News and Press Releases

Information shared by allies is for informational purposes for those who are 
interested and is not meant to be offensive or disrespectful to anyone, 
including those with differing viewpoints. In celebrating diversity and 
inclusiveness, diverse viewpoints may be shared, respected and examined. 
The communication below is offered if you are interested. Otherwise, please 
disregard.  Questions may be directed to emenheiser@unt.edu

Denton ISD Passes Anti-harrassment Policies

Dallas Passes Nondiscrimination Law

New York City Endorses Gay Partnerships

Texas Sodomy Law Appealed to US Supreme Court

New Journal For Youth Seeks Submissions

Walt Whitman Community School Open House

High School Bully Case

National Women's Alliance

Admissions Fair a First for GLBT Students

Fire Department Ignites Bigotry, Gets Catholic Priest Ousted from 9/11 Role Because He Offers Mass for Queers

UNT Men Against Violence

New York City Transgender Anti-discrimination Law Passes

The Next Letter in GLBT - "I"

Colleges Increasingly Look to Attract Gay Applicants

Ten Ways to Be an Ally

Gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and ability were added to the Denton Independent School District's anti-harassment policies at the School Board meeting Tuesday, May 14.  These and other revisions to the Policy Manual were included on the consent agenda since   they were passed unanimously at the first reading April 23.  They will also appear in the Student Handbook distributed to all D.I.S.D. students.

Nearly a year ago School Board member Curtis Ramsay spoke at a meeting of the local chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. 

He expressed concern that certain groups were not specified in current policy.  Kathy Massey, Denton PFLAG president at the time and now serving on the national board of that organization, selected a committee composed of both members and concerned citizens to study the issue.   The general atmosphere created by September 11 gave the committee, headed by Dr. Edra Bogle, a greater sense of urgency.  They presented material to the school board in December.  In January the Board directed Superintendent Ray Braswell to create a committee of teachers and administrators, with Dr. Bogle serving as community representative.

The D.I.S.D. committee, headed by Executive Director of School Operations Tony Swafford, revised the policy in February and March.  It was approved by the Educational Improvement Council, composed of elected representatives from each school, and then sent to the Board.

Denton is the fourth school district in the state to add gender identity and sexual orientation to its list of groups not to be harassed in school.    

The official text of the revised policy FNCL (LOCAL) reads:
Students shall not engage in harassment directed toward another individual.  A substantiated charge of harassment against a student shall result in disciplinary action.  [See FO series and the Student Code of Conduct]

DEFINITIONS:  The term "harassment" includes repeated, unwelcome, or offensive slurs, jokes, or other oral, written, graphic, or physical conduct relating to an individual's diversity, including but not limited to actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ability or disability, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic status, or physical attributes, including these qualities as attributed to members of a student's family, that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment.

REPORTING:  Students who believe they have been harassed by fellow students or District employees are encouraged to promptly report such incidents to the campus principal.  If the campus principal is the subject of a complaint, the student shall report the complaint directly to the Superintendent or designated administrator.

Details about investigations and protection from retaliation follow. 

Policy DHB (Local), concerning employees, was amended in a similar fashion.

For further information contact Mr. Swafford at tswafford@dentonisd.org or Dr. Bogle at ecbogle@juno.com.  

SUMMARY: Dallas gay and lesbian residents now have an ordinance to protect them from discrimination.

Dallas gay and lesbian residents now have an ordinance to protect them from discrimination. Community leaders have been fighting for it for the past 20 years.

"I think Friday's happy hours at the gay bars are going to take on a really different tone," said Jamie Shields, executive director of the John Thomas Gay and Lesbian Community Center. "We are so excited about this, although we have been embarrassed that we were the last major city in Texas to adopt the ordinance."

Four other Texas cities have nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation. Wednesday's 13-2 decision in favor was what national leaders called "a positive sign" for the South.

"Being a major Southern hub, it sets a great precedent for the rest of the region," said Wayne Besen of the Human Rights Campaign. "We're thrilled this passed."

The ordinance prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, housing and in employment. Violation of the ordinance is a Class C misdemeanor, which is punishable by fines of $200 to $500.

Up until now, only gay city employees were protected by Dallas' employment laws. Now, employers with more than 15 workers would be required to comply with the ordinance. State and federal offices and religious organizations are exempt.

The only two council members voting against the ordinance said it would be too expensive for the city to enforce it in such a tight budget year.

"Actually, it's a cost effective measure," said Besen, who has seen how these ordinances work nationally. "The only people who are penalized by the law are the people who violate it."

