Rallies for Equality: Roundup of the Coverage

Sarah Smith of Vanderbilt Lambda addresses the Nashville rally

Although we're still waiting for the Washington Blade piece, here's a roundup of some of the coverage of the Rallies for Equality that took place yesterday in Memphis, Cookeville, and Nashville:

Out & About Newspaper with story, photos, and video.

Tennessean piece with comments by Austin Peay State University GSA's Ryan Whipkey.

Fox17 coverage focused on safe schools issues in Tennessee and featured the comments of Martin Luther King, Jr. Magnet High School student Gray Alexander. Now begins the waiting game to see whether the Don't Say Gay, License to Bully, and other negative education bills will be filed in the 108th General Assembly.

Barbara Stover, Darren Crawford, and Janet Moore in Cookeville (photo

 by R. G. Cravens)

Blurbs by WSMV and Newschannel5.

The TEP Shelby County Committee has posted photos from the Memphis rally on their Facebook page.  

Kal Dwight at the Memphis rally

To sign the petition urging President Obama to sign the executive order barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity among federal contractors, go to wh.gov/9ALQ .

Memphis, Cookeville, Nashville Rally for Equality/federal contractor executive order Dec 9

The Tennessee Equality Project has organized rallies for equality in Memphis, Cookeville, and Nashville to take place on December 9 to call on President Barack Obama to sign an executive order barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by federal contractors and to call on the Legislature to end discriminatory legislation when it convenes in January.

The Memphis Rally takes place at 2:00 p.m. in the plaza in front of the federal building in Memphis.  More information can be found at this link. 

The Cookeville Rally takes place at 1:00 p.m. outside the Putnam County Courthouse in Cookeville.  More information can be found at this link.

The Nashville Rally takes place at 2:00 p.m. at the War Memorial Plaza in Nashville.  More information can be found at this link.  

Additional cosponsors of these rallies include the following organizations:  Austin Peay State University Gay/Straight Alliance, Out & About Newspaper, Tennessee Tech Lambda, Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, Nashville GLBT Chamber of Commerce, PFLAG Nashville, Greater Nashville Prime Timers, GLSEN Middle TN, Metro Human Relations Commission, Nashville Pride, OutCentral, Just Us at Oasis Center, PFLAG Maryville, Human Rights Campaign Nashville Steering Committee, and CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health.

TEP started a petition at the White House petition site to urge the President to sign the federal contractor non-discrimination executive order.  It can be found here.  

In 2011 Metro Nashville passed a contractor non-discrimination ordinance only to see it nullified by the Legislature the same year.  The presidential executive order is best chance to achieve job protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in states like Tennessee in the immediate future until Congress can take up the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

TEP calls on on other states and cities to hold similar rallies and spread word about the petition to increase public support for the executive order.

Can the Herald-Citizen handle the truth?

Last night we brought you the story of Shayne Bilbrey's attempt to get his letter to the editor about GLBT youth published in The Herald-Citizen. Since that time Evan Hurst of Truth Wins Out has picked up the post and today R.G. Cravens, chair of the TEP Upper Cumberland Committee, is pressing for answers in his own letter to the editor:

To whom it may concern,

I'm writing today about an issue that has recently been brought to the attention of our organization.

We were recently contacted by Shayne Bilbrey who authored a letter to your paper with a message of encouragement to LGBT students and youth in our area. The letter is a message of hope and acceptance which is desperately needed, especially in areas like ours. Shayne reported that he was told by a member of your staff that his letter would not be published because it did not meet the "family values" standards of your publication.

Let me share with you some staggering facts about young people in the LGBT community from the Trevor Project:

• Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers (Massachusetts Youth Risk Survey 2007).
• More than 1/3 of LGB youth report having made a suicide attempt (D’Augelli AR - Clinical Child Psychiatry and Psychology 2002)
• Nearly half of young transgender people have seriously thought about taking their lives and one quarter report having made a suicide attempt (Grossman AH, D’Augelli AR - Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 2007)
• Questioning youth who are less certain of their sexual orientation report even higher levels of substance abuse and depressed thoughts than their heterosexual or openly LGBT-identified peers (Poteat VP, Aragon SR, et al – Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2009)
• LGB youth who come from highly rejecting families are more than 8 times as likely to have attempted suicide than LGB peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection (Ryan C, Huebner D, et al - Peds 2009;123(1):346-352)
• More information is available here: http://www.thetrevorproject.org/suicide-resources/suicidal-signs

So you see, regardless of your values, I think we can agree that the life of a young person is more valuable than anything.

The Herald-Citizen has recently appeared in a number of blog posts regarding this issue:

http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2011/06/16965/

http://grand-divisions.blogspot.com/2011/06/dont-say-gay-also-policy-of-some-tn.html

I would hope that the Herald-Citizen does not have a policy of rejecting letters relating to GLBT issues simply because they disagree with the content. It is my hope that your paper can show our community locally and nationally that you are accepting of differing opinions and appreciate the diversity of the Upper Cumberland region.

Please consider publishing Shanye's letter or contact me so we can discuss your actual policy as we intend to write letters to your paper in the future.

Thank you for your time,

R.G. Cravens
Chair, Tennessee Equality Project Upper Cumberland Committee

-Posted by Chris Sanders