Fighting For Our Next Generation at the Massachusetts State House

By: Allison Wright 

Tuesday was a momentous day for unaccompanied homeless LGBTQ and HIV positive youth in Massachusetts. As I finagled my way to a corner of an over-crowded and sweltering room located in the basement of the State House, where over 50 people waited to offer testimony for one of the 15 bills listed, I was pleased to see many familiar faces.

Youth workers from Youth on Fire and Boston GLASS waited patiently in the back of the hearing room fanning themselves in an attempt to deal with the almost unbearable heat. Current and formerly homeless LGBTQ youth I’ve worked with at BAGLY or spoken with during my many trips to Boston GLASS slowly began to creep their way through the masses.

We were all there for the same reason – to show our support for “An Act Providing Housing and Supportive Services for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth.”

“An Act Providing Housing and Supportive Services for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth” is a key step to improving housing and residential stability, reducing the risk of harm and improving educational, physical and mental health outcomes for unaccompanied homeless youth.

With recent reports suggesting that up to 40% of unaccompanied homeless youth in the United States identify as LGBT, this bill will particularly benefit unaccompanied homeless LGBTQ youth in Massachusetts.
The lack of youth-specific resources in Massachusetts is alarming. As one youth testified, “there is only 1 shower for 16 guests” at Bridge Over Troubled Waters – one of the few youth specific shelters in Massachusetts.

Youth, particularly LGBTQ youth, avoid adult shelters due to fear of violence, harassment, and lack competency on LGBTQ issues. As a result, youth opt to sleep on the street and resort to survival crimes, exposing them to increased violence, incarceration, and HIV transmission.

Homelessness has also been linked to school drop-out rates. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education estimates that nearly 6,000 high school students are experiencing homelessness and are out on their own.

The need for greater resources for LGBTQ youth in the out-of-home care setting as well as stronger anti-bullying laws for LGBTQ students are two of the many priorities for GLAD’s Youth Initiative Project.
On May 30, Senior Staff Attorney and leader of GLAD’s Youth Initiative, Vickie Henry, testified in support of “An Act Relative to Bullying in Schools.” The proposed legislation would make much needed improvements to the state’s anti-bullying law by adding important provisions for enumerating protected classes - including LGBTQ students; for tracking and reporting bullying behavior; and for conducting a student school climate survey.

Bullying harms academic performance and, sometimes, leads to the ending of a young life. Through GLAD’s extensive outreach in the LGBTQ and HIV positive youth community, we have heard the stories of numerous students who report being bullied because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression.

GLAD joins in supporting the passage of “An Act Providing Housing and Support Services for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth” and “An Act Relative to Bullying in Schools.”  Both bills will greatly improve the everyday lives our next generation.

If it ain’t broke…

Yesterday, GLAD attorney Ben Klein testified at the State House in favor of “An Act relative to abusive practices to change sexual orientation and gender identity in minors,” legislation to outlaw so-called “reparative therapy” – the dangerous and discredited practice which purports to change people from gay to straight and transgender to non-transgender – for people under the age of 18.

“So-called conversion therapy is a disgraceful chapter in our society’s mistreatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” Ben told members of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities. “It’s been proven ineffective, it defies modern medicine, and it inflicts serious psychological harm on young people.”

Sponsored by state Rep. Carl Sciortino, an openly gay legislator, the bill prevents healthcare professionals licensed in Massachusetts from using “reparative therapy” techniques on young people. GLAD is among a coalition of LGBT, mental health and child welfare organizations supporting the legislation.

Know Your Rights: LGBTQ Youth Rights in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems

by Bruce Bell, Legal InfoLine Manager

In a recent post, I focused on the rights that students, particularly public school students, have and the anti-discrimination laws that provide protection to youth as well as adults in employment, housing and public accommodations.

GLAD’s Youth Initiative is also working to make sure youth in the child welfare system or the juvenile justice system know their rights, and we are exploring ways to increase those protections. 

If your rights are being violated or you have questions about your rights, or if you work with LGBTQ youth in one of these areas and have questions, GLAD would like to hear from you.  Contact GLAD’s Legal InfoLine by email or live chat or call our toll-free number, 800-455-GLAD (4523).  A friendly volunteer will assist you—it’s free and confidential.

