ARTICLES
September 2003 ARTICLES
Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
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Not Tolerance, but Acceptance
Showing of "Gay" Ed Film at Loyola-Marymount Raises Questions
By Christopher Zehnder
Just how gay is Loyola-Marymount University?
An article in the April 30, 2003 Loyolan, the Los Angeles-based Jesuit university's student newspaper, sparked this query. On April 25, said the Loyolan, Loyola-Marymount's office of training and development featured at its monthly "diversity workshop" the film, It's Elementary -- Talking About Gay Issues in School. This film, explained the Loyolan, "demonstrates that children can learn about homosexuality at a young age and adults should go through the process along with them."
The participants for the showing included, according to the Loyolan, university "staff members of operation and maintenance, department faculty and work study students." One attendee was Tres Morgan, special events manager for university relations. "The film [was] very interesting," Morgan told the Loyolan. "It showed just how important it is to talk about these issues because self-awareness is a huge aspect of respecting all people. It's about removing sex and moral judgment from gay education and teaching kids that people are different. If we don't talk about sexuality without judgment then our kids will never know that judging others is wrong."
In a July 7 telephone interview, I asked Morgan if his statement in the Loyolan reflected the content of the film. Morgan, who described himself to me as a "gay man," said that removing moral judgment from gay education "was a major tenet of the film. One of the key messages of the film," he said, "was that there were educators and they were teaching young children about gay people and lesbian people as humans. They attempted to remove the sexual subtext from the education and teaching kids that people are different and that its okay if someone in your class has two mommies and two daddies. So, yes, that was what the film was about." When I asked him how this theme squared with Catholic teaching, which insists on "moral judgment" in speaking of homosexuality, Morgan replied, "I couldn't speak to that. I'm not an educator."
A perusal of the webpage for Women's Educational Media, which produced It's Elementary, underscores Morgan's "reading" of the film. "Created by Academy Award-winning director Debra Chasnoff and producer Helen S. Cohen," the film, "intended for an adult audience," says the website, "is a window into what really happens when educators address gay issues with their students in age-appropriate ways.... The film makes a compelling argument that anti-gay prejudice and violence can be prevented if children have an opportunity to have these discussion when they are young."
It's Elementary shows footage of teachers discussing "gay and lesbian" issues with first and third graders and shows how schools have to teach "tolerance" through celebrations of "Gay and Lesbian Pride." According to a 1996 San Francisco Chronicle review of the film (linked to the Women's Educational Media website), the film features "Kaylin, a second grade student," who "reads a story she wrote about marching in her hometown's gay pride parade. Kaylin," continued the Chronicle, "was in the march saying, 'Hey, hey, Ho, ho. Homophobia's got to go.' She then writes how homophobia 'means being scared of gay or lesbian people.'"
Women's Educational Media provides a viewing guide for the film. The viewing guide explains that "in a classroom series on stereotypes, the teacher invites children to write down words they associate with the words gay and lesbian" and "includes an interview with a teacher explaining the importance of addressing stereotypes and making the distinction that the issue isn't gay sex but rather people, biases, and discrimination." Indeed, the film makes "stereotypes" its chief target. At one point, explains the viewing guide, "two gay young adults talk about their own lives" and "clarify that the purpose of their visit is not discuss their sex lives. Students comment afterward on stereotypes they had believed but now understand aren't true." At one point a teacher informs children that human culture presents examples of many "famous gay and lesbian people, from Michelangelo to Melissa Etheridge. Children are surprised and fascinated."
In the section of the film, which the viewing guide titles, "Asha's Mums," children speak of "gay friends," and one child "beams about having her two moms with her in class." Later, when a teacher identifies for students "many different family configurations and explores a definition of family," a child named Emily "shares her Mother's Day essay about her two moms, including her experience of another mother who wouldn't let her child come to Emily's house because her moms were lesbian and how she stood up for her moms. Another child expresses respect for Emily's stand."
