(141) Wed 15 Oct 97 1:49 By: Rod Swift To: Nancy Ferguson Re: Nabozny Article #01 St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:5dc5 234f0e20 @MSGID: 3:690/660.0 3443b0ac ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOURCE: Philadelphia Daily News 400 North Broad Street Philadelphia PA 19101 DATE: 11 May 1997 EMAIL: dailynews.opinion@phillynews.com FAX: 1-215-854-5691 ___--------------------------------------------------------------------- THE PAIN OF GROWING UP GAY Jamie Nabozny endured abuse at school. He fought back in court. By Jennifer Weiner It started the way it usually starts -- with name-calling. Jamie Nabozny was in seventh grade when the taunts began. "Faggot," the kids would say on the schoolbus. "Queer," he would hear in the lunchroom. Nabozny ignored the jeers and catcalls that turned into shoves that became beatings, mock rapes, a group of boys urinating on him in the boys' bathroom. But he never once denied it -- never once tried to stop the abuse by saying, "No, I'm not gay." Because Jamie Nabozny said he always knew he was. Nabozny, 21, grew up in a world of pain and isolation. This week, in Philadelphia, it's all applause and open arms, as Philadelphia throws a four-day party called PrideFest -- the nation's largest annual gay and lesbian symposium and festival. PrideFest is featuring 98 events, run by 70 organizations from 11 countries, drawing tens of thousands of people -- many more, said PrideFest spokeswoman Nancy Becker, than last year's 15,000. PrideFest has had everything from swim meets to dance parties, and lectures on safer sex, on marketing to the gay and lesbian community, and on homosexual issues in school. And that's where Nabozny comes in. "I remember connecting in my head: OK, my uncle lives with a guy, and they have dogs, sort of like my parents live with each other, only they have kids. I knew I wanted to be a boy, but I knew I wanted to be with a man when I was older." By the time he was a high school junior, there had been suicide attempts (three), and stays in a mental hospital; teachers turning deaf ears and administrators refusing to help, or blaming Jamie for the problems; a beating that put him in the hospital. Eventually, Jamie dropped out of school and left home. But for Nabozny, who was in town to receive the Tom Stoddard Role Model Award during a ceremony today, the story didn't end there. Because Nabozny didn't choose to just put it all behind him and move on. Instead, he did something that no gay kid had ever done before. In 1996, he took his Wisconsin school district to federal court for offering unequal protection -- for giving some students the right to an education in a safe school, while denying that right to him. Initially, it didn't look good, as Nabozny recounted to a few dozen teenagers at the Attic youth center on Friday afternoon. "The school was arguing that my case meant that anybody who ever got called a name could sue their school, and it would bankrupt school districts," he said. Plus, of the judges considering Nabozny v. Podlesny, two were appointed by President Ronald Reagan, and one by President George Bush. But in July, the judges agreed that Nabozny had a case -- that it was possible to sue a school for not addressing anti-gay violence. The witnesses started coming out of the woodwork. A school secretary said she would talk about the times Nabozny came into the office, and was ignored. One of Nabozny's former tormenters left his prison cell to talk about what he had done. And in November, a jury pulled from rural Eau Claire, Wis., found three principals guilty of closing their eyes to the abuse Nabozny had endured. The night of the verdict, the defendants called to negotiate. And Nabozny's team wound up with $900,000. More than that, they won a legal victory establishing that no gay student would ever have to go through what Nabozny endured. "One million dollars opens a lot of school districts' eyes," said David Buckel, an attorney for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, who was on Nabozny's team of lawyers. "The day after the verdict, we got calls from schools all over the country who want to change the status quo, saying, `What do we need to do so we don't end up like that school district in Wisconsin?'" For Nabozny, the victory was important. So were the attention he's received, the awards he's been given and the movie Bette Midler's company is planning to make about his life. But now, the slender, brown-eyed Nabozny, with a skimming of bleached-blond hair and a Tommy Hilfiger T-shirt, is ready for things to move on. He's stopped accepting speaking engagements. He's tucked the settlement money into a trust fund. He's planning to go to college, to study social work. He talks wistfully about how everyone knows him, either because of what he survived in high school, or what he had won in court. "Does my life always have to revolve around high