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.

For those who have kept up with news from the IAAF World Athletics Championships in recent weeks, about the only story to hit the headlines here in Australia and I'm sure around the world was the controversy surrounding South African 800M runner, Caster Semenya.

The 18 year old South African seemingly appeared from nowhere to obliterate the field in the women's 800M final. On what should have been the greatest moment of her short athletic career, Caster was removed from the track partway through her victory lap by officials 'to avoid further embarassment for the athlete" as the Berlin crowd gave her victory a muted response.

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

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.

I am interested in Queer Action Research in Education (QUARE), and critical pedagogy to challenge homophobia, heterosexism and heteronormativity in schools. I would be interested to hear about any similar work group members have been involved in. My recently completed doctoral action research focused on exploring the possibilities and limitations to foster teacher empowerment and promote Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (GLBTQ) educational equity in schools. The dissertation Promoting Educational Equity through Teacher Empowerment: Web-assisted Transformative Action Research as a Counter-Heteronormative Praxis is available at: http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514290572/index.html?lang=en Tim Bedford (Oulu, Finland)

 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

Hi all,

Just a reminder to post links to your blogs on all your external sites and social networks (facebook, myspace, twitter, etc). 

It will really help us build the community. And . . .

Also, don't forget to join some of our groups or even create your own group. Just click on "Create Content", and then "Groups". Then invite your community to join you using the "Invite friend" link on your new group page. Let me know if you need any help doing so.

Hi all,