New National Award for Youth Activism!

The OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign, in partnership with GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), is thrilled to announce a new national Award for Youth Activism to highlight and honor the courageous young people who are on the front lines in the most important civil and human rights struggle of our time: achieving dignity, respect, inclusion, fairness and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.


The award was conceived in response to the tragic epidemic of teen suicides that captured the nation's attention last year and the renewed, and troubling, efforts of anti-LGBT voices to stir the bigotry, hatred and fear that puts youth at-risk and has divided families, friends, schools, and communities on these issues for far too long.

A $1,500 Grand Prize, $750 Impact Prize, and $500 New Group Prize, will be awarded to the student, youth, and ally groups that most effectively raise LGBT visibility, call attention to bullying and harassment, and promote safe schools, inclusion, fairness and equality for all by holding an OUT IN THE SILENCE film screening & speak out event in their school or community during the month of October -- which marks LGBT History Month, Ally Week and National Coming Out Day.

Entering the award competition is easy. To be eligible to win, and to receive a FREE DVD and Event Planning Toolkit, check out all the details and register by Sept. 26 HERE!

Award Winners will be announced in The Huffington Post on December 10
-- International Human Rights Day!

About the Film and Campaign: Based on the true story of a courageous teen who stands up to bullying and harassment in his small town high school after a brutal gay-bashing, OUT IN THE SILENCE provides a hopeful and inspiring call to speak out and take action against all forms of bigotry and discrimination. Since its June 2010 premier in the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and subsequent broadcast on PBS stations across the country, the film has become the center of a dynamic grassroots campaign aimed at raising LGBT visibility and promoting dialogue and civic engagement, particularly in small towns and rural communities where there often is no visible or organized LGBT presence at all.

Screenings of this Emmy Award-winning film are a great way to spark new thinking, capture the attention of leading local decision makers, and recruit new allies to the movement for equality.

YOU CAN HELP by spreading the word
to student and youth service groups in your area.

Take Action - Silence Is Meant To Be Broken!

OutintheSilence.com

Find the Award for Youth Activism on Facebook

GLSEN offers many resources and support for schools to implement effective and age-appropriate anti-bullying programs to improve school climate for all students. Check it all out at: GLSEN Anti-Bullying Resources

Support LGBT Youth & Protect California's FAIR Education Act!

You can help fight bullying and harassment of LGBT youth across California by spreading the word about a new national Award for Youth Activism!


The OUT IN THE SILENCE Award, with a $1,500 Grand Prize, a $750 Impact Prize, and a $500 New Group Prize, will go to the student and youth groups that most effectively raise LGBT visibility, call attention to bullying & harassment, and promote fairness & equality for all by holding an OUT IN THE SILENCE event in their school or community during the month of October -- known as LGBT History Month and for National Coming Out Day.

To be eligible to win one of the awards, and to receive a FREE DVD and Event Planning Toolkit, interested groups simply need to register their event HERE.

These events will be a powerful way to help protect California's new FAIR Education Act.


Signed into law by Gov. Brown just last month to ensure that all students receive an accurate account of the historical contributions that LGBT people, and other underrepresented groups, have made to the economic, social and political developments of the state and the nation, anti-equality forces are already mobilizing to erase the FAIR Education Act from the history books.

They have been given until mid-October to collect 500,000 signatures to qualify a referendum, that would overturn the law, for the June 2012 ballot.

This attack isn't just an attempt to censor the contributions of LGBT people, it's also an attempt to revive the lies and bigotry that put LGBT youth at-risk of bullying, harassment, violence, and worse.

Your help in spreading the word about the OUT IN THE SILENCE Award for Youth Activism is a great way to help communities organize against this bigoted assault!

Award Winners will be announced in The Huffington Post on December 10
-- International Human Rights Day!

Based on the true story of a courageous teen who stands up to bullying and harassment in his small town high school after a brutal gay-bashing, OUT IN THE SILENCE provides an inspiring call to speak out and take action against all forms of bigotry and discrimination. Screenings of this Emmy Award-winning film are a great way to spark open dialogue, capture the attention of leading local decision makers, and recruit new allies to the movement for equality.