school?" he asks. But he understands the importance of speaking out -- even if it means dwelling too regularly in a past that still hurts to remember. "Being safe in school should not be a radical concept," he says. "And my case is important -- but only if kids know about it." ___--------------------------------------------------------------------- * OLX 2.1 TD * Jesus Christ Super Fraud. The Musical! --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: The Perth Omen (3:690/660) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 690/660 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (142) Wed 15 Oct 97 2:00 By: Rod Swift To: Nancy Ferguson Re: Nabozny Article #02 1/ St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:0f00 234f1000 @MSGID: 3:690/660.0 3443b342 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOURCE: Detroit Free Press 321 West Lafayette Boulevarde Detroit MI 48231 DATE: 19 March 1997 EMAIL: editpg@det-freepress.com or DFPLetters@cis.compuserve.com FAX: 1-313-222-6774 ___--------------------------------------------------------------------- HE TAUGHT HIS SCHOOL A LESSON Tormented in classrooms and hallways, gay student Jamie Nabozny sued his Wisconsin school for equal protection -- and won By John Tanasychuk Jamie Nabozny is only 21. But already, he can look back and say he dared to do what no other man has done. Nabozny sued his Ashland, Wisc., high school in federal court. Three administrators were found liable for not protecting him from years of verbal and physical abuse. He was abused for being gay. During those years, Nabozny was urinated on. Once, a boy pretended to rape him in a summer school class. Another time, he was kicked unconscious and several days later had to have surgery for internal bleeding. Four times he tried to kill himself. Eventually, he had to leave Ashland and his parents' home to attend school where he could be safe. "I was numb most of the time and I had to be numb to make it through," he says. Last year, Nabozny won a $900,000 settlement following a trial that he hopes will end the kind of misery he suffered when Ashland Middle and High School administrators failed to protect him. On Friday, Nabozny will tell his story at a Detroit reception for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. Lambda -- which represented Nabozny in the trial -- has been working since 1973 to achieve full civil rights for gay men and lesbians through litigation, public policy work and education. In Nabozny's case, the U.S. Court of Appeals applied the Equal Protection Clause to sexual orientation in schools. It requires that the state "treat each person with equal regard, as having equal worth, regardless of his or her status." "We are unable to garner any rational basis for permitting one student to assault another based on the victim's sexual orientation," the court said. Nabozny's win is a clear precedent for gay and lesbian students across the country. "The vast majority of school districts do not protect lesbian, gay or bisexual students in their policies under the rubric of sexual orientation," says Frank Colasonti Jr., a counselor in the Birmingham school district and founder of the Detroit chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Teachers Network (GLSTN). "What many administrators fail to know is that they, as adults, are responsible to protect every single child for whatever reason within their building and that's what the Jamie Nabozny case is all about." Last month, GLSTN released a study based on surveys of 304 administrators and educators in the five-county area. The study -- called "Bruised Bodies, Bruised Spirits" -- made 21 recommendations to improve schools, including adding positive perspectives on sexual orientation to the curriculum. In Michigan, says Colasonti, just 5 percent of public school boards specifically protect students against discrimination based on sexual orientation. At independent and parochial schools, it's just one-half of 1 percent. "What I do fear," says Colasonti, "is that there will need to be a lawsuit within the state of Michigan similar to Jamie Nabozny's for school districts to take action." No closet for him -- Unlike many children who discover they are gay, Jamie Nabozny told his family and friends when he was 11 years old. Unusual, but not uncommon. "I was slightly more effeminate than everybody else," Nabozny says in an interview from his home in St. Paul, Minn. "I wasn't talking about dating girls like everybody else. I got labeled for a lot of the things that are typical in a small, redneck community that are not considered male -- getting good grades, being polite. And I was a good target because I wouldn't talk back." Nabozny describes Ashland as a city with 9,000 people, where most folks work for one of two industries: making toilet paper or making the machines to make toilet paper. Not a good place for a gay kid, he says. He was fortunate