TheColu.mn’s Halloween Homosexual Agenda

Missed the Zombie Pub Crawl, but still have that itch to smear your least-favorite outfit with fake blood and shamble about downtown? Dying to get that vampire cape out of your closet so you can make atrocious puns with a bad Central European accent? Then check out these Halloween parties and events busting out all over Minnesota next weekend! There’s so much to do that, even if you’re under 18, or just over the Saloon, there’s something for you.

Performances

Hidden Falls Regional Park: Barebones Productions’ “Carnetheria.” They call it a “puppet spectacle that plumbs the deep and darkest depths of a dreamlike Carnival for all ages,” but these are no ordinary puppets. Think stilt-walkers and a 13-foot-tall robot that shoots fireworks and suggest that we are loosing our very humanity in our boundless exploitation of technology and natural resources. Free, but $5-20 suggested donation. Friday 10/29 through Sunday 10/31, all shows start at 7 PM. ASL interpretation available on Saturday night.

Bryant Lake Bowl: Mrs. Smith’s Halloween Spooktacular. Mrs. Smith has been beguiling Twin Cities audiences all year in her quest to find her beloved cat Carlyle. It’s been so therapeutic that she’s decided to throw a Halloween party to overcome her “on-going issues with the supernatural” and you’re invited! Games! Musical numbers! Come in costume for a chance to win an Apple iPad! Tickets ($15) are limited, however – call 612-825-8949 or order online. Friday, October 29 at 11:30pm and Sunday, Oct. 31 at 10pm.

Duluth
JT’s JTs annual Halloween Costume Party and Contest. Free treats, WICKED Drinks and SPOOKY Shot specials all night long. 10/30

Bar Parties

Eagle/Bolt: Uniform contest on Friday 10/29, all-out Halloween costume contest on Saturday 10/30, and Showtunes costumes on Sunday 10/31. (18+)

Lush: Lindsey “Sheik” Earney hosts and DJs Blush Halloween at Lush on Friday 10/29 from 10 PM to 2 AM, with female dancers and mostly female staff. Costumes encouraged. ($5 cover, 1 free drink, 18+)

Karma: This year, The Big Gay Halloween Party moves from Solera to Karma on Friday 10/29, with DJ Escape and DJ Sheik. Costume contest at 11 PM with cash prizes. ($15, or $10 with a valid student ID, 18+)

Coale’s: Halloween Voltage. Friday 10/29. Costume prizes: First: $100, Second: $75, Third: $50.

Tickles: Tickles’ Halloween Ball runs from 6 PM to 2 AM on Saturday 10/30, with all proceeds going to benefit the Aliveness Project. Drawing with $3000 prizes. Bingo from 6 PM to 8 PM, hosted by Miss Jennifer North.

Camp: Haunted Hollywood 3 kicks off at 9 PM and goes until 3 AM on Saturday 10/30. $2000 dollars in cash prizes.

Jetset: MONSTER: The Jetset Halloween party. Dress up. Drink. Dance. From 10 PM to 2 AM on Saturday 10/30.

Townhouse: Elegance drag show, From 9:30pm – 12:30am on Saturday 10/30.

Gladius: Halloween Costume Contest. 10/30. Prizes.

19 Bar: Halloween Costume Contest. 10/30. Prizes awarded at 11pm. First: $500, Second: $300, Third: $50.

Gay 90s: Sunday Night Halloween Party in the Annex at 9pm. Costume sign-up by midnight. First prize: $300, Second: $200, Third: $100. 10/31

Saloon: Halloween Costume Contest. 10/31. Prizes. First: $500, Second: $250, Third: $100.

Federal Government Threatens Lawsuits Against Schools That Don’t Stop Anti-LGBT Bullying

On Tuesday, the Obama Administration announced that schools that don’t put a halt to anti-LGBT bullying could find themselves staring down the figurative barrels of lawyers in the Department of Education’s civil rights division. However, education activists say this is only an affirmation of policy that’s existed since the waning days of the Clinton Administration, and which was reaffirmed by the Bush administration, and does not represent a game-changer in schools’ efforts to address bullying in the wake of several high-profile suicides caused, in part, by anti-LGBT bullying.

In statements to reporters and a letter sent to school district administrators, Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Russlyn H. Ali said that under Title IX of Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, a student is protected against bullying that accuses them of violating gender norms.

“It can be sex discrimination if students are harassed either for exhibiting what is perceived as a stereotypical characteristic for their sex, or for failing to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity,” the letter stated.

