for drawing national attention to the problem of bullying in our school communities. Hosting a conference at the White House to draw more media attention to bullying is an excellent step forward.
Like most symbolic White House gatherings, though, this conference recommended some good steps forward but also carefully avoided some important strategies that need to be put in place if we are ever going to truly stop bullying.
Here’s my report card on what I heard on the live feed from the White House Thursday.
Raising the level of public awareness about the importance of addressing bullying in schools:
A+
“Bullying is not just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up,” the president said. “We can take steps — all of us — to help prevent bullying and create a climate in our schools in which all of our children can feel safe; a climate in which they all can feel like they belong.”
I couldn’t agree with him more.
Drawing attention to the fact that bias issues underlie many bullying incidents.
B
The president deserves credit for acknowledging that many students are targeted because of some aspect of their identity. “[Bullying] is also more likely to affect kids that are seen as different,” the President said, “whether it’s because of the color of their skin, the clothes they wear, the disability they may have, or sexual orientation.”
He acknowledged the families of two youths who committed suicide last year, one of them, Carl Walker Hoover, because of being tormented by homophobic harassment.
But he failed to explain that bias-infused harassment affects all youth, not just those who have are seen as “different.” Anti-LGBT stigma and the pressure to conform to gender norms, for example, affects all girls and boys regardless of how they may identify sexually at any point in their lives. Calling for system wide efforts for curricula that address rampant anti-LGBT stigma, racial and ethnic stereotypes, mental and physical disabilities, religious differences, and pressures to conform to gender norms.
C
Acknowledging the families of those who endured bias-based harassment is not the same as calling for pro-active education that prevents that bias from developing in the first place. It is definitely possible to pull school communities together to take initiative against bias. I know we can because we have been helping to do that for years with GroundSpark’s Respect for All Project.
Shifting the focus from individual responses to bullying to communitywide culture-changing ones.
B-
The selection of experts on the panel that spoke after Mr. and Mrs. Obama were focused primarily on psychological and behavioral factors, which, of course, contribute to bullying. But only one, Professor George Sugai, encouraged the discussion to focus on sociological factors, namely changing the culture in schools.
Advocating for funding and programs that train every teacher on how to address bullying and the bias that underlies it.
C
One speaker mentioned that we need more teacher training. While another commented on the fact that while 40 states have anti-cyber bullying laws, none of them have provided funding to enforce them. Lack of training for individual teachers and for school staff as a whole is probably the single most significant stumbling block to changing school culture.
Moving from rhetoric to action
B
The White House announced several programs that Facebook, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and others are launching to step up ways to address bullying.
And kudos are deserved for the federal government’s launch of www.stopbullying.gov, which amazingly includes a section for LGBT youth. But the website has no resources to help schools and educators address bias issues, or to help train teachers or to help with a systematic approach to change school climate.
Overall Grade Point Average
B
Areas for Improvement
1. Tie federal funding for education to mandatory anti-bias and anti-bullying training for school personnel that focuses on school wide culture change, not just stronger discipline.
2. Bravely call for more pro-active curricula that help students learn about why all kinds of stigma, including homophobia, are harmful to everyone and how they can be allies to stop it.
Mr. President, you made significant progress during this grading period, and we hope you can realize your full potential in the semesters to come.
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 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.
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.
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.
As a documentary filmmaker, it is so rewarding when your work is used in communities affected by the very issues your films raise. Every year we hear from school staff, community leaders, religious groups, youth and parents about the ways that GroundSpark films help local efforts to reduce prejudice, increase empathy, and open hearts and minds. We wanted to share one story that exemplifies a growing trend across the country in which school districts are being required to act in response to lawsuits from students claiming unchecked anti-gay harassment and gender bias.
In 2009, the Vallejo City Unified School District in northern CA settled a lawsuit with Rochelle Hamilton, a high school student who was harassed by teachers and students because she was an out lesbian. As part of the settlement, the district was required to provide mandatory training for teachers, staff and students about preventing and identifying anti-gay harassment and discrimination.