in many ways be cause he grew up knowing a favorite uncle was gay and lived with a long-term partner. His uncle managed a hotel and restaurant and drove a Cadillac. "I remember telling my grandmother," says Nabozny. "I remember the word 'homosexual' and that meant they lived together and they loved each other." When he told his grandmother he was gay, she said: "The only reason you want to be a homosexual is so you can have a nice car when you're big." Despite his family's support, school was hell. Harassment was an hourly occurrence. He couldn't walk from one class to another without being tripped or spit on. There were several violent episodes. The first happened during summer school between seventh and eighth grades when the teacher was out of the room. A boy started whispering: "You're so cute, we want to go out with you." Other boys touched his buttocks and one of them pushed him down to the floor and pretended to rape him. The other kids stood around and laughed until Nabozny threw him off. When he went to the principal's office for help, she was upset that he hadn't made an appointment. She said that if he was going to be openly gay, then he should expect such treatment. None of the perpetrators were ever punished. Another time, Nabozny was sitting near the library when a group of boys approached him. One of them kicked him and his books fell out of his hands. As Nabozny bent down to pick them up, he was kicked again and he blacked out. A few days later, he was rushed to the hospital because he was in so much pain. Surgery revealed that he was suffering from internal bleeding. Time after time, school administrators ignored his requests for protection. When he was 16, Nabozny ran away. He told his parents that they wouldn't see him until he turned 18. His parents pleaded with him to speak with a guidance counselor. The counselor told them to let Nabozny go. He moved to St. Paul and lived with a deacon and his partner who belonged to the Metropolitan Community Church, an international gay and lesbian religious denomination. Nabozny worked at a photocopy store and went to school. "It was scary," says his mother, Carol Nabozny. "The hardest thing we've ever had to do as parents was to let him go. He was going there to be safe and this was a city of how many thousands of people? Ashland had 9,000. He wasn't street smart. He wasn't into drugs or drinking. But we had to. It was either that or he'd be gone on his own. He refused to go to school here anymore and I don't blame him." >>> Continued to next message * OLX 2.1 TD * Famous graffitti: Schroedinger may have been here --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: The Perth Omen (3:690/660) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 690/660 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (143) Wed 15 Oct 97 2:00 By: Rod Swift To: Nancy Ferguson Re: Nabozny Article #02 2/ St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:ff00 234f1000 @MSGID: 3:690/660.0 3443b344 >>> Continued from previous message First case dismissed -- Nabozny first thought about taking legal action at the suggestion of an attorney and crime victims advocate. "I was very apprehensive at first," he says. "I just made it out alive from high school." He retained his first lawyer Oct. 13, 1993, the day before his 18th birthday. A Madison, Wisc., federal district court dismissed his case without a hearing. Lambda took the case on appeal and last July, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals became the first federal court in the nation ever to address liability for anti-gay violence in schools. The court noted that gay people "are an identifiable minority" and that "it does seem dubious to suggest that someone would choose to be homosexual, absent some genetic predisposition, given the considerable discrimination leveled against homosexuals." The case then went to trial. After a two-day federal jury trial in Eau Claire, Wisc., in November, seven jurors unanimously agreed that school principals had failed Nabozny by closing their eyes to the four years of brutal abuse he suffered from classmates. The two sides agreed on the $900,000 settlement. Fallout has already been felt in Michigan, says Patricia Logue, managing attorney for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund's Midwest Regional Office. Logue assisted Rudy Serra, lawyer for Joshua Winowiecki, an Allen Park high school student who was harassed by students and tried to change the district's policies. Logue says Winowiecki's attorney made sure school officials were aware of the Nabozny decision and said the knowledge helped avoid a civil lawsuit. The district eventually adopted an anti-harassment policy, though it did not specifically include sexual orientation as a protected category. In the Oakland County Intermediate School District, sexual diversity training sessions for health educators and counselors will be offered