According to Shawn Gaylord, Public Policy Director for the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, similar language was adopted as policy by the Clinton Administration in 1997, and was affirmed by the Bush Administration in 2001.

“We don’t see the new giudance is breaking any ground, legally, but its good to have the guidance reafirmed,” Gaylord told TheColu.mn.

In an email to TheColu.mn, OutFront Minnesota’s Legal Director, Phil Duran, said that this interpretation of Title IX has deep roots, stretching back to 1989.

The announcement will likely not have any impact on the situation in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where the school board voted on Monday to formally include sexual orientation in the district’s anti-harassment policy.

LGBT activists, however, say the change is not enough.

“It’s a reaction without asking what the issue really was,” said local teachers’ union president Julie Blaha in an interview with TheColu.mn. “It lacks depth, it lacks effectiveness [because it doesn't examine what the situation is, and what the bullying problems are, on a building-by-building basis]. It doesn’t really motivate teachers to do good work.”

Speaking before the school board, teachers’ union president Julie Blaha called on the board to engage all staff in an effort to build a more inclusive LGBT community.

Ideally, Blaha told TheColu.mn after the meeting, teachers and administrators would work together to identify the specific problems in each school that might be driving an environment that LGBTA students say is extremely hostile, instead of bringing in outside experts for periodic trainings.

“We have provided training this year” Anoka-Hennepin spokesperson Brett Johnson told TheColu.mn in an email, “and it was more extensive than any training we have provided previously regarding GLBT youth and responding to them appropriately. We will continue to refine and improve the training and information that we provide our employees.”

Popular Minneapolis Leather Store Vandalized

Skip Vandelinde discovered the graffiti when he arrived for work Sunday morning. In the night, someone with a paint marker had scrawled “Fag” in neat letters on the window of the Cockpit Project, a popular Uptown Minneapolis store selling leather and other fetish equipment.

But instead of being cowed, Vandelinde, Cockpit owner Scott Larson, and the shop’s patrons have decided to let it roll off with a little anger, and a lot of humor. All Sunday afternoon, Vandelinde – a clerk at the store – and Larson urged patrons to get their photo taken with the slur in the background in return for a 15 percent discount on any purchase made that day. Larson also suggested that a picture of the slur might be made into a t-shirt.

“I’m not the type to let things happen and pass me by,” Vandelinde told TheColu.mn.

“Especially not now, with all the bullying that’s been going on lately,” he added, referring to the many recent press accounts of “bullycide” deaths of many LGBT students, including Justin Aaberg, a student in the Anoka-Hennepin school district.

Vandelinde said this was the first time the store had been bashed in its ten years of existance, and Larson told TheColu.mn that relations with the store’s neighboring businesses have been positive in the past. However, both he and Vandelinde were quick to point fingers at at least one of the many people attending a hip-hop or rap audition at the neighboring Studiyo 23 shoe store on Saturday night. Vandelinde said the clerk who closed the shop on Saturday night reported “around 100″ people were milling around on the sidewalk outside the two stores.

“You couldn’t stereotype the crowd,” he said. “It was black and white.”

“I’m not saying Studiyo did it – the couldn’t have done it,” Vanderlinde said, “but someone they brought here did. This is the first thing that’s happened since the store opened in 2000. I hate to use the word ‘coincidence,’ but it’s there.”

Larson said that in the last year, there had been an increase in confused pedestrians walking in, and realizing that the Cockpit Project sold fetish gear, walking out quickly while calling the business a “fag store.”

The owners of Studiyo 23 could not immediately be reached for comment.

How Do You Stop Bullying?

Following the tragic deaths of Justin Aaberg, Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown, and Billy Lucas, much of the United States has been transfixed by the menace of anti-LGBT bullying. However one Minnesota anti-bullying expert tells TheColu.mn that the anti-LGBT bullying behind these high-profile suicides will continue until states pass anti-bullying legislation that forces administrators to address this kind of bullying in their schools.

“The problem is that you have to bring so much evidence to the table in order for [allegations of bullying] to be taken seriously,” Jessi Tebben told TheColu.mn in an interview last month, because educators and administrators can’t always see that anti-LGBT bullying is going on.

So-called comprehensive anti-bullying laws, which also lists a student’s sexual orientation and gender identity along with their religion, gender, and race as things for which they cannot be bullied, end that debate.