LGBTQ youth in the child welfare system have the right to safe and appropriate placements, free from discrimination or harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, and have the right to:

Know Your Rights: GLAD's Youth Initiative

GLAD is expanding our Youth Initiative with the goals of both fighting for additional rights and protections for LGBTQ youth and, of equal importance, empowering LGBTQ youth through knowledge of the many rights and protections that currently exist in New England.  Knowledge is power. If you know your rights, you’ll know when they are being violated. GLAD can work with you to make sure that you are treated justly both in and out of school.

Let’s start in school. 

Know Your Rights: Violence, Harassment and Bullying

This week during No Name Calling Week, schools and organizations across the country are working to raise awareness of the need to stop the bullying and harassment of LGBTQ people.

Despite the fact that all six New England states have hate crime protections for gay men and lesbians, four of the six have explicit hate crime protections for transgender people, and all six have some of the strongest anti-bullying laws in the country, GLAD’s Legal InfoLine continues to receive calls from LGBT people who have been attacked after leaving a gay bar, students who are being so badly harassed at school because of their gender identity or sexual orientation that they no longer feel it is safe for them to attend, and victims of same-sex domestic violence who are not taken seriously by the police, just to name a few troubling issues.

Plain and Simple: Making the Case for Fair Treatment of Trans Students

by Laura Kiritsy, Manager of Public Education

GLAD has litigated two cases in Bangor, Maine. The first was Bragdon v. Abbott, in which Senior Attorney Ben Klein represented a woman with HIV who was denied treatment by a dentist who had a written policy of refusing to treat anybody with HIV. Ben argued that case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he won a landmark victory in 1998 that established anti-discrimination protections for people with HIV under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Fourteen years later, Ben and I drove the 440-mile round trip in his 2001 Honda Civic DX (with manual locks and windows) back and forth to Bangor so he could argue another important case, Doe v. Clenchy. GLAD is representing Susan Doe (a pseudonym), a transgender girl who had her education disrupted when the public school she attended did an “about face” by excluding her from the girls’ bathroom after a male student repeatedly harassed her. 

The hearing took place on Wednesday in Penobscot County Superior Court in downtown Bangor before Judge William R. Anderson. The day before his court appearance, Ben followed his standard argument preparation on our drive to Northern Maine. First, he lowered the volume of the Glee soundtrack and treated me to a preview of his argument on the drive up. It was nearly flawless, although I didn’t interrupt with umpteen questions, as judges often do. Then, after a sumptuous dinner at the local Longhorn Steakhouse, Ben retreated to his hotel room for a final review of his notes and a session of yoga and meditation. Meanwhile, I retreated to my room to eat a Snicker’s bar and watch a Civil War documentary.

At counsel table along with Ben were Jennifer Levi, the director of our Transgender Rights Project; John Gause, counsel for the Maine Human Rights Commission, which is also a party to the case, and Jodi Nofsinger, a Maine attorney who is also part of our litigation team. Susan, who is now a sophomore in high school, was seated close behind them, along with her very supportive mother and father.

To give some context for this case, Maine has a statewide law prohibiting discrimination against people based on gender identity and expression in all areas, including public education and public accommodations, plain and simple. To defend against what otherwise seems to be a cut and dry case of discrimination, the school has pointed to a Maine Human Rights Commission regulation that permits schools to have separate restrooms for boys and girls, a regulation the school interprets to mean it can ignore a student’s gender identity in that one instance.

Ben countered that the Commission’s regulation cannot override the state’s non-discrimination law, making his arguments quite thoroughly and forcefully, despite the anticipated barrage of questions from the judge. He made the case that the plain language of Maine’s non-discrimination law prohibits the school from denying a girl access to facilities that other girls use simply because she’s transgender. Lastly, he argued that the school violated the law because not only did it exclude Susan from the girls’ bathroom thereby treating her differently than all other girls, it forced her to use a separate facility thereby treating her differently than all other students. 