The ordinance had strong backing. Dallas Mayor Laura Miller made the policy a part of her political campaign. Major Dallas employers ---American Airlines, Southern Methodist University and Blockbuster -- spoke at the hearing in favor of the change.

Openly gay councilman John Loza praised the gay community's large turn-out at the meeting. At the meeting, he said he was pleased with the direction his city is heading in.

"Let us walk out of the shadow of intolerance and bigotry into the sunshine of human rights," he said. 

Vermont is still the only state in the United States in which gay civil unions are legal. A partner registry has been created in California. Similar registries exist in Nova Scotia and Quebec, and in England and Germany. But the Netherlands is the only country which currently allows gays and lesbians full marriage rights.

The move by New York means that city residents who travel outside the state to be united will have the union recognized at home. It also allows couples who have had civil unions to retain their status if they move to or visit New York.

If one of the pair were hospitalized, for example, the partner would be treated as a spouse for visiting purposes.

But, the law does not create a separate registry in New York, nor does it permit civil union ceremonies to be legally performed in the city. It is, however, a small step forward, gay rights advocates say.

Councilman Simcha Felder, D-Brooklyn, objected strenuously to the legislation, which passed by a vote of 34 in favor, 7 against and 4 abstentions.

In a petition filed Tuesday, the legal group appealed the case of two Houston men, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner, who were arrested in their own home by police following up on a false call placed by an old boyfriend.  The men were subsequently jailed for 24 hours, convicted and fined $200 each.

Texas is one of just four states, including Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, that criminalizes same-sex couples for private, consensual sex. Up until recently, there were five such states, but the Arkansas Supreme Court struck that state's sodomy law as unconstitutional on July 5. Nine other states retain sodomy laws that apply to all couples, gay or straight.

If the justices accept the case, Lambda will argue that sodomy laws in general violate constitutional privacy rights, and that Texas's law violates the right to equal protection as well. Four of the nine justices must agree to hear the appeal in order for the case to proceed, and although only a few of the many appeals to the high court are accepted, there are strong reasons to believe Lawrence and Garner v. Texas may be one of those few.

In the mid-1990s, the Texas Supreme Court backed away from ruling on an earlier sodomy case, determining that the issue was out of its jurisdiction and belonged in the criminal courts. After their arrest in 1998, Lawrence and Garner indeed took their case up the criminal court ladder, winning a state appellate verdict, which was overturned by the full appellate court.

That ruling, in turn, was appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals -- the highest criminal court in the state -- in the spring of 2001. After doing nothing for a year, however, the Court of Criminal Appeals declined to hear the case without explanation last April.

At a time when state supreme courts all over the country have been addressing the constitutionality of sodomy laws, the two courts of final appeal in Texas have both ducked the issue. The day after the April nonruling by the Court of Criminal Appeals, Lambda announced that it was "likely" to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, in part due to the inaction of the Lone Star State courts. That inaction is also a compelling reason for the high court to take the case, the lawyers believe.

The new international Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education will publish several brief (250-400 word) essays penned by GLBTQ youth on the topic "How do words such as 'gay' or 'queer' describe who I am?" Anyone 23 years of age or under is invited to submit a previously unpublished essay.

Submissions should be sent electronically mailto:jglie@jtsears.com

Deadline is October 1, 2002. More information about the journal can be found at www.jtsears.com/jglie

Educational issues relating to glbtq individuals can be expressed visually as well as textually. The new international quarterly Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education welcomes submissions of original art (e.g., photographs, silkscreens, painting) that speaks to queer issues in education and/or is produced by glbtq youth. Images are published in black & white format in the journal. For the next issue submissions are sought from glbtq youth. For additional guidelines or to submit your work, contact Jim Sanders (<mailto:jsanders@netunlimited.net>). For more information about the journal: www.jtsears.com/jglie 

  RSVP 214-855-1535

A gay student who sued high school administrators in Reno, Nevada, for failing to stop anti-gay harassment today signed a settlement agreement that ends the lawsuit and offers broad new protections that will impact gay and lesbian students nationwide. The agreement is the first in the country to recognize the constitutional right of gay and lesbian youth to be open about their sexual orientation in schools and to be protected from discrimination and harassment by other students.

As a result of the settlement in Henkle v. Gregory, Derek Henkle will be paid $451,000 in damages, the largest pre-trial award of its kind in the nation.

In addition, the Washoe County School District will immediately implement sweeping new policies to protect gay and lesbian students from discrimination, including training all staff on preventing and responding to sexual harassment and intimidation.

Henkle, who endured years of anti-gay verbal and physical abuse in Reno high schools, was represented jointly by Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund and the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers LLP. (Queer Mail amazed, and pleased, that O'Melveny and Myers, the top of the legal establishment on the west coast, was involved without any fee whatsoever.)

