Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Heartless Heartland
"During the election cycle, there was a lot of rhetoric being used about gay people," says Heather Sawyer, senior counsel for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, New York-based gay rights group that handles cases on behalf of gay students. "When young people hear the message that we as a country want to deny gay families civil protections we provide other families under law, it has a negative boomerang effect on how young people may treat other students they know or perceive to be gay."
Dahleen Glanton of the Chicago Tribune reports that "with heightened national attention on family values as championed by Christian conservatives, students such as Pacer (the teen profiled in the article) said they have felt pressure to keep their sexual orientation hidden, particularly in conservative Bible Belt states where many people believe homosexuality is a sin."
Dahleen Glanton of the Chicago Tribune reports that "with heightened national attention on family values as championed by Christian conservatives, students such as Pacer (the teen profiled in the article) said they have felt pressure to keep their sexual orientation hidden, particularly in conservative Bible Belt states where many people believe homosexuality is a sin."