Ben was satisfied that the arguments “went as well as they could have,” as the judge really seemed to be wrestling with the issues presented in the case. That’s a common experience; our litigation frequently raises new and novel legal issues that judges are often encountering for the first time. Indeed, just as Judge Anderson is wrestling with the rights of transgender people, the judge in the Bragdon case wrestled with the issue of proper access to care for people living with HIV/ AIDS 14 years earlier. Now, it’s simply a no-brainer that people can’t be discriminated against in any setting because of their HIV/AIDS status. We’re working toward the day when treating transgender people equally and respectfully is also a no-brainer.

As with so many of our cases, we understand that the argument before Judge Anderson is just the first step in a long process that may potentially lead to a full trial, and ultimately a decision from the Maine Law Court, the state’s highest court. So now, we await a ruling.

Stay tuned.

Fighting For Our Rights Shows Our 'True Colors'

Guest post from GLAD Public Education Intern Alison Kane

As a passionate film student, I am eager to jump at any chance I have to be on set. So, when Amanda at GLAD approached me to help out on April 1^st & 2^nd’s LGBTQ youth rights shoot, “no” was the farthest thing from my mind.

Going into the shoot, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I know how to turn on a camera; I’ve fetched coffee for many a director; and I know the basic lighting skills. However, every time on set is an opportunity to learn more. Going into this project, I didn’t know the director or the actors, unlike most of the student films I have been involved with in the past. Anything could happen. That, for me, was thrilling.

On Friday evening, after rushing into a part of Boston unknown to me after a day’s worth of classes, I finally arrived at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA). There, I was introduced to Evelyn and the actors from True Colors Out Youth Theater, the youth troupe at the Theater Offensive. Earlier in the week, the youth had collaborated on a script explaining the rights of LGBTQ students in Massachusetts public schools, hashing through the legal jargon to create a straightforward script in their own words. In pairs, the young actors took turns reading the script as Seth, the director, listened in on their individual rehearsals. Though everyone was reading the same script, there were six different stories in those words. Hearing the different voices, different inflections, different ways of empathizing, only got me more excited for the real shoot the next morning.

After the acting exercises, we joined together again to discuss the true stories behind the words in the script. These youth, ranging from sixteen to twenty, each had experienced bullying throughout their time at school. For the most part, the school administration had not addressed the issues and instead they were left to fend for themselves, though luckily, most had a strong base of friends and supporters to help them through. While these stories tore at my heartstrings, they also got me riled up, as they did most of the actors. After someone shared a story, it led to a passionate discussion about what we would have done in that situation or how it should have been handled, but unfortunately wasn’t. Though I was there as another pair of hands, these youth were my age and in that moment, though I had only known them a couple hours, I felt bonded with them in fighting for equality.

The next morning, I arrived back at the BCA at nine a.m. Running on little sleep after crashing on a friend’s couch in the city, I was much in need of a caffeine fix. However, I am no stranger to early morning shoots. Seth had arrived with Josh, his production assistant, and a sedan packed to the brim with equipment. I helped unload the car and lug everything up four stories of a winding staircase to the True Colors rehearsal room. Away from my bubble at school, I learned a lot from simply watching Seth and Josh setup. Most of the equipment was familiar, but I was intrigued by some of the new contraptions Seth had brought along, and learned some tricks I tucked away for my next personal film projects.

Noon rolled around and the True Colors actors were ready for camera. While most of them are seasoned veterans on stage, many have not spent much time on camera. It was amazing watching Seth pull sincere and energetic performances from the actors. However, what was most exciting was seeing the deliveries from the actors once they got warmed up. Ranging from sweet and sympathetic Julia to energetic Anzel to fiery Emma, the same script was read six times, but it never sounded the same. Each personality colored the script in a unique way. Each actor had about a thirty minutes session on camera, going over the script numerous times. While that can be an exhausting task for any actor, the True Colors youth were putting their whole being into their performance. As the day went on, I had heard the script at least thirty times, but it never got old.

As we all helped pack up Seth’s equipment, the bonding that had begun the previous night continued. We had just finished a lengthy day of shooting, but everyone knew we had completed something meaningful and amazing. Some of us exchanged contact information, hoping to meet up again soon. The excitement was present in everyone involved. This video would be shown at youth workshops, and distributed online, hopefully reaching students across the state. I could only imagine some scared and lonely high schooler stumbling across this video and feeling empowered after hearing his rights explained to him from his peers.