We were thrilled to learn that, to fulfill these requirements, school officials, like many others around the country, have chosen to use The Respect For All Project films and curriculum guides as a central part of their anti-bias training for both adults and youth. As a result, every school in the district will own and use copies of That’s a Family!, Let’s Get Real and Straightlaced. In addition,It’s Elementary-Talking About Gay Issues in Schoolwill be used in teacher/staff trainings .
Sharon Rose Babot, Coordinator of Instructional Services is leading the Vallejo school district’s efforts to ensure that their schools are safe and inclusive for all students including LGBTQ identified students. Through GroundSpark’s Technical Assistance and Training program Sharon found support and guidance to help her develop and organize district-wide teacher/staff trainings. Sharon shared with us that she found our films and accompanying guides to be particularly useful, “ because the films are in ‘student voices,’ their impact and message are much more powerful than an adult giving information about law, issues, etc. around LGBTQ awareness.” She thanked The Respect for All Project for “providing us with the tools and the curriculum guides that will allow us to present powerful and thought provoking information around respectful interaction with all human beings.”
In Vallejo, teacher/staff trainings have already begun, and schools are expected to implement programs for students this fall. In the future, we hope that more districts and schools will join those in the know and act before lawsuits are filed, as a way to prepare and educate their communities about LGBTQ harassment and prejudice.
Wanda opened the workshop by asking the group to do something we are rarely asked to do in our everyday lives as adults: Think back to when you were a child and try to remember a message that you received about what it meant to be a “proper man” or a “proper woman.” She asked participants to think about what their chosen message was and try to hear it in the source’s voice—was it their mother’s voice, their teacher’s voice, the television, the radio, or maybe their pastor?
Wanda Holland Green and Kirsten Gustavson
Unearthing the messages about who and what they should be in the world, and locating the many different sources of these messages, was incredibly revealing. “I wanted the audience to have an introspective approach to the topic of gender,” Wanda says. But she also wanted people to bring their insights into their classrooms. She goes on: “So what does it mean to create a safe, inclusive learning environment in our classrooms when gender messages come from so many multiple sources, unique to each individual’s experience? If diversity is a component of excellence, how do we take into account the varying experiences of gender expectations that all of our students face?”
The answer to this question is obviously complex, but one important piece is surely Wanda and Kirsten’s approach of asking educators to think back to when they themselves were young. “Straightlaced allowed us to reconnect our professional work on diversity and inclusion with the very real “stuff” of lived human experience. By sharing our own feelings and stories about gender, we remembered how powerful the messages are, and many left the session energized and excited to help our young people better understand their own experiences,” Kirsten noted. Sharing our personal stories allows us to see the similarities and differences in what we all experience and offers a chance for dialogue to grow. Certainly the young people in Straightlaced show us what a powerful force stories can be.
Here’s GroundSpark’s challenge to you: Tell us your personal story. Leave a comment about a message you received when you were younger about what being a “proper man” or a “proper woman” means.
I’m Sukh, an intern for GroundSpark and a student of public health interested in the issue of school bullying as a public health concern and novel ways of preventing it.
Two weeks ago on KGO News Radio, I heard David Lazarus discussing the topic of bullying with listeners. Some questions that came up include, what makes bullies bullies? What makes victims victims? How can victims defend themselves? Many listeners pointed to self-defense classes as a way not only to build self-esteem, but as a technique for protection in case a bullying incident arose.
Bob Gordon, a member of my cohort in the San Francisco State University MPH program, emailed in and suggested that listeners watch a copy of Let’s Get Real and David Lazarus shared this advice with listeners…Thanks Bob!
So, can karate classes combat bullying? In the field of public health, there is a lot of emphasis on PRIMARY PREVENTION, which is targeting the entire population to prevent a negative outcome (i.e. bullying). While self-defense has its benefits and can be helpful in many ways, I don’t think these classes are the way to prevent bullying. Rather I feel that self-defense is a method of treatment—after the roles of bully and victim have been identified and the relationship between victim and bully has been established.