“Then you can focus in on prevention training,” Tebben said.

A bill like this was passed by bipartisan majorities in the 2009 session of the Minnesota legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Tim Pawlenty. Its chief supporter in the state Senate, Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis) says he will propose it again for the 2011 session.

Money And Statistics, Key Ingredients

Tebben pointed to Washington State and Massachusetts as states that had strong anti-bullying policies passed by the state legislature. As school safety advocates in each state explain, though, the cost of training that helps put these laws into practice can be a significant stumbling block to achieving safe schools. Most of all, though, the advocates praised both state’s student healthy behavior surveys as critical tools in identifying schools and school districts that have significant anti-bullying problems.

“Data from individual locations is very motivating,” Beth Reis told TheColu.mn. Reis is the Chair of Washington’s Safe Schools Coalition, which recently led efforts to pass Washington State’s strict anti-bullying laws.

Washington’s Healthy Youth Survey, conducted every other year, asks eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth-grade students a number of questions about their use of drugs and alcohol, their sexual activity, exercise, and also how often they’re bullied based on their peer’s perception of their sexual orientation.

“It’s hard to dismiss,” Reis said. “It makes a big difference in teachers’ motivation [in tackling the problem]…It also helps mobilize the community to tackle the bullying problem.”

Pam Garramone, Executive Director of the Greater Boston chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), agrees. In Massachusetts, Garramone said, the state’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey has “definitely helped a lot.”

“It shows statistical disparities between schools and school districts, it can show improvements and declines in individual schools,” Garramone said, “and we can go to schools and say ‘you need to have training’”

“Teachers are horrified by the statistics,” she told TheClolu.mn, if they didn’t already know that here was anti-LGBT bullying going on in their school.

Like Washington’s anti-bullying laws, Massachusetts’ recently-passed anti-bullying laws require schools to train their staff in bullying prevention, but does not provide funding for teachers to pay consultants like Garramone to train their staff every year. Garramone says this is not a major problem for her and other staff members at Greater Boston PFLAG.

“PFLAG asks for honorarium of $350,” Garramone says, “but we waive that if the school doesn’t have the ability to pay [due to budget cuts]…Usually, though, schools find the money if they’re committed to addressing bullying.”

Reis, in Washington state, sees a much more pessimistic scene.

“Most districts adopt the state model” which prohibits bullying on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, Reis said, “but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily enforce those policies and procedures in any effective, timely, or equitable way.”

Washington schools, Reis said, need training that doesn’t not just inform staff about the problem, but teaches them how to intervene, and trains principals in how to investigate a case of bullying. The biggest need, Reis said, is for training teachers, bus drivers, school nurses, and administrators s in primary prevention and how to address prejudice in the first place.

With schools in Washington facing budget crises similar to those before Minnesota schools, she said, it’s been impossible to give schools the funding they need to train their staff. Without that training, she says, “I will be surprised if the rates of bullying change much.”

Minnesota Coming Up Short?

Minnesota already has a student health behavior survey, called the Minnesota Student Survey. It is given every three years, according to the Minnesota Department of Education’s website, and asks participating sixth-, ninth-, and twelfth-graders about topics like sexual activity, drug use, bullying, and mental health. However, it does not ask questions about anti-LGBT bullying.

This, says Tebben, makes it hard to convince administrators that they have an anti-LGBT bullying problem until a crisis like the Anoka-Hennepin suicides makes it impossible to ignore.

MDE spokesperson Christine DuFour said that the department was applying for a federal grant from the federal Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Supportive Schools, “to significantly change the format, questions, administration and grade levels of the student survey. The purpose is to assess school environment/climate including bullying.

“While at this time, there has not been a question about a student self identifying their sexual orientation,” Dufour told TheColu.mn in an email, “it has been discussed in relation to bullying.”

Dufour said it was technically difficult to add questions to the survey.

“Adding questions to a survey is not merely a matter of cost but also of capacity,” she wrote. “Many people want questions added and it becomes too big to administer. If a question is added, another needs to be deleted. The questions must be chosen from validated/tested national instruments. Those decisions would be finalized if the Department is awarded the grant.”

Neither MDE nor the federal Department of Education would return emails and phone calls asking for more information about the grant or the application process.

