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The life 
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Warren Swil
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

V 1

 

by Warren Swil

Glendale News-Press May 9, 1996

On the agenda was the proposal to require parents to give permission before their kids could join school clubs. Since the policy apparently had been spurred (if not initiated) by an application for club status by Project 10 - a peer support and discussion group for gay and lesbian students at Hoover High - it had been interpreted by some as a devious way to prevent official recognition of the gay group.

The drama unfolded somewhat like a Passion Play. Surprisingly, from the outset the pro-tolerance position of a huge majority in the audience was clearly expressed by enthusiastic applause. The five who spoke in favor of permission slips were, at times, booed and laughed at. Because it drew fire when it surfaced early ill April, the initial proposal - which contained only the permission slip policy option - had been amended. The compromise Plan B - parental notification without requiring a response - was the one the board eventually approved 4-1.

Much had transpired during the month-long journey to the lopsided School Board vote. Each board member received up to 75 written communications (letters, faxes, even posters) on the subject, said district publicist Vic Pallos. About 90 phone calls, both pro and con, were logged. One resident, William Soucie, sent board members a videotape depicting what he called the “real side of gays and lesbians.” 

By the time Kim Adams of the liberal think-tank People For The American Way began the public presentations, two threads had been woven around the proposed policy. Gay rights advocates and their supporters opposed it because it threatened Project 10, while the handful who wanted permission slips, with the exception of Rev. Thomas Suzmar of Burbank's Celebration Christ Church, framed their arguments in terms of parental control, barely mentioning the gay and lesbian issue.

About 30 speakers lined up to address the board. A brief discussion among board members about the parameters of the debate led President Jeanne Bentley to rule that normal procedures - five minutes per speaker, 20 minutes each side - would apply.  The first speaker, Adams, was applauded enthusiastically as she ended, leading to a request by board member Lynda Rocamora for the crowd to hold its approbation. However, some - like Project 10 coordinator Carl Halverson - so moved the audience it ignored Rocamora's plea and erupted into applause.

For almost 45 minutes (more than twice as long as previously stipulated) a parade of people spoke passionately about the need for gays and lesbians to have peer support and how the permission slip policy would endanger them. Among the most eloquent was recent Hoover graduate Alex Spada, 18, who was thrown out of her home by her parents after the April board meeting at which her public comments about being lesbian were reported in the media. Nancy Sohn, mother of a gay son and lesbian daughter, invited board members to a meeting of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. “It would be an education, for all of you,” she said.

A surprise appearance was made by the president of the Glendale American Association of University Women, Mary Polaris. “We have never been before the School Board before,” she said, “but we are frightened. This parental consent policy is a thinly disguised and increasingly common tactic of the religious right. Please don't put out the welcome mat for them in Glendale.”

After the five supporters of permission slips spoke, but with 15 opponents still in line, Bentley ended the public debate with an almost-perceptible sigh of relief. It was somewhat of an anti-climax when the vote was tallied. It had become increasingly clear board members were unwilling to risk the disappearance of the gay support group (and possibly other clubs) by approving a policy that, among other consequences, was certain to result in a divisive, expensive legal battle.

Compromise is the essence of governance in a democracy. Even if he makes good on his threat to follow up with a lawsuit, the obviously homophobic William Soucie should remember this. Now, let the district get on with its real business -the education of Glendale's kids.

Warren Swil is the editor of Community Forum.