"The settlement achieves all the objectives of this lawsuit," according to Peter Obstler, a senior counsel with O'Melveny & Myers, who acted as lead trial counsel in this case. "First, the monetary award will go a long way toward helping Derek recover from the years of harassment he suffered in high school. Second, the settlement fundamentally changes the way that this school district will protect its students from harassment in the future. And third, the settlement sends a message to the nation's schools that the harassment of gay and lesbian students will not be tolerated and that the failure to respond to that harassment has serious financial consequences for school districts. Simply put, 'If you bash, you pay.'"

"Today's settlement tells schools across the country that they must allow gay students to be fully out and must protect them from discrimination," said Jon Davidson, senior counsel in Lambda Legal's western regional office. "Lesbian and gay students are coming out at younger ages. This settlement provides the first real blueprint for how schools can meet their legal obligations as this trend continues. We commend the Washoe Country School District for setting the example for how schools can deal with this evolving issue. This settlement raises the bar for other school districts nationwide in meeting their legal obligations and we hope other districts will follow Reno's example."

"I'm signing this agreement today on behalf of the 84% of my peers who are assaulted daily while trying to go to school," said Derek Henkle, now 21 and a resident of San Francisco. "This settlement will help make sure other students don't go through what I did in Reno. Gay and lesbian students face hostility from other students, and even from school staff, every day in schools across the country. I was deprived of my education because of this, but I'm pleased that this settlement will show other students that they can fight for their rights to be open and honest about who they are, to be protected from harassment and abuse, and as a result to have basic access to an education."

Henkle was a victim of violence, bullying, and physical attacks at three different high schools in the Washoe County School District. At his first high school, he was called names, shoved against lockers and spit on. A group of boys even threw a lasso around Henkle's neck and threatened to drag him behind their pick-up truck. He escaped, only to have a teacher laugh at him for being so upset. He was transferred to a school for students with behavioral or academic problems where the principal warned Henkle against "acting like a fag."

After Henkle was transferred to yet a third high school, the harassment continued and school police officers stood by while a student repeatedly punched Henkle in the face. He was finally forced to enroll in adult education classes where a high school diploma was impossible to obtain.

The $451,000 being paid to Henkle by the school district will allow him to continue his education. Henkle who had been in a program for "gifted and talented" students was forced to abandon his high school education.

As part of the settlement agreement, the school district has placed a letter in Henkle's academic file that recognizes that the harassment and violence he suffered affected his academic performance. This letter will be critical to his being able to gain admission to college.

Henkle also plans to use a portion of the settlement money to fund an educational project that will empower lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth to address harassment and violence.

In addition to the financial compensation to Henkle, the Washoe Country School District agreed in the settlement to sweeping new school board policies and actions that, among other things:

-- Expressly acknowledge that students' freedom of expression specifically includes the right to discuss their sexual orientationand issues related to sexual orientation at school;

-- Require regular student education about harassment and sexual harassment and intimidation;

-- Require regular training of all staff regarding the prevention of and proper response to harassment, sexual harassment and intimidation o fstudents; and

-- Require posting of the policy and implementing regulations in all district buildings and include it in student handbooks given annually to families

The Washoe County School District operates 86 schools spread over a county larger than the state of Delaware and has enrollment of more than 58,000 students who will be protected by this settlement.

The Henkle settlement follows several other lawsuits against schools that have settled in recent years. In 1996, the trial of Lambda Legal's landmark case Nabozny v. Podlesny resulted in a jury finding Wisconsin schools officials liable for not protecting Nabozny.

The case is Henkle v. Gregory in United States District Court, District of Nevada. The Henkle litigation team was comprised of Jon Davidson, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, and Michael Tubac, Peter Obstler and Luann Simmons, from the O'Melveny firm which acted as lead trial counsel. O'Melveny & Meyers represented Henkle pro bono in this case and contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal services to Henkle's cause. In addition, O'Melveny and Lambda waived their right to recover attorneys' fees so that a workable settlement could be achieved in the case.

Organizational History
The National Women's Alliance was organized in December 1997 and became incorporated as a nonprofit organization on July 30, 1998. It is the only national technical assistance, advocacy and membership organization in the country that specifically focuses on the needs and concerns of women and girls of color. The organization is founded on the premise that social justice does not occur in a vacuum, but rather it is through coalition building and examining the root of causes of oppression that social change happens.

http://www.nwaforchange.org/mission.html

More than 400 people, including a handful of local leaders and clergy, gathered to attend the area's first Mass for gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered people led by the Rev. Fred Daley. The main message at the Mass revolved around acceptance, love, forgiveness, peace and unity.