It may be that a mandate from the state will prove necessary to keep more student suicides from happening; despite the positive rhetoric from LGBTA activists in the Anoka-Hennepin schools, the school district seems to be digging in its heels. In an interview with the Star-Tribune last week, the Chair of the Anoka-Hennepin School Board stated openly what many in the LGBT community have begun to suspect as an anti-LGBT bullying scandal unfolds in the heart of Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann’s district.

“We picked a position that we’re not going to deal with it,” Tom Heidemann said of the district’s so-called “neutrality policy,” which LGBTA advocates say contributes to a strongly anti-LGBT environment in the schools and to the suicides of several LGBT students last year.

“These are issues that can be dealt with outside the classroom,” he said.

Sen. Franken, National Groups, Faith Leaders Join in Criticizing Anoka Schools

On Monday evening, Anoka-area LGBTA activists held a press conference to condemn the Anoka-Hennepin School District’s stance on LGBT issues in the classroom. Standing alongside members of the Anoka-Hennepin Gay Equity Team (GET) were representatives from the Human Rights Campaign, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, and many prominent area priests and pastors.

“I heard people calling other people or things “gay” all the time,” Justin Anderson told reporters. “People may not have been directing it towards me, specifically, but they still meant me, even if they didn’t know it.”

“Hearing people speak negatively about me every day with no intervention [from teachers or other staff] tore away at my self-esteem,” Anderson said. “I felt like I couldn’t tell anyone my story.”

Through tears, the mother of one of the Anoka-Hennepin students who committed suicide last year due to intense bullying attacked the district for betraying her and her husband’s trust. Fighting back tears, Tammy Aaberg told reporters “The very people we entrust the care of our children to allowed my son to suffer in silence.”

As TheColu.mn has reported, many teachers have complained that they felt constrained by the district’s Curriculum Policy on Sexual Orientation, and some feared for their jobs if they intervened in a case of anti-LGBT bullying. Until the start of this school year, teachers’ union President Julie Blaha told TheColu.mn, Anoka-Hennepin teachers had not received training from district officials on the curriculum policy, adopted in 2009. Prior to 2009, the school district had policies in place prohibiting staff from portraying homosexuality in a positive light.

Following the press conference, district spokesperson Mary Olson acknowledged to reporters and community members that the policy was targeted at limiting discussion of homosexuality, instead of all sexualities. When a community member approached Olson and asked what information a teacher was allowed to provide if one of their students called homosexuality “a choice,” Olson responded by calling it “a really tough question…We are working with teachers to develop some guidelines” for that kind of situation.

Following media inquiries and community pressure earlier this month, district administrators have issued what they call “clarifications” to the policy, instructing staff to immediately put a stop to any anti-LGBT bullying they witness. School administrators and teachers were shown or given copies of a Powerpoint presentation highlighting “harassing terms” and the impact of bullying on LGBTA students or students who are perceived to be LGBTA

In testimony given to a school board meeting following the press conference, GET spokesperson Michael McGee criticized the limited training received by staff members, as documented by TheColu.mn last week. “Being handed a powerpoint does not constitute training,” he told the board.

Like many schools in Minnesota, the district is facing a severe budget shortfall and relies on a special property tax re-approved by voters in 2009 to cover the gap. Some observers suggest the school board is resisting further changes for fear of damaging their credibility with the large numbers of conservative voters living in the district, many of whom do not have children in the schools. The property tax levy comes up for renewal in 2011.

“Our first choice would be to work collaboratively with the district,” to solve this problem, GET’s McGee said at the press conference.

GET spokesperson Robin Mavis also read out a statement from Senator Al Franken and GLSEN.

“We are failing our students,” the statement read. “Anoka-Hennepin School District has witnessed too many tragedies this year. We need to do more to protect our students from bullying; we need to tackle this problem and the local, state, and federal level…it’s time we extended equal rights to LGBT students.”

National Eyes Focus On Anoka-Hennepin Controversy

The Anoka-Hennepin School District is about to get more national scrutiny as the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network announced that they’re joining with a coalition of teachers, parents, and community members in the district who are pushing administrators to improve anti-bullying policies and lobbying the school board to eliminate a policy that requires teachers to remain “neutral” on issues of homosexuality in classroom settings.

“Our interest has been in listening to the community members’ specific concerns and channel that into something productive to lead to a better outcome,” GLSEN’s Executive Director Eliza Byard told TheColu.mn in an interview.

In addition to joining the Anoka-Hennepin Gay Equality Team (GET) in lobbying administrators and school board members, Byard said, her organization is giving media-relations training to the activists and offering strategic advice.

