According to the Post-Gazette, the Pennsylvania Department of Education has released their annual safety report claiming that less than 3% of students were involved in violence in the schools.

The School Safety Report for 2004-05 shows a decline in school violence for the second year in a row and significant decreases in fights, assaults on students, burglaries, racial and ethnic intimidation and incidents involving firearms.

The report also suggests violent incidents have decreased across the board:

It shows incidents involving firearms dropped by 38 percent; burglaries are down by 43 percent; incidents of intimidation fell by 25 percent and other types of harassment declined by 23 percent.

A leading safety organization disputes these findings.  National School Safety and Security Services out of Cleveland questions the decrease when school violence is on the rise across the state.

And what about the gay kids?  According to the Gay Lesbian Straight  Education Network's National School Climate Survey released in April, four out of five LGBTQ students report incidents of violence. 

The Scope of the Problem:

75. 4% of students heard derogatory remarks such as "faggot" or "dyke" frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten (89.2%) reported hearing "that's so gay" or "you're so gay" - meaning stupid or worthless- frequently or often.

Over a third (37.8%) of students experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and more than a quarter (26.1%) on the basis of their gender expression. Nearly one-fifth (17.6%) of students had been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth (11.8%) because of their gender expression.

Now I find it incredibly hard to believe that incidents of violence are decreasing that significantly without a serious statewide intervention plan which I am sure does not exist.  Back in the day when I was in school, life was nasty, brutish and short if you were on the wrong end of the pummeling.  There were plenty of bullies and even more people egging them on as they spit on, beat up, mauled, assaulted, pushed, shoved, grabbed, pinched, twisted, kicked, restrained and generally violated other kids.  School was a survival course in violence avoidance with few instructions and little effective intervention from the faculty. 

And let's not forget rising rates of cyber harassment which the school districts have decried but denied reponsibility for if the behavior originates from a non-campus computer. 

I think the PA Department of Education is being disengenuous at best. 

The Mayor of Philadelphia is giving the regional  Boy Scout council two choices.: Either they stop discriminating against gays or they begin paying fair market rent on their city owned headquarters. 

The City of Liberty Council is the third largest in the nation, serving 87,000 boys in Philadelphia, Montgomery and Delaware counties.  They have been using a city owned building since 1928, paying only for building upkeep.

The City is playing hard ball because the Scouts refuse to comply with the fair-practices ordinance which forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation among other protected classes. 

Cradle of Liberty Council spokesman Jeff Jubelirer had more pointed views.

"With an epidemic of gun violence taking the lives of Philadelphia's children every day," Jubelirer said, "it is ironic the administration chose this time to destroy programming that services 40,000 children in the city."

That's an interesting perspective which completely ignores the fact that the City has tries to negotiate with the Boy Scouts for the past three years.  There's no room for negotiation.  The Boy Scout organization wants to be free to discriminate against homosexuals while receiving all the governmental funding it can swallow.  Never mind the thousands of young men whose lives are impacted by their homo-bigot stance -- the young gay men, the boys with gay parents or siblings or grandparents or other loved ones, the heterosexual scouts who are taught by example to discriminate.  Never mind those kids.  Or their families.  Or their dreams. 

There's no room for negotiation.  The Boy Scouts won't revise their creed of hate and the City isn't making an exception.  Are political nuances at play?  Sure.  They always are, but that doesn't take away from the larger issue.

Our good friends at the American Family Association of Pennsylvania have chimed right in with their Christian-flavored bigotry:

?The boys involved in the Scouts are caught in a tug-of-war with those who seek to change society through homosexual activism and choose to be blind to the facts of the dangers of this lifestyle,?  [AFA Chair Diane] Gramley concluded

Ah, yes, the homosexual activist card.  Wouldn't be a hatefest if no one played it!