Methods such as those of GroundSpark’s are ones that are really effective in identifying the root of the problem. GroundSpark films Let’s Get Real and Straightlaced touch on the issue of bias, which takes form in racism, classism, sexism, and various other isms. Creating awareness of diversity and highlighting the need for respect can create an atmosphere of inclusiveness and acceptance. As a result, children can develop healthy relationships with each other that don’t involve bullying in the first place and karate can be valued as an extracurricular activity rather than a necessity.
GroundSpark’s work in Lake County, California is featured in an important story on today’s “California Report” airing on public radio throughout the state at 8pm today.
Reporter Scott Shafer wanted to do a follow up story on the two-year anniversary of the tragic murder of Ventura County openly gay eighth grader Lawrence King. With a grant from the California Endowment and the Ford Foundation, GroundSpark’s Respect for All Project (RFAP) has been reaching out in Ventura County to encourage the schools to do pro-active education with teachers and students to prevent bias-based harassment.
We also told Scott about the amazing work happening north of the Bay Area in Lake County, where we have been supporting a network of educators, parents, and activists to strengthen the county’s efforts to be pro-active and to implement comprehensive anti-bias plans in help prevent bias and violence.
Over the last two years, Cristy Chung, our community programs director, and Barry Chersky, one of our longtime faciliator/trainers, have helped community leaders conduct a county-wide assessment and develop a blueprint for taking more concrete steps to create safer and more welcoming schools.
GroundSpark’s Respect for All Project provides films, curricular resources and professional development training programs to support school communities to be safe, inclusive, and welcoming for all students. For help in your community, visit www.groundspark.org or contact community programs director, Cristy Chung.
Last week we received an email from a woman named Monique Marshall. Apparently she had attended the Straightlaced premiere in Los Angeles last March. Monique purchased a copy of the film and then took it home to watch with her ten-year-old daughter, Moreau.
Moreau wrote a letter to T’Uh from STRAIGHTLACED
T’Uh, “the Sporty Hot Dog Girl” in STRAIGHTLACED
After seeing the film, Moreau asked her mother if she could write a letter to one of the young people in Straightlaced. This is Moreau’s letter to “Sporty Hot Dog Girl:”
In the film, after constant badgering from others to look different and act “the way ‘young ladies’ are supposed to,” T’Uh stands firmly by her choice to look different and be herself in the world–”I do what I want. I like being different.”
I went ahead and sent the letter to T’Uh over the weekend and she had this to say in response: “The letter touched my heart and gave me chills. I’m going to write to my new buddy right away.”
Thank you Monique, for sharing Straightlaced with your daughter! The culture change that we need for our young people to be their fullest and brightest selves will take the work of many–especially parents.
Last Saturday was a miserably cold day with dreadful weather conditions in Lexington, KY. While many locals camped out at home with hopes of catching the University of Kentucky basketball game on TV later that afternoon, another group gathered at Kentucky Theater in the early part of the morning in great anticipation of the state’s premiere of GroundSpark’s award-winning film Straightlaced—How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up. By the time 10:00am rolled around, over 400 people crowded into the theater, finding any available room on the floor to sit.
“I had no idea there would be so many people who were in interested in this film,” says Travis Myles of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance who introduced the film at the theater. What’s most interesting is the story of how the event came to happen and all the players who made it into that theater last Saturday.
Myles had never heard of GroundSpark’s work until he met Debra Chasnoff last summer at the annual meeting of the Equality Federation, the national network of state-based organizations working for LGBT equality. Debra had been invited to screen the film, and our other anti-bullying documentary, Let’s Get Real, because of the powerful role the films can play in helping states pass comprehensive anti-bullying laws. “I was interested because I think film is one of the best ways to help change the hearts and minds of the key players we need to reach in this movement,” says Travis.
After the showing, Travis approached Debra and “she told me about the local significance and relationship that Lexington played in the pivotal scene in Straightlaced, and immediately put me contact with local folks who were working hard to screen the film for the Lexington community.”
From there, the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, and The Jesse Higginbotham Technology Trust and the family of Hannah Landers, a student in the film who died in a car accident, along with the Fred Mills of the Kentucky Theatre and the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, the Lexington GLSO GSA, the Voice of Silence and Dunbar’s No Day But Today hosted this spectacularly moving event.