“We’re listening to the concerns they’ve raised and suggest ways they may engage with the school district,” Byard said.

GLSEN and a member of the Twin Cities steering committee of the Human Rights Campaign will be joining in a press conference just before Monday’s school board meeting in Anoka, called by GET to highlight the past “confusion, inconsistency and a hostile school climate” created by the district’s sexual orientation curriculum policy

Byard rejected suggestions that GLSEN’s involvement was intended as an escalation in the fight between the district and GET. “We stand ready to assist the district, school board and community in any way they ask for. We’re not stepping back from anybody,” Byard said. “We offer any constructive expertise we have to help the district reach a better place….We have no interest in villifying anyone here”

District spokespeople declined to comment on Monday’s scheduled press conference with GLSEN, GET, and the HRC member, but said they were already “working with GLSEN,” citing the district’s distribution of Safe Space Kits to counselors, psychologists, and other guidance personnel.

As TheColu.mn reported last week, there are between between 420 and 1094 middle school students per guidance department staff member and between 240 and 501 high school students per guidance department staff member, depending on the school building. Byard agreed that these ratios raise questions that district staff would not be able to adequately respond to anti-LGBT bullying.

“Clearly they have not figured out the right combinations of supports yet,” she told TheColu.mn. “These are issues that play out in front of every staff member.”

Byard suggested that the district needs to give teachers training in anti-LGBT bullying, but said that even staff working in the cafeteria should be engaged in bullying-prevention efforts.

To date, the district has given administrators and teachers guidelines about what words constitute verbal anti-LGBT bullying, and in numerous public statements spokespeople and school board members have said that anti-LGBT bullying will not be tolerated.

Jessi Tebben, the head of Minneapolis Public Schools’ Out4Good office and a local expert on bullying prevention told TheColu.mn that these kinds of measures are not ideal, but could be a first step towards more proactive policies.

“Some people think that if we only give people information about definitions, it will solve the problem, but school climate is much more complex than that,” she told TheColu.mn. “It does start the conversation, though, and shows the district is willing to talk about bullying.”

New GLSEN Report Shows Anoka-Hennepin Avoiding Most Effective Anti-Bullying Policies

Since news broke that at least one parent and several LGBT activists are blaming the Anoka-Hennepin School District’s policy of “neutrality” on issues of sexual orientation for rampant and deadly anti-LGBT bullying at schools in the district, Anoka-Hennepin administrators have announced a raft of new anti-bullying policies and trumpeted past anti-bullying practices in letters to parents and community members. However, due to this neutrality policy, the district has chosen to avoid one of the most effective anti-bullying solutions recommended by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network in their latest report.

GLSEN’s 2009 School Climate Survey, released Tuesday, points to four measures school administrators can take as they try to confront anti-gay bullying: supporting the creation and work of a Gay-Straight Alliance; including positive representations of LGBT people, history, and events in their school curriculum; increasing the number of teachers who LGBTA students perceive to be strong allies and supporters; creating a comprehensive harassment and assault policy that specifically included protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

“You can’t legislate happiness, said GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Bayard in an interview with TheColu.mn, “but you can put building blocks in place to make responsability [for anti-LGBT bullying] clear and send a signal to young people that they have support.”

Three of Four

The Anoka-Hennepin School District does already have some of these protections in place. GSAs have existed in at least three of the district’s six high schools, and a significant sources of support for students in those schools, according to Peter Gokey, a former Anoka-Hennepin teacher and spokesperson for the Gay Equality Team, a group of local teachers, parents, and community members who are trying to get the district’s neutrality policy repealed.

In emails to TheColu.mn, district spokespeople have repeatedly stated that teachers are now required to intervene any time they witness anti-LGBT bullying during school or during a school-related activity, and have received a Powerpoint presentation on how to intervene in cases of bullying or the use of words like “dyke,” fag,” or “gay” in derogatory ways. However, according to Gokey and students testifying at an August 23 school board meeting, teachers typically did not intervene in such bullying or name-calling, fearing disciplinary action from administrators for violating the neutrality policy or its predecessor, which prohibited teachers from portraying homosexuality in a positive light until its repeal last year. At the August 23 meeting, school board chair Tom Heideman “clarified” the primacy of the district’s anti-bullying policy over the curriculum policy on sexual orientation in response to the students’ testimony.