Yet, despite the film's respect for "different family configurations," it shows little concern for the rights of parents who don't want their children exposed to homosexuality in school. Though Chasnoff and Cohen insist that parents need not worry that their children will learn of "gay sex" ("we agree that it's inappropriate for schools to teach young children about gay sex," they write), they dismiss those parents who think homosexuality is wrong. "Our goal," they explain, "is to provide a safe, respectful learning environment for all children. Religion is a good example: Even if you don't agree with someone else's religion, you would expect their religion, as well as your own, to be acknowledged and respected at school. Similarly, we may not all agree about homosexuality, but a school is obliged to make sure that gay people and their family members are validated and shown respect. All major religions teach some variation of the values of love, compassion, and justice. It's entirely appropriate for schools to teach those values to children, to ensure that everyone in our diverse community is treated with respect, and to provide a safe learning environment." Later, in laying out what can be done about homosexual education in schools, Chasnoff and Cohen explain that "although [parental] permission is often needed for students to take health or family life classes, it is rarely needed for discussions in social studies, language arts, or other lessons." Earlier, they encourage teachers to "brainstorm several ways" they could "introduce gay or lesbian issues into lessons" they "already use in the classroom."
The spirit of It's Elementary, it seems, is summed up in the words of Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association (included on the Women's Educational Media website): "Schools cannot be neutral when we're dealing with issues of human dignity and human rights. I'm not talking about tolerance. I'm talking about acceptance."
Does Loyola-Marymount University itself espouse the views expressed in It's Elementary? Did the April 25 showing of the film include a discussion of the Catholic Church's teaching that homosexual acts are sinful and that the homosexual inclination represents an "objective disorder"? I sent questions by e-mail regarding the film and how Loyola-Marymount addresses homosexual issues to Melissa Abraham of the university's public relations office. Abraham had told me by phone that she would find the "appropriate" person to address my questions. I assume the "appropriate" person ever materialized, for I received only this response from Abraham: "In answer to your questions, LMU's Jesuit and Marymount traditions provide our students with a solid framework of spirituality from which they may explore and debate current issues and events." Questions sent to university president Father Robert Lawton also went unanswered.
Several documents found on the Loyola-Marymount website had left me wondering about how the university treats homosexual issues. For instance, the university's campus ministry features a group called Beati (Blessed Ones), whose webpage states that campus ministry had formed a "lesbian and gay community" on campus because it recognized that "gay and lesbian students, faculty, and staff at LMU are an important and gifted resource on our campus" and that "the gay and lesbian community has often been marginalized in the Church." Beati welcomes "all members of the LMU student community -- lesbian, gay, straight and bisexual" and seeks "to create a safe space for gay and lesbian students where they can share the rewards and struggles of their often common experiences." The ministry, the web page continues, "affirms that, like all baptized, persons with homosexual orientation are called to live a full Catholic life."
How does Beati help homosexuals live a full Catholic life? Do its members learn about the sinfulness of homosexual acts? Are they helped to live a life of radical chastity? What does the web page mean when it says the Church has marginalized homosexuals? How does an objective disorder make one especially "gifted" or blessed? I directed these questions by e-mail to Father Jose Badenes, the contact for the ministry, but did not receive a response. Calls to the director of campus ministry, Fernando Moreno, were not returned.
It was somewhat encouraging to discover that, in the past, Loyola-Marymount has resisted recognizing militant gay-rights groups. According to a March 15, 2000 Loyolan story, the university administration was opposed to recognizing the Association of Gay and Lesbian Students (now the Association of Gay and Lesbian Awareness) as a student organization. According to the university's web page, the Association of Gay and Lesbian Awareness "provides support to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students at LMU. AGLA has made a commitment to promote education, awareness, and understanding of gay and lesbian issues, and culture."
Despite protests by the group, then-university president, Jesuit father James Loughran, sent a letter to the organization saying the university would not recognize it, though it would allow it access to campus facilities and services. This response generated articles in the Los Angeles Times and the threat of a lawsuit from attorney and Loyola-Marymount graduate, Gloria Allred. According to the Loyolan, "Allred argued that 'the university cannot deny recognition to the Alliance based on Catholic theology, practice, or dogma." The lawsuit, however, never went to trial.