In the audience, over half whom were high school aged youth, people were sitting on each others’ laps to make room for everyone. The audience was diverse, including a select group of young women from the Florence Crittenton home, a group home dedicated to help pregnant and parenting youth in their journey toward empowerment and independence. “It was amazing,” says Rebecca Woloch, a local parent who was one of the main organizers. “Thank you for allowing us the chance to do this great thing for Hannah and Josh (the student in Straightlaced who committed suicide) and everyone who has ever had to fight to be accepted for who they really are.”
Richard Landers, Hannah’s father, was also quite moved. He, like the rest of the audience, was inspired to keep organizing with Straightlaced. “Several parents told me that they wanted to have the film shown at churches, schools, and placed in school libraries. I am loaning one of our copies to the principal at Hannah’s school with hopes he can arrange to show it to students and/or use it for staff training.”
For us here at GroundSpark, that would bring our work on Straightlaced full circle. In the film Hannah talks about hearing students in the halls say things like “It’s about time that fag killed himself” after Josh’s suicide. We can think of no better outcome from this event than to have Straightlaced screened at this very same high school, and we look forward to working with the folks who braved the snow last Saturday to keep making change in Kentucky.
At every screening of Straightlaced where there is a Q and A afterwards, someone always, understandably, asks, “Who is Hannah Landers?” Because at the end of the film, a title comes up that says:
In memory of Hannah Landers
September 28, 1990 – May 6, 2008
In May of 2008, Sue Chen, my co-producer, had booked a plane ticket for Hannah and her mom to fly out to meet us in San Francisco so we could film a second interview with her. But days before they were supposed to come, Sue received a horrible phone call, and learned that Hannah had been killed in a car accident. We all were devastated.
We finished the film without that extra interview and all knew immediately that we would dedicate Straightlaced to Hannah’s memory, and by extension, to the spirit of her activism.
Then we started working on the world premiere. Much to our surprise, Hannah’s parents, Richard and Michelle Landers, were really excited to fly out to San Francisco to be there; they wanted to be part of the big audience that would be seeing the film for the first time.
Hannah had told us that her dad was an administrator at a Baptist church. I confess that of few of us here had some preconceptions about what kind of views a person who held that job might have about the point of view in our film.
We wondered: how would the Landers feel about the film? How would they feel being in a theater filled with close to a thousand Bay Area activists?
It turned out our concerns were for naught. The Landers’ response was so moving to me, and taught me a powerful lesson about my own stereotypes.
“We enjoyed the entire evening and sincerely appreciate the time we spent with you and the other Groundspark board of directors members and staff,” Michelle wrote to one of our board members. “Everyone was so wonderful, gracious and hospitable – we are very glad that we made the trip.”
“The film is fantastic and we are even more proud of Hannah than we could have imagined. She was incredibly passionate and wise for someone her age and she spent a lot of energy fighting what she saw as the injustices of the world. She was a champion for the underdog and a spokesperson for those who wouldn’t or couldn’t speak for themselves. We miss her terribly, but are very inspired that her words and actions will continue to help young people.”
Fast forward several months. I am so proud to be able to tell you that on January 9th, Straightlaced will have its Kentucky premiere on January 10th, 2010 at the State Theater at the Kentucky Theater at 10:15am. Richard and Michelle have worked with Rebecca Woloch, the mother of another student in whose memory the memorial garden in the film is dedicated, to organize the screening. They will be doing a fundraising pitch at the event and want the proceeds to be split between GroundSpark, the Hannah Landers Memorial Scholarship Fund, and a local suicide prevention group doing work in Josh Shipman’s memory. Please download the event flyer for more information on the event.
We, too, are also inspired that Hannah’s words and actions are helping so many people—of all ages—along with those of all the courageous young people who appeared in Straightlaced, and all of our other Respect for All Project films.
Our new year’s wish for you is that you continue to feel inspired and courageous. To look inside yourself, to challenge your own stereotypes, and to find the strength to be a champion for those who can’t or won’t speak for themselves.