Lastly, Anoka-Hennepin administrators say they have been sending school counselors, psychologists, Student Learning Advocates, and alcohol- and drug-use prevention specialists to trainings on “LGBT issues” since October 2009, and have provdied them with “Safe Space Kits” from GLSEN. District spokesperson said these staff members were expected to “be dealing most frequently with LGBT issues.”

Anoka-Hennepin secondary schools have between one and nine of these personnel, who are not expected to pass on their training to teachers, according to the same spokesperson. Last year, depending on the building, there were between 420 and 1094 middle school students per trained staff member and between 240 and 501 students per trained staff member.

GLSEN’s Recommendations

Despite having technically met three of GLSEN’s four recommended anti-bullying interventions, according to a district spokesperson, administrators have “no plans” to revisit the curriculum policy, even though the GLSEN research suggests it is an effective way of addressing anti-LGBT bullying. In GLSEN’s school climate survey, researchers pointed out that at schools with a curriculum that included positive representations of LGBT people, history, and events, the percentage of students reporting verbal or physical harassment based on sexual orientation dropped by about 16%, intervention by school staff when students make homophobic remarks increases by about 17%, and the percentage of students in a school who feel accepted by their peers increased by about 24%. The other three recommended interventions return similar results, according to the GLSEN report.

In a letter sent by the district to several parents and community members in the district who had contacted administrators to criticize the current policy enumerated past anti-bullying policies and the new measures, and concluded “[g}iven these facts, we believe we have taken positive action to address concerns of suicide and harassment and bullying of GLBT students."

"A lot of [student] wellbeing issues are bound up in curriculum,” GLSEN’s Bayard told TheColu.mn, criticizing any measure that “restrict the ability of adults to talk about anti-LGBT bullying in respectful ways.”

Still, Bayard said, any anti-bullying campaign “has to be accompanied by adults modeling respect…it’s the lynchpin of all this.”

HRC Governor’s Race Donation Skips Over LGBT-Friendly IP Candidate

The Target/MN Forward saga continues. Today, the Human Rights Campaign announced that they will be donating $150,000 to balance out Target Corp’s donation to MN Forward, a Political Action Committee backing state Representative Tom Emmer in his bid for governor. As first reported by the Associated Press, the HRC will be splitting its money up among a progressive PAC closely tied to the Alliance for a Better Minnesota called WIN Minnesota ($100,000), various candidates for office around the state excluding Mark Dayton ($30,000), and OutFront Minnesota ($20,000).

HRC spokesperson Fred Sainz told TheColu.mn in an email that the donations do not represent a policy change for the organization, only a one-off event “in a key state where a marriage equality and safe schools bill are on the line.”

According to OutFront’s Adam Robbins, the HRC has also promised to donate staff time to helping elect “fair-minded” candidates in Minnesota this year.

The HRC chose not to “cancel out” Best Buy’s donations, Sainz said, because progressive groups and community members will be spending millions of dollars on the election already, suggesting the move is more about damaging Target’s reputation than compensating for MN Forward’s potential influence

Sainz told TheColu.mn that the HRC was still hoping Target would “make it right,” but said that it was “our responsibility as a community” to get pro-equality candidates elected. However, it is difficult to escape the suspicion that even the HRC, typically perceived as the most corporate-friendly of the major LGBT activist groups, is giving up hope that Target is willing to listen to community members and activists trying to organize a boycott of Target.

Target could not be reached for comment at the time of this writing.

In a strange twist, Minnesota voters have a rare choice between two gubernatorial candidates supportive of LGBT equality. While Rep. Tom Emmer’s anti-LGBT stances are well-known, both former Senator Mark Dayton and former public-relations executive Tom Horner have declared their strong support for marriage equality and for safe schools legislation that would help protect LGBT students. However, the HRC and OutFront have both endorsed Dayton, with the HRC saying they believe Dayton has the best chance to beat Emmer this November.

The recent Minnesota Public Radio/Hubert Humphrey Institute poll showed DFL candidate Dayton tied with GOP candidate Emmer at 34% each, with 13% for Independence Party candidate Horner, although in previous polls have given Dayton a stronger edge over Emmer.

Matt Lewis, a spokesperson for the Horner campaign, told TheColu.mn that, while the HRC has not yet approached the campaign about making any donations, they feel they deserve as much of the community’s support as Dayton, given Horner’s stances on the two most important LGBT issues of this election.

The HRC’s Sainz said that the unnamed Minnesota candidates that would be getting the $30,000 have yet to be determined, but could include any candidate for legislative, judicial, or state-wide office with the exception of Dayton.