"I just want you to know you're very welcome here today," Daley told the congregation as he started the service. He wore a rainbow stole over his white robes. "We are one family," he said.

The event garnered opposition early last week when a Right to Life group pronounced it "against the church."

Sunday's service was drawn even further into controversy when, because of his involvement in hosting the Mass, Daley was removed Tuesday as the main speaker at "One Region United," Wednesday's memorial event for the victims and heroes of Sept. 11.

Utica's Assistant Fire Chief Russell Brooks, backed by Mayor Timothy Julian, threatened to pull out of the Sept. 11 ceremony if Daley didn't step aside. Brooks and Julian said Daley's involvement in the gay community would have brought unwanted controversy and "stress" to the Sept. 11 memorial.

And as expected, Sunday's Mass did not pass without disapproval. Though inside there were rainbows, outside there was rain -- and more than a dozen protesters to the Mass despite the weather.

The demonstrators, many of them from the Oneida County Right to Life group, held signs on the steps of the church before the service: "Gay sex is evil," "Love the sinner, hate the sin" and "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."

"It's not my truth or the perceived truth, but THE truth," explained one objector to the Mass, Nicholas Parisi of Utica. "We oppose evil in every quarter." According to Parisi, it's not homosexuals that the protesters were opposed to, but the fact that they have sex outside the bonds of marriage.

For that reason, the group also believes that the Roman Catholic church should not sanction a Mass for gays and lesbians. "You're not a homosexual if you're not practicing. It's not the person, it's what they do," he said. "It goes against all the church's teachings. Sodomy is a sin -- it's wrong."

There were also two young men who held signs that said, "The Bible is just a book" and "Catholicism preaches intolerance" and "Free your minds: Abolish organized religion."

As people walked up the steps of the church, the Right to Life protesters would shout to them as well as to Daley, who was in the entryway.

Daley merely invited all of the sign-holders to stay for the Mass.

"Don't listen to them, Father Fred -- don't listen," one of the two men protesting religious intolerance yelled about the Right to Life demonstrators. "You go inside and have a good service."

When he took his place at the front of the church, Daley was met by thunderous applause and cheers. "It would be nice if this happened every Sunday," he said, smiling.

Flanked by rainbow ribbons and a rainbow flag-covered altar, Daley received laughs and a second standing ovation when he said, "I'm very happy that I wasn't uninvited to be the speaker today."

He has spent the week reflecting on his "uninviting" to the Sept. 11 ceremony, thinking "what in the world does that event have to do with a Mass at St. Francis. He decided there was indeed a very deep connection.

"Whether it was the young men who turned planes into the World Trade Center or the young men who drove Mathew Shepherd into a field in Wyoming and beat him to death for being gay, the root is the same. They were all driven to insanity by ignorance -- by fear that turns into hatred, and hatred that turns into violence," Daley said.

"The bottom line is ... all the issues that bring people to suffer are the same, whether it's terrorism or racism or homophobia." Rather than perpetuate violence, he said, people should seek the truth together and it will "set us all free."

"When in conflict, let's not try to win, destroy or dissolve the enemy. Let's disarm them," he said. "Those who live by the sword, die by the sword."

He admitted to feeling angry, bitter and embarrassed after being removed as the speaker at "One Region United." However, he said, we should all take the energy that comes from those feelings and use it for the good.

"I think the last several days have been the greatest teaching moments on homophobia the Mohawk Valley has ever seen," he said. "I challenge all of us to use this moment as a time to move our community out of ignorance, hatred, fear and violence."

The key to breaking that cycle is education, he said, which will defeat the myths and stereotypes about gay people that come from as far back as the Middle Ages. Two fundamentals of that education are first, that no one can choose his or her sexual orientation and second, that the Bible cannot be used to evaluate one's sexuality, Daley said.

"We can't use the Bible to hit people over the head with," he said, noting that he doesn't think modern theologians are able to use the Bible to prove homosexuality a sin. The Catholic church and others should not be so obsessed with what people do in private, he said.

"I didn't tell anyone at the 8 a.m. Mass or the 11 a.m. Mass (what to do in their bedrooms), so I'm certainly not going to tell anyone here at the 3 p.m. Mass," he said, receiving more cheers and applause. "Certainly no one is going to push me to stand at the pulpit and explain what is intimate."

At the end of the service, Beverly Bartlett, coordinator of the Mohawk Valley Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender organization, presented Daley with a clock commending him for his courage. Bartlett said sometime soon the organization would like to work with St. Francis DeSales to establish a monthly Mass for gay and lesbian people. "We can walk out of this building and commit ourselves to speak the truth," Daley said.