Thank you from all of us at GroundSpark. Let’s stick together in 2010.
In a case that GroundSpark has been following closely, the Alameda County Superior Court ruled this week that lessons designed to address anti-gay and lesbian bullying in the district’s elementary schools do not simply constitute “health lessons” and therefore are not subject to the state’s policy of allowing parents to “opt out” of having their children participate in those lessons. Even more importantly, Judge Frank Roesch ruled that the state education code’s requirement that schools address discrimination and bias effectively supersedes any potential opt-out provisions. Our film,That’s a Family!, used widely throughout the country to support children from all different kinds of families, is part of the curriculum that’s been under debate.
GroundSpark’s Cristy Chung, Director of Community Programs and the Respect For All Project had this to say about the ruling: “This critical decision reinforces the importance of creating safe and inclusive schools for all children and their families. My hope is that we find a way for our communities to support one another and together teach our children what respect really means.”
This ruling is consistent with a 2007 ruling in Massachusetts clearly stating that while parents have the right to direct the upbringing of their children, that right does not extend to directing what a school teaches. (You can read more about this ruling in the It’s Elementary curriculum guide). And that preparing students for citizenship in a diverse society and fostering an environment in which lesbian and gay students can learn are sufficient justifications for implementing LGBT-inclusive curriculum.
Here’s a link to the news story on the ruling in Alameda County, CA.
And to see the trailer or stream That’s a Family!, please click here.
We are very proud to announce that Debra Chasnoff’s alma mater, Wellesley College, recently honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Documentary Filmmaking from the college’s Art Department and Cinema and Media Studies Program.
Lifetime Achievement Award for Film Maker Debra Chasnoff
Here’s a bit from the speech, Beth Pfeiffer, one of the trustees of the college, made during the award presentation:
“Debra Chasnoff, class of 1978, majored in economics. After a short stint in corporate America, Debra went on to follow her true passion—social change. Understanding social change is the result of deep passion and potent pragmatics, she embarked on her filmmaking career in 1984 with the film Choosing Children. Her commitment to equity and understanding informed the film and her courage to speak out and her personal honesty and talent that gave the film a place in history.
Accolades followed immediately, including an Academy Award in 1991 for her subsequent film, Deadly Deception, and they multiply from there. Founder and Executive Director of GroundSpark, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating visionary films and dynamic educational campaigns that move individuals and communities to take action for a more just world, Chasnoff has evolved into one of the most successful and dynamic documentarians of our time. Her latest film, Straightlaced, debuted this year and, having seen it, I’m sure the trail of awards will continue!”
Everyone here at GroundSpark, myself included, take our hats off to our colleague. Thank you for the work you do and the courage you inspire!
We are gearing up for the Twin Cities premiere of Straightlaced, which will take place Monday November 16th in Minneapolis. This will be the last regional premiere of the film, completing an thirty-city, ten-month long tour of Straightlaced! With an impressive array of community partners and dedicated volunteers working on the ground to fill the seats, word about the event is spreading quickly.
Betty Tisel hard at work in Minneapolis!
Super-volunteer Betty Tisel (pictured above), who has been a long-time donor to GroundSpark with her partner, Sarah Farley, is leaving no stone unturned to ensure success. “Imagine these buckets full of cash and check donations,” she says. ”Visualize all these tickets being SOLD.” To help fulfill Betty’s dreams, get your tickets!!
I had the pleasure of talking with local radio host Leigh Combs last week about the event. A local teacher, advocate, and GroundSpark supporter, Leigh brought home the need for the Minneapolis community to not only come out to the event, but to start the dialog with young people about their experiences with gender pressures. To listen to the full show, click here. And just this week, I had the chance to talk about the more personal nuances and overall charm of Straightlaced with Todd Melby, a Minneapolis local radio documentarian with KFAI. Todd reminds us that the topic of gender and the pressure to conform affects not only young people, but adults also. You can listen to more of my talk with Todd here.