For all the details:
OutintheSilence.com

Is It A Choice? A Scientist's View

When Tim Pawlenty said the science was "in dispute” about whether being gay is genetic, that sure came as surprise to molecular biologist Dean Hamer, Co-Director of the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign.

By Dr. Dean Hamer for The Advocate:

In a recent interview, Tim Pawlenty was asked “Is being gay a choice?” The presidential hopeful replied that “the science in that regard is in dispute.”

As a working molecular biologist, that was certainly a surprise to me.

In fact, the scientific community has long regarded sexual orientation – whether gay, straight, or somewhere in between – as a phenotype: an observable set of properties that varies among individuals and is deeply rooted in biology. For us, the role of genetics in sexual behavior is about as “disputable” as the role of evolution in biology. Come to think of it, pretty much the same folks are opposed to both ideas.

The empirical evidence for the role of genetics in sexual orientation has steadily mounted since I first entered the field in the early 1990s. Back then, the only quantitative data was derived from studies of unrepresentative and potentially biased samples of self-identified gay men and lesbian. But in the intervening 20 years, studies of twins – the mainstay of human population genetics – have been conducted on systematically ascertained populations in three different countries. These studies are notable because they have large sample sizes that are representative of the overall population, they’re conducted by independent university-based investigators using well-established statistical methods, and the results are published in the peer-reviewed literature.


Each of these studies has led to the same fundamental conclusion: genes play a major role in human sexual orientation. By contrast, shared environmental factors such as education, parenting style, or presumably even exposure to Lady Gaga, have little if anything to do with people's orientation. While there is a substantial amount of variation that cannot be ascribed to either heritable or shared environment, the differences might also be due to biological traits that are not inherited in a simple additive manner.

One criticism frequently leveled at my work was that sexual orientation couldn't possibly be inherited because “gays don't have kids.” As the gay father of a daughter with lesbian mothers, I always had to shake my head in disbelief – but now there is a solid scientific explanation for how genes that increase same-sex attraction might persist or even increase in the population. Careful family studies by two groups of investigators show that the same inherited factors that favor male homosexuality actually increase the fecundity of female maternal relatives, and that this effect is sufficient to balance out the decreased number of offspring for gay men and maintain the genes over the course of natural selection. This explanation may not be the only one, but it serves to show that the evolutionary paradox is not necessarily overwhelming.

Another criticism frequently brought up by politically motivated critics of the research is that there is still no single identified "gay gene." However, the same is true for height, skin color, handedness, frequency of heart disease and many other traits that have a large inherited component but no dominant gene. This doesn't mean that sexual orientation is a choice; it simply confirms that sexual orientation is complex, with many genes contributing to the phenotype.

In certain animal model systems, the precise genes involved in sexual partner choice have in fact been identified and their neuro-biochemical pathways have been worked out in detail. Humans may be more socially and culturally complex, but it is likely that some of these mechanisms are preserved, as they are for every other behavioral trait we know.

Given the accumulated evidence, why might Pawlenty assert that the scientific community is still debating the role of biology in sexual orientation? Probably because that's what the religious fundamentalist groups that vehemently oppose LGBT rights want people to think, and have spent considerable time, effort and money trying to promote.

There is good reason for their opposition to the scientific findings. Studies in college classrooms have shown that exposure of students to information about the causes of sexual orientation has a direct, positive influence on their opinions about LGBT civil rights. This fits with polling data showing that people who believe that gays are "born that way" are generally supportive of full equality, whereas more than two thirds of those who believe it is "a choice" are so opposed that they favor the re-criminalization of same-sex relations.

I would never want my life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness to be subject to a DNA test or any other sort of scientific analysis. Basic rights are just that – basic. But it is essential to acknowledge that lack of scientific knowledge can actually result in having our rights and freedoms taken away through the actions of misinformed voters, legislators and judges.

At least Pawlenty acknowledged that science has some role to play. I doubt that would be the case for his competitor Michele Bachman, who considers sexual orientation to be so malleable that people can “pray away the gay”. She's hopeless. With Pawlenty, it might just take some education – and plenty of Lady G, of course.