"If we do that there will be someday that our public officials will maybe even hang the rainbow flag."

After the service, people stayed for refreshments, to visit and to sign a card to Bishop James Moynihan, thanking him for allowing the Mass.

Daley said he spoke to Bishop James Moynihan and Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse officials last week to clarify the service and he expected no opposition for Sunday's Mass. Syracuse and Binghamton area churches have had similar services, he said.

The Rev. Paula McRae of the United Methodist Church was one of the local pastors in attendance -- others included clergy from the Jewish, Unitarian Universalist and Presbyterian religions, and other local Catholic priests. McRae said a protester approached her in the rear of the church with a video camera.

The woman was videotaping the service "to send to the bishop." "I told her 'Jesus is for everyone,'" McRae said. "I believe in the compassion of Christ. Jesus would want it to be this way," she said, gesturing to the crowd. "Jesus would want everyone here."

My name is Luke McKibben.  I am the coordinator of the Men Against Violence program here at UNT.  Men Against Violence is a student-run peer education group that is funded through the Student Health and Wellness Center.  Our faculty advisor is Peggy Fogle and we were founded in the summer of 2001.

Men Against Violence is dedicated to examining the role that men play in violence and we are committed to ending the violence that comes as a result of the gender constructs of masculinity versus femininity.  We do this in numerous ways, but most importantly, we do this by giving presentations to groups on the issues of violence, sexual assault, and rape.

It is our hope that as dialogue begins and people talk about these issues that we can effectively put an end to these violent behaviors.  One of the ways that we would like to begin this dialogue is by speaking to classrooms on the subject.  That is where we hope that you, as a faculty member, will be able to help us a great deal.

We can give presentations on various topics that examine multiple issues.  Some of these topics include; male socialization, rape, sexual assault, homophobia, sexism, and racism.  We can also customize a presentation to fit different time frames and we are flexible as to when we can provide a presentation.

So when you are planning your semester and if you come across a lecture that will be on any of the issues mentioned above, please keep us in mind.  We can give a brief 10 minute presentation or we can present for much longer.

We also can give presentations to Greek organizations, Student organizations, community and TWU organizations, church groups, sports teams, etc...

Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to call the Men Against Violence office at 940.369.7549.  You can also reach me via email at mav@unt.edu.

Thank you for your time, and have a good semester,
Luke McKibben
Men Against Violence Coordinator

Cheryl Chase hid in her brain until she was in her mid-30s.  An attractive woman with short cropped hair and strong features, Chase was not always that comfortable with herself.  Nor was she always what she appears to be.  Until she was 18 months old, Chase was a boy.  She had a different name, clothes and toys that symbolized boyhood, and a birth certificate that had an "M" inked in the gender box.  Then, before she reached the age of two, she was "reassigned" female.  She was given a new name, new clothes and toys, and with a new birth certificate in the files, the family moved to a different town where no one knew them.  She also underwent a clitorectomy, the surgical removal of her entire phallus, which they reinterpreted as a large clitoris instead of an undersized penis, a procedure that all but destroyed her potential for sexual pleasure later in life.  Seven years later as a grammar school kid, she had her testes trimmed and from then on endured yearly trips to the doctor to be poked, prodded, and photographed. No one told her why she was different, though she knew she was.  Her parents fought and whispered.  Her questions were left unanswered.  She felt like a stranger in her own skin, her body a prison of shame and secrecy instead of a temple.  It was not until she was in her early 30s that Chase learned the whole truth:  She had been born intersexed, what was once called a hermaphrodite.

"When an intersex baby is born, the default is usually to perform surgery.  Doctors want to 'fix' what is not right, then slap a diaper on the baby, close the file, and send it off into its life," says Chase, who spoke in Missoula last week.  "It is difficult for parents and doctors to think of an infant as a person who will grow up into a sexual being, an adult with drives and the ability to make lifestyle choices."

Despite the myth that intersex babies are rare-anomalies that are as freakish and monster-like as the mythical being, Hermaphroditus, from whom their name was derived, as many as one in 2,000 infants are born intersexed.   An intersex baby is born with ambiguous genitalia, or more precisely, with an anatomy that someone decides is neither standard male nor female. Though there are several dozen variations on the diagnosis, an intersex baby is not born with two sets of genitals, but rather a phallus that can be interpreted as a "mini penis" or an "enlarged clitoris," as well as gonads that can present as either testicles or ovaries.  Because nature could not seem to make up its mind in utero, many doctors believe that the best course of action is surgery.  That  way, the child grows up looking more "normal" (or so it's long been thought), resembling friends and being happier and more well adjusted.  But to date, there have been virtually no  follow-up studies on intersex individuals who were surgically altered during childhood.

