SPRINKLE - CALL FOR PAPERS - DEADLINE APRIL 15, 2013
 
Sprinkle, a peer-reviewed, undergraduate Sexual Diversity Studies journal, seeks academic submissions for Fall 2013 edition. Papers should be 1500-2000 words in length and show critical engagement with contemporary feminist issues with an emphasis on law and policy implications.
 

 Please visit the Sprinkle facebook page for updated information about the upcoming issue:
 

So, as you can see from my previous blog post, AERA 2012 in Vancouver was jam-packed with great moments. It really was an amazing conference. I want to dedicate this entry to a particular panel that I was invited to be on by Cathy Rosenberg and the Graduate Student Council. She organized a Fireside Chat (which at AERA is an opportunity for a more informal dialogue about current topics that isn't a standard research presentation). In this fireside chat was a panel of some pretty amazing scholars that I was thrilled to be associated with: Mollie Blackburn, Erica Meiners, Kevin Kumashiro, and SJ Miller.

I am sitting in the Vancouver airport getting ready to board my flight back to the U.S. and wanted to share some reflections on an amazing and rejuvenating conference before I get swept back into the daily life back at my home institution. Every day was so full of great interactions, exciting new research, and glorious views that it is hard to sift through it all and pick the best of the best! But here's my attempt at it  -- and I am using long term impact on the field and my own praxis as my primary lens for sorting.

You may have heard about a recent T-shirt controversy in a Massachusetts high school. In case you missed it, a 10th grader wore a shirt that said "all the cool girls are lesbians" and was asked to cover it and not wear it to school again. In my latest blog post on Psychology Today, I explore the limits of student expression in school.

So I recently wrote my representatives asking for them to support the Uniting American Families Act as part of immigration reform. I have a major personal investment in this legislation if I ever want to move back to the U.S. with my family intact as it would allow U.S. citizens to sponsor their same-sex partners for the purposes of immigration.  Currently the Defense of Marriage Act prevents this from happening. I just got an email back from one of my reps this morning. This was his reply:
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Dear Dr. Meyer,
Thank you for contacting me regarding the importance of the family. I appreciate the opportunity to learn of your views.

Dear Readers:
I am posting here a copy of a letter that we have recently sent to the AERA leadership requesting that they make gender-neutral bathrooms available in each conference site during the 2011 meeting in New Orleans. They have responded positively and are "looking into it." We are pleased that they are taking this request seriously and are hoping to have this request accomodated. I decided to post the full text of the letter here in case others would like to make similar requests of other professional meetings that they attend. This is not just an issue for transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals, but as you see in the letter it makes the conference more accessible for many others as well. Read on and let me know what you think...

 Okay, so I'm going to dust off this blog because I am really upset at the U.S. government right now. *deep breath* I’m going to try and slow down and make this coherent…

I just read another news story about a young boy who was harassed at school because he had long hair. Unfortunately, in this case it is allegedly his teachers who were responsible for the harassment. According to the news story at Cincinnati.com the teachers would attempt to humiliate him by putting his hair in ponytails, parading him in front of other classes with this hairstyle, and calling him by "feminized versions of his name."

I am just posting a brief entry to share with you a very interesting podcast done on the topic of homophobia in Canadian high schools. This was a graduate student project that I was interviewed for, and I think the final product is quite interesting and well done. The focus is on one student who filed a human rights complaint against his school and used the financial award from that case to start up an diversity education initiative called Jer's Vision.

Yesterday, Mr. Delong, a 10th and 12th grade Honors English teacher in Piasa, IL was suspended for assigning an article about homosexuality in the animal kingdom to his students. You can read the full article here. The local paper reporting this story quoted the teacher saying, "I have been suspended, but not without pay," Delong, of Carlinville, said Wednesday.

 According to the School Library Journal, Scholastic books is asking Lauren Myracle, the author of the new book "Luv Ya Bunches" to rewrite her story to exclude one of the character's parents because they are gay. The author is willing to clean up some of the "objectionable" language (words like "crap" and "sucks"), but refuses to de-gay the story since it reflects modern families. I'm so proud of Ms.

Last week an announcement went out online informing the world of a new school available to GLBTQ youth everywhere: a virtual school "Where you can get a high quality education while receiving comprehensive support from adults and peers." This announcement was greeted by some bloggers with joy, but by many with ambivalence.  This has been the reaction anytime there has been a discussion of similar face-to-face schools for queer youth that are currently established in Toronto and NYC.  Some arguments against such programs say that they deprive students of important socialization experiences or puts them in a fake supportive bubble that doesn't prepare them for the "real world." 

Siredeaner Walker, Carl Walker-Hoover's mom, testified  before 2 congressional sub-committees on July 8 on the Safe Schools Improvement Act

Well, I finally went to see "Bruno" last night because I really just wanted to form my own opinion on the film.  I'd read all about the controversies and wanted to decide for myself.  I'd also been reading reviews saying it was: hilarious, outrageous, brilliant, uncomfortable, offensive, and unsettling.  I have to agree a little bit with everyo

Well, I can't say that I'm surprised that this news item is coming out of the state of Texas.  The place where football players are kings and their cheerleading counterparts are crowned queens.  Literally.

Goodness - this came out of nowhere!  I had no idea such an important case was brewing in quiet old Maine.  Here is the news bit from the Bangor Daily News (pronounced - "Bane- gore" NOT "bang 'er")

The short summary is that a 5th grader who identifies as a girl was harassed in the girls washroom (by a boy who followed her in and called her "faggot"), so the school assigned her to the faculty single-user washroom which was at the opposite end of the school from her classroom.  The family didn't approve of this solution and filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission

So Cox communications has released their annual report on cyber-safety.  Some of their key findings that they present include:

 Wow, Debra Chasnoff has done it again.  From the brilliant documentary filmmaker who brought us "It's Elementary" "That's a Family" and "Let's Get Real", she has turned her lens on the issue of gender role expectations and how homophobia impacts how kids grow up and learn to fit into narrow concepts of man/woman and by default gay/straight.  I have only viewed excerpts, but based on her previous work and the content of the interviews I just read (http://www.edgenewyork.com/index.phpch=entertainment&sc=movies&sc2=features

I'm excited to be writing about a new program that is partially funded by the Burlington School District that supports a flexible and open exploration of gender diversity in the context of teen lives.  It is being run by Outright Vermont, a local social service agency, in conjunction with the local school district. One of the program's organizers explained,