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| GLBT: Hissy-Fit Over Not Being Called "Special" |
| 2005-02-16 |
| The Bush administration has not outlawed the terms gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. The feds say it's just a big misunderstanding. The Oregon mental health community protested loudly this week after a federally funded suicide-prevention workshop, scheduled for Feb. 28, had its title and description changed to remove references to gays, lesbians, and bisexual and transgender people. The workshop's original title, "Suicide Prevention Among Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Individuals," is now "Suicide Prevention in Vulnerable Populations." "The discriminatory and intimidating actions of SAMHSA (the federal agency funding the workshop) and the Bush Administration should not go unchallenged and should be of concern to all Americans," the three workshop presenters said in a statement posted to their colleagues via the Internet. The issue is a sensitive one in Portland, where more than 70 percent of voters went with John Kerry and voted, unsuccessfully, against a ban on same-sex marriage. The brouhaha prompted a flood of e-mails to the offices of Charles Curie, the administrator of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which is paying for the conference. "Charlie is getting e-mails calling him a Nazi," said Mark Weber, the federal agency's communications director. "It is disgraceful the hate that these people have sent to him." Weber said an agency project manager had suggested that the phrase "sexual orientation" would be more inclusive than the words gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. The project manager passed the suggestions along to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, a Newton, Mass., nonprofit organization that contracts with the agency to stage the conferences. The next thing they knew, the workshop presenters -- Ron Bloodworth, Joyce Liljeholm and Reid Vanderburgh, all of Portland -- said they were asked by the resource center to remove the offending words from the workshop title. The description of the workshop does include the phrase "sexual orientation." Vanderburgh said he and his colleagues were not asked to change the content of the workshop. But he's worried about the vague title. "Our concern is the invisibility and marginalizing of a population of people," said Vanderburgh, a psychologist who treats transgender men and women. "We're going to have to explain to people at the conference why the name has changed. . . . This has become a political football." "We're not like everybody else. We demand to be recognized as being 'special'." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 Stop trying to reach out to all vulnerable populations, you close-minded breeders! |
| Posted by: BH 2005-02-16 9:15:05 PM |
| #2 ...Suicide Prevention Resource Center, a Newton, Mass., nonprofit organization Why am I not surprised? |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-02-16 9:07:30 PM |
| #1 we demand you be tolerant, you homophobic nazi! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-02-16 7:18:20 PM |