"Intersex is definitely a queer issue," says Chase.  "I mean,  how do you know someone's sex?  You might ask them, or you could make a guess based on physical appearance, bone structure, clothing choices, mannerisms, behaviors.  You can't see sexual desire.  You can't divorce gender identity from sexuality.  They are inextricably linked."

Defining gender identity can be a tricky business.  Every  individual has a chromosomal sex, a hormonal sex, and a "mental" sex or gender, though these don't always line up for everyone.  Who is to say that an intersex baby who is assigned male and surgically altered to  match that assignment won't grow up to feel like a woman trapped in a man's body?  According to Chase, the reason doctors - and parents - often want to surgically "fix" their intersex infant is because they  worry the child might grow up to be gay or lesbian instead of heterosexual.  Though the medical profession and society at large have come a long way with dealing with issues like death  and dying, adoption, and cancer, usually people don't want to talk or even think about intersexuality.

Doctors mean well, says Chase.  They don't opt for surgery to  be cruel or mutilate these babies.  Rather, they are just thinking "inside the box."  A lot of times, doctors don't believe in changing a practice unless they have a better one, and this takes education and  open-mindedness.  "At a medical meeting, a doctor showed a slide of an intersex child's genitals almost as if it were a freak show.  The slide included the genital area only, no arms or legs, no face.  Implying that  surgery is the only choice, the doctor asked rhetorically: 'Would you send this to kindergarten?'" Chase says. "When I went to kindergarten, I wore clothes."

To endure the shame and confusion she felt as a child and later  as a young adult, Chase tried to concentrate on her brain instead of her body. "I went to MIT and studied math and science.  I learned Japanese.  Then I moved to Japan and got a job doing intense computer and  translation work.  I was good at all the hard stuff, the non-emotional stuff that's considered more masculine," she says.  "But I was miserable.  Suicidal for a long time. I kept thinking that I'd feel  better, but at 35, I realized that the future was here."

In Tokyo, Chase volunteered as an English speaker for a crisis  hotline.  "To volunteer, we had to go through low-level training for therapists.  I thought they would teach solutions to offer over the phone, but I ended up learning how to talk to people, how to deal with  myself and others on a more emotional level, something I had never done before."

At 36, Chase returned to America.  Finally able to recover her  medical records after being lied to and turned away on many occasions, she confronted her mother.  "I was a mess.  Angry.  I found it harder and harder to believe that the people who were supposed to take care of  me would have done this," she says.  "I was worried my mother wouldn't tell me anything, but I needed her to fill me in on the emotional stuff.

She said she didn't have any shame, and yet she still couldn't admit  anything. The whole thing had been traumatic for her too. It became too painful for her to see me after that." Chase's mother died 10 years later. They never got the chance to share truths, losses, compassion.

Though the decisions that need to be made for an intersex child  are never easy or simple, Chase believes vehemently that a person should be able to make his or her own choices.  "Surgery does not make everything perfect. It might make you look more female or male, but it  certainly does not make you look or be 'normal,'" she says.  "A person should be able to make a choice when they are a teenager, when they have some sense of their sexuality and gender identity.  And with all the information on the table, no secrets, no lies, they should have a  realistic view of what doctors can and cannot do.  Honest and complete disclosure is good medicine."

For Angela, an intersex woman, the choice never belonged to her.   She did not present as intersexed until she was 12, around the time she discovered masturbation and enjoyed the pleasure her enlarged clitoris afforded her.  When her mother saw her emerge from the shower with what looked like a small penis, she rushed her to the hospital.  She was told  she had ovarian cancer and went immediately into surgery.  She awoke with no ovaries and no clitoris.  A boy has a penis, a girl a vagina.  A clitoris, she was told, was considered unnecessary.  Angela was too ashamed to ask what had happened.  She can no longer enjoy her body as  she once did.

Another intersex child who was assigned female was given a  vaginoplasty, a vagina often formed from a stretch of colon.  In order to have it remain open it has to be manually stretched with what amounts to various sized vibrators.  The child's grandmother had to hold the  baby down as it screamed while the mother did the "therapy."

Vaginoplasties often result in infection.  They can separate,  leak mucous most of the time, and be very painful.  Though this procedure is not used for transsexual operations, it is still used for intersex infants.