The university did not entirely back down to Allred's threatened suit. Instead of recognizing the Alliance, Loyola-Marymount decided no longer to "recognize" any student organization, only "register" it. According to the Loyolan, "as a result of this decision, the LMU 'Club and Organizations Viewbook' now states that 'the registration of a student club in no way implies University support or endorsement of a position or point of view espoused by a registered student club.'"
But, according the Loyolan, by 2000, student support on campus for the Alliance had waned and the group had become inactive. An October 4, 2000 Loyolan story noted that a discussion group hosted by the Alliance "expressed their belief that it is hard to be open about their sexuality at LMU, and many do not feel comfortable enough to be 'out' here at the university.... When the topic of discrimination was addressed, members of the group said that they feel offended when they hear other people on campus describe something as 'gay' when referring to something that they dislike or approve."
Yet, the year 2000 saw a reactivation of the Alliance over the threat of Proposition 22 that reaffirmed that, in California, marriage can only refer to the union of man and woman. Sixty-one percent of the electorate passed the proposition in the March 2000 state elections. The university, complained Alliance president Paula Haifley, while holding open discussions about the injustices of Proposition 21, was silent on Proposition 22. According to the March 25 Loyolan, Haifley said it was "'unfortunate' that no effort was made to make students more aware of the implications of Prop. 22." Mathematics professor, Lily Khadjavi, was behind efforts to have campus-wide discussions on the issues raised by the proposition. Khadjavi said, "there is danger that this kind of unnecessary legislature [sic] can increase intolerance and violence towards gay people, especially in the wake of Matthew Shephard's killing."
The Loyolan, however, did provide a religious angle to the subject of homosexual marriage. "While official marriage between gays and lesbians is not sanctioned in the Catholic Church, reformed Judaism, Unitarian Universalist, and some Methodist churches do recognize them. According to Fernando Moreno, director of campus ministry, 'it is a misconception that it is a sin to be gay or lesbian' in the Catholic faith. He added that 'it is probably more sinful to wrongly judge others and/or hold them to a higher standard than we hold ourselves.'"
This past school year, the Association of Gay and Lesbian Awareness again made school news when university administration refused to allow a transsexual speaker to address attendees of "gender night" of Mad!Idea. The proposed speaker was Riki Wilchins, whom the April 2 Loyolan described as the "founder and director of GenderPac, an organization that lobbies against gender discrimination." According to the Loyolan, Father Mark Zangrando, acting dean of students, nixed the Wilchins invitation because he said "the messenger" was the problem. However, when he was overruled by Dr. Lane Bove, vice-president for student affairs, Zangrando told the Loyolan that he had made "a bad decision." "To want to separate the messenger from the message," explained Zangrando, "is bigoted." Zangrando said he had told Daniel Dobrott, the co-chair of the Alliance, "that my decision could be wrong and that he had recourse. I told him I would share with VP [Bove] my decision and arrange for Daniel to meet with her. She would make the final decision."
Wilchins who, said the Loyolan, "has spoken at several universities about ending gender discrimination," does "not address her transexuality in her speeches." She, or he, was scheduled to speak on campus on April 15, 2003. The issue of the Loyolan which reported the Wilchins visit also reported the disgruntlement of the university's Republicans club over the university's refusal to allow black talk show host Larry Elder to come to the campus during Black History Month. Jeff Corless, a university Republican, said, "we explained that he would be a great speaker and he is very in tune with the culture. We just got lip service, no real support from administrators."
The May 10, 2003 Loyolan reported that Loyola-Marymount's service organizations held a Backpack Challenge to collect backpacks for the Jeff Griffith Youth Center in Hollywood. The center, according to its website, "was created to help homeless youth make the transition into independent living and to create a comfortable space for in-school, at-home and at-risk youth to socialize with other lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth in an alcohol-free, drug-free, safe, educational and affirming environment." The Backpack Challenge, said the Loyolan, was the brainchild of J Graigory, a graduate of the university who is now the executive director of OUT@WarnerBrosStudios, "the gay/lesbian affinity organization at Warner Brothers Studios." One Loyola-Marymount freshman, however, questioned why the drive targeted so narrow a group of people. Said Evan Fowler: "Why do they [homosexual youth] need backpacks more than other homeless people?"