With the camera packed away and everyone ready to head home, we bid farewell and went our separate ways. However, the pride of a job well done and the impact of the project we had completed were instilled in all of us. The experience of that weekend will stick with me for a long time. Beyond simply the technical skills, I was fortunate enough to work with some very talented individuals. Their energy surrounding this project is contagious just remembering it. It’s projects like this, and youth like those from True Colors that make the biggest of differences in the end.

The video will premiere April 27 & 28 at two free workshops GLAD is hosting for MA LGBTQ students

Did you go to your high school Prom?

Aaron Fricke and his date Paul talk to attorney John Gaffney just before the Prom.

Photo: Daniel G. Dunn/Picture Group.

LGBT students have dealt with that beloved/dreaded high school ritual - The Prom - in various ways throughout history. Some of us muddled our way through opposite-sex "dates", pretending to have the time of our lives while secretly longing to slow dance with our best friend. Some of us truly did have a great time, spending the evening with a best friend who was also queer. Some skipped the Prom entirely. Some - more, these days - actually did get that special slow dance with the very person they wanted.

In 1980, an 18-year-old student in Cumberland, Rhode Island took a courageous step that helped make it easier for LGBT students to have the Prom experience they deserve. Aaron Fricke went to court to fight for his right to take a male date to his high school Prom, and, with GLAD's help, he won. You can hear Aaron tell his story, along with Attorney John Ward, in this month's podcast (listen at right), Tuxedoes for Two: Fricke v. Lynch, and read more on the case - including press coverage in everything from Gay Community News to People magazine - on GLAD's website.

Did you attend your Prom? Tell us about your experience!


Other sites of interest:
Aaron Fricke at Gay for Today

Aaron Fricke on ourstory.com

HIV and the Politics of Invisibility

That was the title of GLAD’s panel discussion held Tuesday night at the Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center. It is a heavy title that forces us to ask the question: “Where are we today with regards to the AIDS epidemic?” How is it possible that after so many years of devastating loss and discrimination that infection rates continue to soar, disproportionately affecting minority communities? A panel of four renowned individuals in the fight against AIDS: Douglas Brooks, ED of JRI Health; Jacob Smith Yang, ED of Massachusetts Asian and Pacific Islanders for Health; Reverend Irene Monroe, writer and activist; and Kevin Cathcart, ED of Lambda Legal took the stage to discuss their thoughts on the invisibility of the HIV epidemic in the United States.

Kevin Cathcart addressed the paradox of the US government requiring national HIV plans in developing countries, but never forcing our own country to develop one. Other countries that have placed HIV/AIDS at the forefront of national policies and used culturally appropriate prevention strategies have been successful in reducing the transmission rate of HIV. Thailand, for example, implemented a “100 percent condom program” in the 1990’s providing all sex workers with boxes of free condoms. HIV infection rates dropped significantly. What makes it so hard for the US to implement a national strategy that would decrease infection rates across the board? Is our country just too diverse to come up with one national plan?

Jacob Smith Yang discussed the complexity and diversity of the US population. Neglecting to address this diversity has left minority populations behind in the fight against HIV. Yang described the diversity within the Asian population that’s often invisible in the US. It’s necessary to break down the larger Asian population to understand the specific populations affected. When it comes to collecting demographic data for the AIDS epidemic it does not suffice to simply fill in “Asian” (or, worse, “Other” – lumping anyone who is not white, African American or Latino into one category) on a form.

Recording agencies such as the CDC have claimed that desegregating this data is useless because the differentiated numbers are too small to matter, but when infection rates continue, what number is too small? Why can’t we be concerned nationally and on a state level about the health and well being of every individual? We are lucky to live in a diverse society where each population is unique in terms of its cultural dynamics, but that makes it all the more necessary for a national HIV plan to address these differences. By failing to develop a national HIV plan for our own country, we are making this epidemic invisible to the greater public, when in fact decreasing infection rates takes the awareness of every single individual.

- Noreen Giga, Bilingual Outreach Educator



Panelists Reverend Irene Monroe, Jacob Smith Yang, and Kevin Cathcart discuss educating youth about HIV and AIDS.