Though increasing public awareness and working toward policy  change can be slow, Chase already sees the hopeful beginnings of a sea change.  At a recent meeting with the National Institutes of Health, Chase says she met doctors whose viewpoints ran the gamut.  "One doctor admitted to me that it had never occurred to him that quality of life  was an issue for intersex individuals.  Just that he made that mental leap was hopeful," she says. Another doctor, a surgeon, recently returned to medical school to become a pediatric psychologist specializing in the children he used to operate on. "I think he, as well as some others in the medical field, are realizing that you can repair a gender assignment, but you can't put back what you've surgically taken away."

The work "to create a world free of shame, secrecy, and  unwanted surgery for intersex people" can be slow going.  One surgeon Chase met recently said he has never talked to a "formerly intersexed" person, nor done any follow-up studies on adults.  "He said he doesn't want to talk  to any of them because he might then be swayed by emotion."

According to Chase, counseling is one of the major links missing in helping families and individuals deal with intersexuality.  "We need to normalize this by talking about it, not by cutting things off or creating new parts," she says.  "Parents of intersex babies feel guilty,  ashamed, often traumatized.  They need to have tools to deal with their children and the questions and situations that are going to come up.  And the individuals themselves need to be able to express themselves in ways that help them deal with being different.  They need peers.  They  need to meet other people who have gone through a similar journey."

To date, there are few therapists equipped for the job.  "They are scared that the issues will be too medical, too scientific.  They also think the work would be too gender-oriented for their expertise," she says.  "They want to know if the person is male or female then go from there.  And ironically, many therapists seem afraid of dealing with trauma.  People -doctors, psychiatrists, families - still think that by keeping everything secret that they will be helping these children, saving them from themselves."

 In 1993, Chase founded the Intersex Society of North America  (ISNA). Already, ISNA has made significant steps in education and advocacy for intersex issues, putting forward a patient-centered model that is being adopted in more medical facilities.  Chase and her  colleagues are in the process of creating a training video and accompanying handbook for doctors, which they hope to ultimately sell to hospitals, psychiatrists, libraries, and schools.  Among others, it  features Chase, a pediatric-endocrinologist nurse, a pediatric  psychologist, a biomedical ethicist, and the mother of an intersex child who was surgically assigned female as an infant and who now, at 9, knows he is a boy.

"If intersex people never get to talk about the issues  surrounding their differences at birth, they never get to mourn what they weren't born with, or without," says Chase.  "They remain stuck."  And like Hermaphroditus, they remain trapped in the myth that they are  not right until that myth is shattered simply by the act of speaking and sharing.

For more information, visit the Intersex Society of North  America Web site at www.isna.org.

In personal essays and interviews, some of them describe high school years rife with rejection, isolation, and anonymity.  But colleges and universities are promising to welcome them.

Gay and lesbian high school students have become an increasingly coveted pool of applicants for liberal-arts schools and larger universities alike, counselors and admissions officials say.

While their population remains largely uncounted, attracting those teenagers has become an increasingly obvious goal for many colleges, admissions officials say, and the recruitment efforts have grown more direct.

Last month, a college fair specifically for gay and lesbian students in Boston - believed to be the first of its kind in the nation - had been expected to draw five to 10 colleges and universities.

More than 40 schools showed up, the organizers said.  The roster included liberal-arts schools like Grinnell College in Iowa, Ivy League standard-bearers like Harvard and Brown, and state universities and technical institutes.  The May 18 event was part of a weekend Gay-Straight Youth Pride Celebration.

"In the next year or two, I think you'll see more schools taking an active role in recruiting gay and lesbian students," said Chris Ferguson, a program director with the Massachusetts Department of Health, who helped organize the event.  "There haven't been a lot of forums that bring gay and lesbian students together."

Some of the schools that showed up in Boston, Mr. Ferguson gathered from discussions with attendees, did so after getting a strong nudge from gay and lesbian advocates on their campus.

Colleges and universities seek out homosexual students partly for the same reasons they want students from racial and ethnic minorities, admissions officials say:  as part of their sweeping goal of increasing diversity on campus.

Targeting gay students is one thing; finding high school juniors and seniors who might otherwise prefer to remain discreet about their sexual orientation is something else.

"The problem is, how do you identify these students and market to them?" said Brad J. Blankenship, an admissions counselor at American University in Washington.  "At the same time, we hope to send a signal to them that we're gay-friendly."

Advocacy organizations today encourage students to quiz colleges about the services and programs they offer for gay and lesbian students.  Colleges have responded:  Many of them tout such benefits openly, during talks with students touring campus, and in interviews and literature, admissions officers say.

In some cases, gay and lesbian applicants reveal their sexuality in applying to colleges, in personal essays or descriptions of their high school activities.  Still, many colleges and universities try to make their pitches with subtlety.