Please become part of what promises to be an inspiring and interesting community event in Minneapolis! For more information about the event or to sponsor the event please visit the event page. See you there!
On the evening of October 29, a group of students, educators parents and social service providers gathered at the Long Island GLBT Community Center in Bay Shore, NY for a screening of and discussion about Straightlaced, facilitated by GroundSpark national Trainer Scott Hirschfeld. Sponsored by the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth’s Safe Schools Initiative and organized by Director of Youth Services Nick Tryling, this event was part of the initiative’s Transgender Voices & Visibility series. To set the stage for the screening, audience members talked with each other in small groups about the messages they received about gender during their growing up years and how those messages impacted them. After viewing the film, participants engaged in a spirited discussion about the limitations of current gender role norms and expectations, and about strategies for increasing awareness about this issue among their students, colleagues and family members. The group found Straightlaced to be both an affirmation of their experiences and an inspiration to work toward more gender inclusive communities for young people.
This creative and inspiring outlet for youth between the 6th – 12th grade is currently accepting applications! The Young Minds Digital Times Film Competition fosters youth film makers to create poignant and powerful films, all the while competing for a variety of prizes. Check it out and spread the word!
For more information, please email info@youngmindsdigitaltimes.com.
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 ofLove 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.
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.
Every year the CINE Golden Eagle Award is bestowed upon filmmakers as a recognition of excellence in production. Straightlaced was one of the films chosen for the award this year and we are definitely excited about this!
With the West Coast film festival premiere last week at Frameline, the FREE Los Angeles screening at OutFest, and the new CINE Golden Eagle Award, Straightlaced has been causing movement far and wide!
The SF crowd anxiously awaits the screening of Straightlaced.
Straightlaced: How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up screened at the Roxie Theater last Friday to a sold out crowd at Frameline 33: San Francisco’s LGBT Film Festival! With a mixed crowd of film lovers, educators, Debra Chasnoff fans, and youth, the film was received warmly at it’s West Coast film festival premiere. Read the rest of this post…
Groundspark Executive Director and Senior Producer,Debra Chasnoff, earned her cred long ago when she won an Oscar for her short documentary Deadly Deception, an exposé on General Electric’s involvement in building and testing nuclear bombing, precipitating GE’s pullout of the industry nine months later.
In this edition of GO Magazine, she finds herself among the likes of Wanda Sykes, Ellen Degeneres, and emerging stars in the field of LGBT culturing mainlining. It also gets Groundspark on the hip pages of a fancy cool magazine! Check it out!
NOTE: On Frameline’s website, the show is listed as SOLD OUT, but rush tickets are available! If you come to the door a half hour or so early and tell the box office to put you on the standby list, you will probably get in, as some unused tickets will become available. Q & A with director and producer after feature. See you there!
In response to Vallejo Unified’s settlement of a lawsuit about anti-LGBT harassment, the Angie Coiro show is going to be talking about safe schools litigation tonight. On the show from 6:30-6:50ish will be Lance from Straightlaced, who filed his own lawsuit. He will be talking about his own experiences as well as Straightlaced.
We were thrilled to have Academy Award winners, Dustin Lance Black and Bruce Cohen of Milk, on hand to help welcome the film. You can watch their opening remarks below!
New York, NY : The New York City benefit premiere of the new feature-length documentary Straightlaced–How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up, will be held at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College 7:00pm on Tuesday, May 26. Directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Debra Chasnoff, Straightlaced reveals a culture of intense pressure to conform to gender roles in American high schools. Introducing the film are Jennifer Raab – Hunter College President, Eliza Byard – GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) Executive Director, and Mia Herndon –Third Wave Foundation Executive Director.
We’ve heard about two different, yet very important causes that deserve some much-needed attention.
The first regards the tragic murder of Luis Ramirez, the 25-year old father of two who was beaten to death last summer. Evidence and testimony surrounding the beating and death of Luis Ramirez suggest that the defendants’ actions in the beating were motivated by Luis’ national origin, Mexico.
