Once again Orlando has made The Advocate’s annual list of the 15 gayest cities in America. Up two spots from last year’s #4 ranking, Orlando falls second to Salt Lake City.
The Advocate used a point-based criterion to rank each city. Orlando has four area teams that competed in the Gay Softball World Series, LGBT elected officials, LGBT bookstores and concerts by Gossip, the Cliks, and the Veronicas. Other criteria included having WNBA teams, transgender protections and cities that sent a finalist to the International Mr. Leather competition.
The first survey of its kind “Playgrounds and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States” revealed that homophobia is pervasive in elementary schools and most teachers do little to intervene.
At this age, bullies use words to attack those who are different, but if not curtailed early, warn advocates, verbal teasing turns to violence at the middle school and high school level.
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) examined homophobia and gender nonconformity among 1,065 students in grades 3 to 6 and 1,099 teachers in grades K to 6.
The survey found an estimated 45 percent of students and 49 percent of teachers said that the word “gay” was most often used in a negative way, for example, “That’s so gay.”
Only 24 percent of teachers report having personally engaged in efforts to create a safe and supportive environment for families with LGBT parents, even though nearly half of them regularly heard students making homophobic remarks.
“One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”
Martin Luther King Jr. said these words on August 28, 1963 referring to the inequality, discrimination and violence towards African-Americans in this country. Today in 2012 we still honor MLK Jr.’s words, but we wish to expand the meaning of equality to everyone, including LGBTQ youth.
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire announces the introduction of legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. “Some say domestic partnerships are the same as marriage. That’s a version of the discriminatory, separate but equal argument of the past,” explains Gregoire at a press conference.