"You don't want to go out and confront young people too directly, if they are still coming to terms with their sexuality," said Barmak Nassirian, the associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, in Washington.  "It's a tough call when you're dealing with high school teenagers."

So far, admissions officers say, colleges have refrained from asking students about their sexual orientation on applications, a step that might raise legal questions.

More Scrutiny

The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, published a guide last year intended to help gay high school students choose a college.  The guide also aims to assist "transgender" students, a term that includes both transsexuals and, the network says, those who choose not to identify with what they see as society's stereotypical definitions of gender roles and behaviors.

The brochure suggests applicants ask colleges about the number of openly gay and lesbian students on campus and about courses in gay and lesbian studies, among other factors.  The New York City-based advocacy organization published a similar guide to help high school counselors assist gay students.

Gay students are giving their college options increasing scrutiny.   Philip Stewart, who is gay and grew up in a rural area about 30 minutes outside Pittsburgh, looked at schools on their Internet sites before narrowing his search to American University in Washington, New York University, and Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

At all three, Mr. Stewart found what he saw as a refreshing sense of big-city tolerance.  He eventually committed to American University, after talking with friends who went there.

"With every minority, it's nice to go someplace that promotes equality," said Mr. Stewart, now 19, who has just finished his freshman year.  "I wanted someplace with a more liberal outlook."

American University gives prospective gay and lesbian students tips about what they should look for in a college, Mr. Blankenship said, and then explains how it offers those features.

Staff members tell potential students about the services and social activities available to gay and lesbian students.  The employees can provide more specific information over the phone and by e-mail, with the promise of confidentiality, Mr. Blankenship added.

But some admissions officials say parents of gay and lesbian students are often surprisingly direct.

"A mother or father will come up and say, 'My son is openly gay. What services do you have to offer?'" said Jerry W. Pope, an associate dean of admissions at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill.  "A couple years ago, that was almost unheard of."

Others say college and university efforts have been pushed along by societal changes.  Many more high school students these days are openly discussing their gay sexual orientation than was the case a few years ago, when most waited until college, Mr. Blankenship said.  As a result, colleges must be ready to address such students' needs sooner.

Two years ago, about 1,000 high schools nationwide had established organizations to support their gay students, said Kevin Jennings, the executive director of GLSEN, whose organization works with those schools.

By 2002, he said, that number had doubled to about 2,000.

Neither college-admissions officials nor gay-rights advocates could point to any evidence that gay or lesbian students were more desirable for colleges than other students from an academic standpoint.  And none of those interviewed said such students would boost their chances for admission simply by virtue of their sexual orientation.

But some of them suggested that gay and lesbian students offered colleges another benefit:  an uncommon maturity, from having coped with life outside the accepted norm during high school.

"You've got students who, in the face of enormous adversity, have achieved," said Mr. Jennings, a former high school teacher.  "Colleges want the best of any group.  It's the job of the university to attract a diverse and outstanding student body."

http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=41admitbox.h21

SIDEBAR:  Finding the Right Campus

Organizations representing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender high school students have specific suggestions on what those students should look for in choosing colleges.  Most of the information should be available from colleges' student-activities centers, counseling offices, gay-lesbian campus organizations, and alumni organizations, the groups say.

The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, says prospective students should consider the following factors in looking at whether colleges will welcome them:

* The number of "out" students - or those who are openly gay - on campus.  Network officials say that factor is important in how quickly gay students adjust to life on campus.

* The number of "out" faculty members and administrators.  Having such staff members in influential positions can indicate how welcoming a college's environment is, GLSEN officials say.

* Institutional resources.  Does the school have any paid staff members devoted to outreach for those students?  Such employees can offer a link between students and the administration.

* Student resources.  Are there student organizations that plan social events and other activities for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students?

* Classes taught.  Studies of gay and lesbian issues have emerged in areas such as history, film, music, art, and literature, and many schools offer courses in those areas.

SOURCE: Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, "Finding an LGBT Friendly Campus: A Guide for LGBT Students Pursuing Higher Education," 2001

Ten Ways to be an Ally
1. Don't assume everyone is heterosexual.
2. Do not ever out anyone. Just beause you might know, don't assume that others do.
3. Avoid anti-gay jokes and conversations.
4. Create an atmosphere of acceptance.
5. Use all inclusive language. Use "partner" instead of "boyfriend" or "girlfriend."
6. Actively pursue a process of self-education. Read and ask questions.
7. Acknowledge and take responsibility for your own socialization, prejudice and
privilege.
8. Educate others: one-on-one, group programming, teachable moments.
9. Interrupt prejudice and take action against oppression even when people from the target
group are not present.
10. Have a vision of a healthy, multicultural society.