starting in April. The district worked with GLSTN; Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; and Affirmations, the Ferndale-based gay community center, in developing the program. "I think it's really opening people's eyes that gay and lesbian students are in our schools," says Diane Waggoner, a health education consultant with the Oakland County district and the county health division. "Many times, from remarks we hear . . . I think people conveniently close their eyes." During Nabozny's trial, the school district's lawyer tried to convince the jury that the anti-gay harassment that he experienced, such as repeated taunts of "faggot," wasn't as bad as other, racially based, epithets. "Obviously the jury didn't buy that," says Logue. "But it captured for us that educators weren't equating anti-gay abuse with protecting students." Justin King, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards, doesn't believe Michigan school officials would make the same mistake as Ashland administrators who failed to address Nabozny's pleas for help. "That's totally repulsive to anyone running a school system in this state -- public or private. We don't need a Wisconsin case to wake anyone up," says King. "Clearly that's wrong -- patently wrong. Sometimes school districts are found not liable when circumstances weren't under their control, but once it's been brought to their attention and they ignore it, that's when they get in trouble." King's group teaches a sexual harassment program for the Michigan Council of School Attorneys. A gay Republican -- So what does a 21-year-old do with $900,000? "I actually ended up with $600,000," says Nabozny. About $300,000 went for legal fees, and he put $450,000 in a trust that he can't touch for 20 years. He bought a black Jeep Grand Cherokee, furnished his apartment and wants to buy his own home. Besides the money, Nabozny has had to deal with a strange kind of fame. He has become a poster boy for gay civil rights and he's not comfortable with it. Unlike many people involved in gay issues, he's a card-carrying Republican and is opposed to abortion. Still, he'll spend most of this year with speaking engagements and grand marshal duties at gay pride parades. Hollywood wants to bring his story to the big screen, and he has an entertainment lawyer and an agent working deals on his behalf. But once the year is over, Nabozny wants to go back to being a private person. "There are so many other roles that I've sort of neglected since the lawsuit has taken over my life." He will return to college to become a social worker. "I would like to start a group home for gay and lesbian kids who are having problems in their school, community or family and can't be there anymore." He's dating a 23-year-old computer programmer who lives in his apartment building. The lawsuit, he says, became an outlet for his feelings of powerlessness and frustration. These days: "I feel very vindicated." [Detroit Free Press education writer Jennifer Juarez Robles contributed to this report.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MTV PLUGS IN TO NABOZNY VISIT By Jennifer Juares Robles When Jamie Nabozny talks, MTV listens. The music television cable network that reaches millions of young people worldwide will film Nabozny's visit Saturday with 30 to 40 metro Detroit youths at Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center in Ferndale. Jim Fraenkel, a researcher and producer with MTV, said the network is profiling Nabozny for a series on young people's rights that will air in the fall. "We wanted to find out where Jamie is today and what he's doing," Fraenkel said. "Speaking to young people is an important part of his life, and we wanted to capture him doing that." After four years of anti-gay harassment that included beatings so severe Nabozny required stomach surgery, Nabozny won a $900,000 settlement in November. A federal jury had found that two of his former school principals in the Ashland School District in northern Wisconsin and another administrator failed to protect Nabozny, despite his pleas for help. "Boys will be boys," one of the principals told Nabozny, according to trial testimony. Jaron Bryant, youth mentor coordinator with Affirmations, said Nabozny will receive a hero's welcome. "There's a strong sense of appreciation for what this case has done. It sets precedent for future cases involving youth who feel their rights have been discriminated against," Bryant said. Bryant, a 1986 graduate of River Rouge High School, said he never felt the school's environment was safe enough for him to tell anyone that he was gay. >>> Continued to next message * OLX 2.1 TD * Famous graffitti: Schroedinger may have been here --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: The Perth Omen (3:690/660) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 690/660 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (144) Wed 