Emmer Trumpets Support For Ineffective Anti-Bullying Measures In St. Paul Debate

Hot on the heels of revelations that at least one, and possibly as many as three students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District committed suicide because anti-LGBT bullying, State Representative Tom Emmer trumpeted his support for anti-bullying policies researchers say are completely ineffective.

At Friday’s gubernatorial debate at the State Fairgrounds, the GOP nominee for governor was asked (transcript) by an audience member who identified herself only as Patricia ‘[i]f you were elected Governor, and this is a yes/no question, and the Legislature passed the Minnesota Safe Schools Anti-Bullying Legislation, would you sign it?”

The most recent anti-bullying legislation to come before the Minnesota legislature was the Safe Schools for All bill, which Emmer voted against and which anti-bullying advocates say they will re-introduce next session. It passed through the legislature with bipartisan majorities, but was vetoed at the last minute by Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Both former Senator Mark Dayton and Tom Horner, respectively the DFL and IP candidates for governor, wholeheartedly gave their support for an anti-bullying bill.

Emmer that he would “have to see what it looks like,” but when the audience jeered, he defended himself saying his wife and he were “very well aware of what happens when a child is faced with an uncomfortable situation at school or out at a public place. But I’ll tell ya what. It’s up to Jacquie and I to educate our children…We’re the ones that have to be the frontline of defense for our children. I don’t want the government doing that for us”

Emmer’s campaign did not respond to a phone call from TheColu.mn.

According to Daryl Presgraves, spokesperson for the anti-bullying advocacy group Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, there’s a big problem with Emmer’s approach – it doesn’t work, and GLSEN and other researchers have data to prove it.

With statewide or school-wide policies that specifically enumerate groups protected from bullying, Presgraves told TheColu.mn, administrators and teachers have clear guidance for addressing bullying that may otherwise fly under the radar. Teachers are also given some support in confronting discriminatory environments head-on, Pressgraves said, for example explaining to students why they cannot use words like “gay” in derogatory ways.

“Studies show that if a teacher intervenes early, if they tell their class that it’s bad and they explain why, students realize that they can’t get away with it in that classroom” and won’t say things that create hostile environments for LGBT people, people of color, disabled people, and other frequently marginalized groups.

Specific policies also can help students report bullying they experience, he said, because they can build the expectation that their school will try to protect them.

Anoka-Hennepin beefing up anti-bullying, but is LGBT left out?

Following the suicide of seven current or recently-graduated middle and high school students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, district officials say they are ramping up anti-bullying efforts. However, advocates are questioning the district’s commitment to addressing what they say is rampant anti-LGBT bullying while a group of secretive Anoka-area anti-LGBT activists are able to threaten any pro-LGBT changes in the district.

Seven Anoka-Hennepin students committed suicide in the last school year including three who, LGBT activists in the school district say, looked to suicide as a way to escape intense anti-LGBT bullying in school.

In response, Anoka-Hennepin officials brought in suicide-prevention specialists from SAVE, a suicide awareness education organization based in Bloomington, using money from a Minnesota Department of Education grant. In an interview with TheColu.mn, SAVE’s Executive Director said he and other members of the SAVE staff conducted 45-minute trainings for district staff detailing how to respond to suicide, intense three-hour trainings for specific district staff that focused on suicide-prevention resources, and presentations for all students in the district aimed at reducing any stigma related to discussing suicidal feelings, mental illnesses linked to suicidal behavior, and ways students could support friends who are considering committing suicide.

Daniel J. Reidenberg said the SAVE presentation included discussion of anti-LGBT bullying and the high rate of suicide among LGBT youth, but said that the district did not give his organization specific instructions to cover this kind of bullying.

“I think the district did a very nice job with” the suicides, Reidenberg said. “They asked for advice, listened very carefully to our suggestions, and organized this immediate response” to the suicides.

School district spokesperson Mary Olson told TheColu.mn in an email that the district is also planning to give teachers a handbook on anti-LGBT bullying, which Olson said will compliment anual training on the district’s anti-bullying policies. Teachers complain that the school’s decision to take a “neutral stance” on sexual orientation has made them afraid of intervening in anti-LGBT bullying in the classroom.

Olson said the district is also planning on showing short videos to all middle and high school students to educate them about hate speech, and pointed out that the district has a voluntary staff development program called SEED, which focuses on diversity education.