Dean Hamer is a molecular biologist who works on human genetics and HIV prevention and is the author of several scientific books including The Science of Desire. When he's not in the lab, he is visiting small towns and rural communities with his husband Joe Wilson on the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Help Us Speak OUT IN THE SILENCE in Pennsylvania's Most Conservative Communities

On May 2, State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, the Pennsylvania General Assembly's "No. 1 Conservative," introduced House Bill 1434, a Constitutional Amendment to Protect Marriage Between ‘One Man and One Woman’ in the state.

Not only would such a measure NOT 'protect' marriage, it would cause real harm to real people by denying fundamental rights and protections to families comprised of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people -- excluding them from the institutions of marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships.

Such mean-spirited, politically-motivated attacks also stir up irrational fears and hatred of their targets, putting LGBT people at-risk of losing jobs, housing, access to higher education, personal safety, and sometimes their very lives.

We believe that a vast majority of Pennsylvanians have a more welcoming and inclusive view of their LGBT families, friends, and neighbors, even in the conservative districts of the Marriage 'Protection' Amendment's 37 co-sponsors.

That's why we want to hold very public OUT IN THE SILENCE town-hall screening events in these co-sponsors' very communities, helping to bring people of good will there together to effectively express their support.


And we need your help!

If you live, or care about what's happening, in one of these legislative districts, we want to work with you on an event to raise visibility and help build the local movement for change.

Please check out the list of target legislative districts below and be in touch with us to get involved: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com

Thanks

If Not Us, Who? And If Not Now, When?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Penna. Marriage Protection Amendment (HB 1434) Co-Sponsors

Daryl Metcalfe (R) – Butler County / Cranberry Township

Scott Boyd (R) – Lancaster County – Lampeter

Stephen Barrar (R) - Chester / Delaware County - Boothwyn

Michele Brooks (R) – Crawford / Lawrence / Mercer County – Greenville & Meadville