15 Oct 97 2:00 By: Rod Swift To: Nancy Ferguson Re: Nabozny Article #02 3/ St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:6f01 234f1000 @MSGID: 3:690/660.0 3443b346 >>> Continued from previous message "It was easier to be silent," Bryant, now 28, said. "I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible." Julie Enszer, executive director of Affirmations, said she has found that Michigan educators often feel overwhelmed when gay students come out and become worried that the school system can't cope. But Enszer said educators who may not know how to handle anti-gay violence should learn from the Nabozny decision. "The fundament of public education is that we educate all young people to be citizens in this country and none of them are expendable," Enszer said. "So many of the young people in our program have the experience of being seen as expendable in public education. The Nabozny case says no young people are expendable." Half of Affirmations' $450,000 annual budget supports its youth group, which is for people age 20 and younger. The program has operated since 1990. For more information on Nabozny's visit or to join the Carl Rippberger Youth Services group, call Affirmations at 1-810-398-7105, Ext. 14. ___--------------------------------------------------------------------- * OLX 2.1 TD * Famous graffitti: Schroedinger may have been here --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: The Perth Omen (3:690/660) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 690/660 396/1 3615/50 218/1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (145) Wed 15 Oct 97 2:03 By: Rod Swift To: Nancy Ferguson Re: Nabozny Article #03/GLSE St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:f923 234f1060 @MSGID: 3:690/660.0 3443b3fc ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOURCE: Providence Journal-Bulletin 75 Fountain Street Providence RI 02902 DATE: 1 May 1997 EMAIL: letters@projo.com FAX: 1-401-277-7346 ___--------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUTHS ARE THE NEW GAY HEROES By Robert Fulghum Perhaps not since Orson Welles's radio rendition of War of the Worlds has such a dubious hoax been perpetuated upon the American people. Instead of green Martians in spaceships, this time it's wild-eyed homosexuals bursting out of closets, a la Kramer's spastic entrees into Seinfeld's apartment. While channel surfing one evening this past winter, I stumbled across The 700 Club, Pat Robertson's longstanding television cash cow. What grabbed my attention was the "Safe Zone" sticker emblazoned with a pink triangle that he and his sidekick, a lawyer from the American Center for Law and Justice, proselytized as a threat to public schools that would lead to the downfall of American society. Dust off those 1950s fallout shelters! The fear-mongering, doomsday gospel spewed that evening was that the "radical homosexual agenda" had invaded a Connecticut public school and would be coming to schools everywhere unless one coughed up $1000, or whatever one could afford, so that the ACLJ could stop "the spread" of homosexuality. Robertson's fundraising is as self-serving and morally bankrupt as Bill Clinton's! In all of my years, of the hundreds of gay men and women I have ever known, I have yet to meet one who "caught it" like some contagious bug. In the country vernacular of my Southern grandfather, pre-Ebonics, "Either you are, or you ain't." Truth be told, the only things being "spread" were prejudice and Robertson's bank account as he prayed and preyed upon the unfounded fears and devout faith of unknowning, good Christian folk across America who kept the queue of telephones ringing off the hook, pledging their hard-earned monies to this charlatan presidential wannabe. At what point does his taxpayer-supported "nonprofit" organization cross the murky boundary separating freedom of religious expression from deliberate fraud and profiteering by demonizing gays? Pat Robertson, meet Jamie Nabozny! This former Wisconsin student's school never heard of a "Safe Zone" sticker, emblematic of classroom space free of overt prejudice and bigotry and of an empathetic educator or guidance counselor with whom an anxious or confused youth might confidentially find guidance on questions of sexual identity. (Parents are usually the last to know.) His schools never made an effort to provide a safe learning environment by protecting its gay students--and those perceived to be gay--from unwarranted homophobia, excessive sexual harassment, abuse, and assault. Jamie paid a terrible price, as have countless gay youths across America, and now his Ashland Public School District is paying a price, too, to the tune of a $900,000 damages settlement awarded to Jamie. At long last, "the tables have turned, and it is prejudice that is costly," surmised Nabozny's lawyer from Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. "Five years of abuse didn't get their [school officials'] attention...