I find the Boy Scout's stance offensive, moronic and divisive.  I don't buy their little snacks or donate to their causes because I think they really hurt boys and young men.  I get some grief from my friends about my actions only hurting the boys.  I'm sorry but that's an utterly spineless position.  The Boy Scouts are *hurting* children, gay and straight.  They should lose their funding sources because reason, common decency or genuine concern for all children doesn't seem to play a part in their decision making process. 

First, the exciting news.  John Stamos will play a wedding planner who is gay in the upcoming A&E movie "Wedding Wars" due to air this winter.  In the movie, Stamos' character boycotts his brother's wedding b/c his brother's boss and future father in law is a governor who opposes marriage equality.  Hilarity ensues as an important point about tolerance and equality is made. Plus, thousands of gay and bisexual men can fantasize about marrying John Stamos. (h/t Good as You)

Another amusing must-view is a video parody GAY put together around Fred Phelps and his merry bunch of phelpsians.  Rather than telling us "You are are going to hell"  GAY informs us "You are going to HELENA"   (another h/t to Good as You).  On a related matter, the Phelpsians were fined $5,000 for wasting police protection when they didn't show up for a funeral protest in Michigan.  Fred's whacky daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper told the press that the Holy Ghost told them to stay home and they would throw any citations in the trash can.

In an important note, a federal court has ruled that the White County, Georgia School Board must allow a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) to meet.  The School Board had previously decided to disallow any extracurricular group, but those groups continued to meet.  The ACLU pursued the matter.  (h/t PageOneQ).  Here's a great quote from one the student plaintiffs:

"This has been the best civics lesson ever," said Kerry Pacer, one of the founders of the student group said in the ACLU statement, "I couldn't believe the school was so unfair to us when all we wanted to do was to try to address the violence and harassment against gay students. I'm relieved that the court is going to make the school let us meet."

You tell 'em, Kerry.  Kerry is my mother's name so I'm especially fond of young person Pacer.  Good for you for sticking up for your rights.

In the tolerance twist you knew was overdue, homo vacationeers in Provincetown are accused of making slurs against heterosexuals and Jamaicans.  Police received numerous complaints that people were being called "breeders."  One woman reported being verbally accosted after it came to light she signed an anti-gay marriage petition.  She was called a bigot.

She IS a bigot.  She chose to sign a petition that discriminates against her neighbors. Should they just accept that quietly?  I'm not saying they should target her or act out, but calling her what she is seems acceptable to me.  Her priest acknowledges that signing the petition would lead to repercussions, but called this a "dramatic experience"  Puh-lease.  Try having your brother deny you access to his kids b/c you are queer.  That's dramatic.  Try losing your job b/c you are gay.  That's dramatic.  Try having to control your simple desire to hold your partner's hand to avoid being harassed.  That's dramatic. 

Now the incidents with Jamaican residents is different.  They attribute the increased intolerance to the looming debate over immigration and I'd agree that's very likely.  Guess what homos?  Not all Jamaican's are anti-gay.  Don't be fueled by the Ricky/George rhetoric on immigration. 

Bigotry is as bigotry does.

There's not a lot of loal LGBTQ activity of late as we all recuperate from the marriage amendment battle.   Plus your faithful correspondent has been struggling with allergies and is tired .... so here's a quick round up of some national stories of interest ...

Broward County, Florida school to admit a transgendered five year old and test their progressive policies.  This is a really piece of good news coming from the land of Jeb Bush (and Katharine Harris).

Under WTF?  AIDS group recruits two notorious homophobes to perform at benefit concert.  They would be reggae artists TOK and Beanie Man.  Why, you ask, Beanie Man sounds familiar?   Yes, he was supposed to perform at a 2004 show here in Pittsburgh at the Boardwalk.  Til yours truly made some calls to LGBTQ leaders and the Post-Gazette complaining.  In the wake of negative publicity, the show sponsors (Salem cigarettes) cancelled.   As you can imagine, homosexuals, AIDS activists and the African-American community are up in arms over this stupid decision by LIFEBeat to ignore the cadres of talented reggae artists and bring in these two pathetic clowns for an AIDS fundraiser.  Follow the link for the full story and details on how to voice your protest.