Martin Causer (R) – Cameron / McKean / Potter County – Bradford & Coudersport

Jim Christiana (R) – Beaver County – Monaca & Aliquippa

Paul Clymer (R) – Bucks County – Perkasie

Jim Cox (R) – Berks County – Sinking Spring

Tom Creighton (R) – Lancaster County – Manheim & Denver

Matt Gabler (R) – Clearfield / Elk County – DuBois & St. Marys

Mark Gillen (R) – Berks County – Reading

R. Ted Harhai (D) – Fayette / Westmoreland County – Monessen

Doyle Heffley (R) – Carbon County – Lehighton

Dick Hess (R) – Bedford / Fulton / Huntingdon County – Bedford

David Hickernell (R) – Dauphin / Lancaster County – Elizabethtown & Columbia

Scott Hutchinson (R) – Butler / Venango County – Oil City

Rob W Kauffman (R) – Cumberland/Franklin County – Chambersburg & Shippensburg

Fred Keller (R) – Snyder / Union County – Mifflinburg

Mark Keller (R) – Franklin / Perry County – New Bloomfield & Chambersburg

Jerry Knowles (R) – Berks / Schuykill County – Tamaqua

Timothy Krieger (R) – Westmoreland County – Greensburg & Youngwood

John Lawrence (R) – Chester County – West Grove

Jim Marshall (R) – Beaver County – Beaver Falls

Carl Walker Metzgar (R) – Bedford / Somerset County – Somerset & Hyndman

David Millard (R) – Columbia County – Berwick & Bloomsburg

T. Mark Mustio (R) – Allegheny County – Moon Township

Donna Oberlander (R) – Armstrong / Clarion County – Clarion & Numine

Jeffrey Pyle (R) – Armstrong / Indiana County – Ford City, Apollo, & Home

Kathy Rapp (R) – Forest / Mckean / Warren County – Warren

Mike Reese (R) – Fayette / Westmoreland County – Mount Pleasant

Brad Roae (R) – Crawford County – Titusville & Meadville

Rick Saccone (R) – Allegheny / Washington County – Jefferson Hills

Curt Schroder (R) – Chester County – Exton

Jerry Stern (R) – Blair County – Hollidaysburg

Richard Stevenson (R) – Blair / Mercer County – Grove City

RoseMarie Swanger (R) – Lebanon County – Lebanon

Will Tallman (R) – Adams / York County – Hanover

Randy Vulakovich (R) – Allegheny County – Glenshaw

Stop Hate & Homophobia in Springfield, MA -- July 5 Protest at Barrows Park

For Immediate Release: June 30, 2011

Springfield, MA

“Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition”
Organizes a Protest Calling for Community Support
to Stop All Violence Against Sexual Minorities

SPRINGFIELD, MA – On Tuesday, July 5, 2011 from 12:00-1:00 pm, organizers are calling for all concerned about the recent brutal violence against an openly gay man to meet at Barrows Park in Springfield, to stand in solidarity against violence, and along side of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Two-Spirit, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Neutral and Allied community.

On the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 28th, an openly gay man, whose name remains anonymous, was violently attacked by 5 males and 4 females ranging in age from 12-19. He suffered head trauma as well as other injuries. The victim reported that slurs were being used during the beating, including one of the alleged perpetrators saying, “That’s what we do to faggots.”

This incident happened at the tail end of Gay Pride Month, and followed a week of Gay Pride events in our city; one which was a Flag Raising event that involved institutional proclamations read aloud by Mayor Sarno and City Council President Tosado calling for “Springfield residents to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless or sexual orientation or gender identity.”

In response to the incident, openly gay City Councilor Amaad Rivera states, “Hate is not a Springfield value. Only together can we create a community that safe for everyone. No one should have to suffer violence for being who they are.”

When Youth Community Organizer, Michael Hall, from Out Now, Springfield’s only Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Youth organization, was asked about the beating he stated, “It just really reminded me of how one incident like this, that is motivated by the hating of gay people, can leave us feeling afraid all over again.” “I just really believe there needs to be institutional education/curriculum that focuses on LGBTQ people, at every level of the public school system, for starters,” added Hall.

“I find this all so disturbing, yet we must try to use this as an opportunity here,” reports Holly Richardson, Community Organizer, Out Now, and Arise for Social Justice. “If we are to truly tackle anti-gay violence we must treat this beating not as an isolated incident. With people living and working in our community like Scott Lively, an internationally recognized anti-gay minister; and this kind of extreme violence occurring a week and a half after Springfield’s Pride/Visibility Week, I believe it’s important to address homophobic violence (and oppression, in general) with a root-cause analysis, starting with asking ourselves what would cause a group of young people to act in such a way toward an openly gay man?”

The Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition was formed in January 2011 upon learning that Scott Lively was living and ministering in Springfield. Lively is president of the Abiding Truth Ministries, which has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and he has been running the Holy Grounds Coffee House on State Street, right near Commerce High School. The coalition deplores hateful messages and actions, and calls for community education about the impact of homophobia on our communities, as well as calling for community leaders, neighbors, co-workers, family members, etc. to speak out against homophobia whenever it is perpetrated. The coalition involves a number of community-based organizations, local college professors and students, members of the faith community and individual community members.

Contacts:
Holly Richardson
Out Now, Arise for Social Justice
413.348.8234 (cell)

Amaad Rivera
Springfield City Councilor
413.342.1784

Pennsylvania Hate Group Prevents Progress

As if the economic downturn of the past few years has not been challenging enough, Pennsylvania must now overcome being seen as a conservative, intolerant backwater unwelcoming of diversity, and unable to retain or attract talented residents, as much of the rest of the country forges ahead on issues of equality, dignity and respect for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – (see New York for the most recent example).


This debacle is the result of a vicious, and public, anti-gay campaign being waged by the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Family Association, an extremist organization recently added to the Southern Poverty Law Center's designated “hate group” watch list.

While the Venango County-based organization has long spewed demonizing homophobic and transphobic propaganda, it has ratcheted up its attacks in recent months as several municipalities across the state have organized to do locally what the legislature has failed to accomplish for state residents: add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression as protected groups in non-discrimination laws.