[but] I think it's going to get the attention from educators everywhere. It's serious money." Nabozny, now 21, was so distraught over repeated anti-gay attacks during his middle and high school years that he eventually quit school and attempted suicide. During one assault, boys pinned him down and acted out "mock rape" against him as 20 classmates looked on and laughed. Another time, two students cornered him in the bathroom, knocked him to the floor and urinated on him. In yet another incident, he was repeatedly kicked by a gang of boys, causing internal injuries. When Jamie was able to break free from one attack and escape to his middle school principal, she reacted, "Boys will be boys," and suggested that if he was going to be openly gay, he should expect such reaction from fellow students. Another school official told him that he "deserved such treatment because he is gay." Jamie's parents sought help from school officials several times, to no avail. One guidance counselor told the Naboznys that the school would not help their son, and suggested that he transfer to another school. Noting that school officials had taken action in incidents of heterosexual harassment and assault, Jamie's parents filed suit in federal court on grounds that the schools violated their son's constitutional guarantee to equal protection based on gender and sexual orientation. The jury's finding that school officials had intentionally discriminated against Jamie should sound school alarms all across the country for principals, administrators, teachers, school boards, regents and lawmakers who have reluctantly, even negligently, avoided taking appropriate measures to ensure safe learning environments for all students because homosexuality was deemed to be "too controversial." Jamie Nabozny represents but the tip of an iceberg with the potential for rapid meltdown and swamping of every school district's resources with litigation. Only in Massachusetts has the problem begun to be comprehensively tackled under the compassionate, visionary leadership of Governor Weld. If officials have feared the grumbling of a few upset parents feeding off religious-right propaganda, imagine the uproar of hordes of taxpayers demanding to know why school officials and legislators failed to take responsible action after being adequately forewarned. The verbal and physical abuse and indignities homosexual youths have endured is a potential scandal of greater magnitude than the sexual harassment and lesbian-baiting of women who refuse men's advances in the military. Today's youths are more aware, coming to terms with their identities at an earlier age, in the long run saving themselves years of isolation, self-loathing, closeted double lives, and broken marriages that have been trademarks of our American experience. This is the essence of the ongoing public debate: the human toll of needlessly repeating history. I feel badly, too, for the poor souls being conned, those whose Christian charity could be benefiting the truly needy in our midst rather than funding a thinly disguised political machine. Someday, Robertson will answer to the same God that we do for his piling on and bashing, yet again, youths who have already been bashed at school. He is as guilty as the playground bully. One of the very first lessons parents worth their salt convey to a child is that honesty is the best policy; it always has been. Increasingly, gay youths are resolving not to live the lies or take the hypocrisy and corrupt denial that society coerced older homosexuals into accepting for far too long. Ironically, they have become our new heroes, brave role models for too many older gays who still cling to their antiquated closets like children to security blankets. Each of us has a moral obligation to make our communities safer environments in which to grow up. No other generation must feel compelled to pull up roots and seek safety in the anonymity of Castro or Christopher Street in order to know the freedom most Americans take for granted, when we would rather--and are entitled to--live out our lives honestly, openly at home, near our families on Main Street. Thanks to the Washington Blade for reporting on Jamie Nabozny. Educators or parents wishing to learn more about ensuring safer learning environments for all students may contact the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Teachers' Network at (212) 727-0135 nationally, or (401) 847-7482 and glstnri@aol.com in Rhode Island. [Robert C. Fulghum is a freelance writer living in Middletown.] ___--------------------------------------------------------------------- * OLX 2.1 TD * Live sex in a Toyota nixes evil --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: The Perth Omen (3:690/660) SEEN-BY: 12/12 112/4 218/890 1001 270/101 353/250 396/1 3615/50 51 SEEN-BY: 3804/180 @PATH: 690/660 396/1 3615/50 218/1001