“We want every child to feel safe in school because we know that if kids do not feel safe in school they cannot learn,” Olson said in an interview last week.

However, Olson said there are currently no plans for mandatory, district-wide anti-bullying trainings for teachers focused on reducing anti-LGBT bullying.

School District Trying to Avoid The Problem?

The district’s measures so far have won limited praise from the two most prominent advocates for the district’s LGBT students.

“The district is in a much better place now than a year ago,” Julie Blaha, president of the local teachers’ union told TheColu.mn. “If we can keep talking and working, I’m excited to see where we’re going to be a year from now.”

Peter Gokey, a former Anoka-Hennepin teacher and a leader in the local parent-teacher advocacy group the Gay Equality Team concurs. “I believe them that they’re going to take the bullying seriously,” he told TheColu.mn in an interview.

However, Gokey says, the problem is more fundamental: the school district’s neutrality policy means teachers are “walking on eggshells” when LGBT topics come up in class or in the hallways, and can’t offer LGBT students the kind of positive affirmation he says they need to feel welcome in one of the state’s most conservative regions.

“I have been in classroom discussions where someone will bring up the matter of [GLBT]” Megan Hawkins, a lesbian and a 2010 graduate of Anoka High School told last week’s school board meeting. “I’ll have students saying things like ‘that’s so gay’ or ‘they are horrible’ and ‘they are wrong’ and ‘it’s disgusting,’ and this isn’t considered to be bullying. But it is. You hear that everywhere and teachers just let this happen…And so you begin to think you are worthless.”

Up to now, the district seems to have maintained a policy of strategic avoidance when it comes to school climate issues. Last year, Gokey told TheColu.mn, a student bullied for their sexual orientation was told by an administrator that they “needed to be less gay” if they wanted to avoid bullies’ attentions, and another student who was bullied in the halls and after school for having two gay fathers was given a hall pass so he could leave class early at the end of the day, and avoid his tormenters.

Following the Alex Merritt scandal, the district it rejected offers of all-staff training from OutFront Minnesota, aimed at increasing staff cultural competency around LGBT issues. According to a letter to OutFront’s attorney Phil Duran, the district said its current policies and procedures were sufficient to achieve these aims.

In her testimony before the Anoka-Hennepin school board, Hawkins said she had found this to be the case in at least one instance.

“I once had a teacher in class that asked me in the middle of class if I was gay,” Hawkins continued, “and I was so terrified because I knew there were students in that class that were haters, and one of my friends had recently been pushed down the stairs and called a ‘dyke’ in the middle of school. Terrified, I was just like, ‘No, I am just against hatred of any kind. That’s why I have this rainbow on my bag, of course.’”

Anti-Gay Citizens’ Group Could Threaten School Funding

One answer to administrators’ reluctance to address the larger issues of school climate may lie in the politics of school district funding. Like many districts around the state facing a mismatch between state aid and the need to keep class size down, pay for busing, and pay for staff healthcare and pension plans, Anoka-Hennepin schools are dependent on an $8 million property tax levy. Even with the levy, the district faced an $18 million budget deficit last year.

The levy coming up for renewal in November 2011, and that is likely gnawing on administrators, Blaha told TheColu.mn. Blaha worked with parents and district administrators in the push to get the 2009 levy passed and says the stakes are high: without a levy, the district would need to cut at least $26 million from its budget, the equivalent of 200 teachers’ jobs.

“Too often though we have to think about voters, about public opinoion and what could be in an attack piece” the teachers union president said. “We’ve lost levies in the past [in 2001], and there’s a really strong ‘no new taxes’ feeling out here.”

In this atmosphere, Blaha says, anything that damages the district’s credibility, like accusations that it is “promoting the homosexual lifestyle” using money from primarily conservative taxpayers, could mean public opposition to continuing the levy. “If [residents] don’t trust the district, they don’t want to support you,” she said.

At least one group in the district has enough political clout to cow administrators over LGBT issues. The Parents Action League has in the past communicated to teachers that it was “watching them” for violations of the district’s neutrality policy, and at least one parent that GET’s Gokey says is connected to PAL successfully campaigned to stop the showing of a film in a history class that compared “gay liberation” movements to the American Civil Rights movement, complaining that it violated the policy.

The group previously posted many of its socially-conservative policy positions on its website, but following the publication of a story in the Minnesota Independent detailing these positions, the group has placed its website “under construction.”