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
In 1984 I made my first documentary film, and launched what was then Women’s Educational Media into the world of filmmaking combined with activist educational campaigns. Choosing Children, which was co-directed and co-produced with Kim Klausner, my kids’ other mom, explored the then unheard of idea that if you were gay or lesbian, you could also become a parent. We interviewed some of the brave pioneering moms who had had kids AFTER coming out. Lesbians (and some gay men) watching their stories at screening events we organized across the country had lightbulbs go off in their heads. They went home, found sperm donors or applied to adopt. And voila – the lesbian baby boom exploded. Today there is hardly a PTA in the country without a gay or lesbian parent in it!
News from around the world that directly connects to the issues GroundSpark works on in our Respect for All Project!
This week we bring you not only the news of the week, but a selection of articles from RadicalParenting.com, an organization that focuses on youth development from a kid’s perspective. Read the rest of this post…
Anne Mitchell, of Equality Kansas, sent us the following message after hosting two Straightlaced screenings in south-west Kansas:
Screening Straightlaced in Garden City and Dodge City, Kansas was so exciting, and brought together over 50 educators, youth, and activists. This was the first time we have hosted a proactive event, instead of being reactive to negative situations we hear about.
People line up outside the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland for Straightlaced
The Grand Lake Theater played stage for an amazing event: The East Bay Premiere of Straightlaced! A joint fundraiser for Met West High School in Oakland, Thursday night’s event was a reminder for many here at GroundSpark of why we do the work that we do.
There were more folks waiting to get in the door than we knew what to do with, a harbinger for the energetic reception the film would receive later in the night. As folks settled into their seats, there was an energetic buzz in the air. A sold out crowd of youth, educators, film enthusiasts all crowded into the theater for the film.
Straightlaced director Debra Chasnoff and producer Sue Chen were interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle this week about the film and the upcoming East Bay premiere in Oakland.
Read on for the article or click here to visit the Chronicle’s website.
Director Debra Chasnoff (left) and Producer Sue Chen (right)
Our perspective on the recent spate of suicides committed by young people as a result of bullying is featured on the Huffington Post and on Facing History, Facing Today. In this article we discuss why these tragedies are occurring, and what schools can do to become part of the solution.
This week another young life was silently lost in our nation’s schools. Eleven year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover killed himself after enduring months of anti-gay bullying at his school in Springfield, Massachusetts.
This past Tuesday over a hundred diverse community leaders, educators, and youth joined GroundSpark staff at the Chicago premiere of Straightlaced. Following marriage victories in Iowa and Vermont, change was in the air, and people entered the screening already feeling the desire to make a difference in their own community.
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.
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.
In the 1970s, I was a counselor at Camp Rim Rock in Yellow Springs, West Virginia. In 1977, the last year I was there, I was an assistant head of the camp along with a young woman named Annette Green. I never thought I would see her again, but last week we reconnected for the first time.
Turns out that Annette got married to her high school sweetheart David, and moved to North Carolina to raise a family with him. She became a teacher and taught for 20 years in a relatively progressive school in Greensboro. And then she got involved in local efforts to get schools to address anti-gay prejudice. She came across our Respect for All Project films, recognized my name as one of her old camp buddies, and got in touch.
Last month was a milestone for me and everyone here at GroundSpark. We had the world premiere of Straightlaced—How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up in San Francisco! We literally finished the film at midnight the night before. And, as with the debut of all of our other films, I was a bit of a nervous wreck sitting in the audience, wondering how the 750 people in the packed house would respond.
Check out some of these highlights from the night:
We are launching GroundSpark’s blog today in memory of Lawrence King, the eighth grader who was murdered by a fellow student in class a year ago simply because he didn’t conform to conventional ideas about what young men are supposed to look or act like.
We hope that by spreading the hope and wisdom of the young people in all of our Respect for All Project films — Let’s Get Real, That’s a Family!, It’s Elementary, It’s STILL Elementary, and now Straightlaced, — we can help ensure that young people like Larry King can safely and joyously discover whoever they truly are.
We look forward to seeing what you have to say on this blog. So don’t be shy — add your voice to and join in the dialogue about the power of film to spark culture change, especially for students in every school.