In the crosshairs of the American Family Association of PA's campaign-of-hate is the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the agency charged with eliminating discrimination against the state's most vulnerable populations.

Until just a few weeks ago, the commission was headed by Stephen Glassman, a champion of civil rights for all Pennsylvanians who had been providing expert analysis and support to these important and successful municipal efforts to prevent discrimination.

While Glassman decided to step down from his role as commission chairman when the state's new conservative Republican governor, Tom Corbett, took office early this year, the American Family Association of PA intensified its attacks against the agency, perhaps with the aim of intimidating any and all state or elected officials who do not adhere to its archaic and exclusionary doctrine of religion-based bigotry and discrimination.

If Pennsylvania is to remain a keystone of the American ideals of liberty and justice for all, it is going to have to find ways to rise above the ugliness of the hate groups that continue to call it home.

You can help by letting Governor Corbett, and all of your elected representatives, know that you support full equality for all people in Pennsylvania, including the state's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

And, you can support the important civil rights work of groups like the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Equality Pennsylvania, Equality Partners of Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Diversity Network, and Keystone Progress, among others.

Out In The Silence -- Hope Over Hate in Springfield

Film Screening to Shine Light on Quest for Equality

A special screening of OUT IN THE SILENCE, the acclaimed documentary about courageous local residents fighting against homophobia and the forces behind the anti-gay bigotry and discrimination that continue to plague conservative small town America, is the Kick-Off event for a Week of Pride celebrations in Springfield, MA.


The free community event takes place on Wed., June 8 at 6:00 pm at Springfield Technical Community College's Scibelli Hall Theater. The screening will be followed by a dynamic town hall-style dialogue featuring members of the Springfield Pride Committee and filmmaker Joe Wilson.

While Wilson is thrilled to be a part of the Pride celebrations, the event has additional significance to him because Springfield is home to Abiding Truth Ministries, an anti-gay “hate group” much like the American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA), the organization at the heart of the challenges he documented in OUT IN THE SILENCE.

“Time and time again I've seen how these extremist groups stoke the fires of hatred and bigotry in small towns and rural communities, and I understand the importance of challenging them on their own turf,” said Wilson. “This event in Springfield will help to shine light on, and counter the dirty deeds of, one of the worst of the worst.”


Springfield's Abiding Truth Ministries was founded by Scott Lively, a notorious religious right activist known for his provocative anti-gay activities, including the discredited claim that “the Nazi Party was entirely controlled by militaristic homosexuals,” work on an Oregon ballot measure to have homosexuality codified as “abnormal behavior,” and travels in Eastern Europe and Uganda to assert that “homosexuality is a personality disorder and an evil institution” worthy of the death penalty. In 2008, Lively launched an effort to “re-Christianize” Springfield. Shortly thereafter, his Abiding Truth Ministries, like the American Family Association, was put on the Southern Poverty Law Center's official “hate group” watch list.

OUT IN THE SILENCE shows Wilson being drawn back to his small Pennsylvania hometown to share the story of a teenager tormented at school because he is gay, and the struggle the teen's mother goes through to get school authorities to do something about it. In the film, Wilson also strikes up an unexpected friendship with a conservative evangelical pastor, and follows the trials and tribulations of a local lesbian couple who can catalyze the rust-belt town’s economic revitalization if they find community acceptance. Intertwined with these heartfelt stories is Wilson's exploration of the role that the local chapter of the American Family Association plays in stoking anti-gay bigotry in the town. At once wrenching, entertaining, and inspiring, the film ultimately shows the individual and community transformations that are possible when people, on all sides of these challenging issues, speak out and take the time to get to know one another.

OUT IN THE SILENCE was produced in association with the Sundance Institute and Penn State Public Broadcasting, premiered at the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and won an Emmy Award for Achievement in Documentary.

A press kit and more information about OUT IN THE SILENCE are available on the film's website: http://OutintheSilence.com

Follow OUT IN THE SILENCE on Facebook.