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July 22, 2016 Radio Commentary

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14 Years of GSAs

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, July 22, 2016 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Fourteen years ago Senator Richard Marable introduced S.B. 426 so parents could be notified of clubs and activities available for students to join at school. Opponents of the bill included Georgia Equality, Georgia Rural Urban Summit, Enlight Atlanta, the ACLU and the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

The bill did three things: (a) local boards of education were to develop policies to notify parents or guardians of clubs and activities available to students. (b) It would have provided an opportunity for parents to WITHHOLD permission to join, (c) but it did not REQUIRE parental permission for students to join. The focus of the bill was to keep parents in-the-loop about school activities available to their children.

Opponents brought in a Lakeside High School junior to speak against the bill when it was heard in the Senate Education committee. The student was president of Lakeside’s Gay Straight Alliance club. Despite opposition, S.B. 426 passed out of committee, but it died without further action.

When the bill was introduced, eleven Georgia counties had GSA clubs in high schools – six were school-certified and five were not certified. Now, Georgia has almost four dozen GSA clubs, and it’s important that parents know their focus. Continue reading →

July 15, 2016 Radio Commentary

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Four Decades of Decline

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, July 15, 2016 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Georgia parents lost authority over their children’s healthcare in the late 1960s when government clinics decided to defy parental authority and provide “safe-sex” items and devices, prescription medication, and abortion referrals to children without parental consent.

When the Public Health Department extended specialized outreach to minors by creating Teen Clinics in 39 Georgia counties, forces determined to gain total access to children were not satisfied. Although public schools were equipped with a clinic and nurse on the premises, pressure began to build for comprehensive medical clinics in all public schools.

During his years in office (1983 – 1991), to quell the concern of parents, Governor Joe Frank Harris deleted a line-item in the state budget that would have funded comprehensive healthcare clinics in public schools. Continue reading →

July 8, 2016 Radio Commentary

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It didn’t Happen Overnight

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, July 8, 2016 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Some may be stunned by the apparent “sudden” prevalence of immorality, but it was NOT sudden, at all. It was an inevitable outcome of a carefully planned strategy to destroy the moral fabric of this great nation.

Today I’ll begin to outline the chronological process of change that brought us to this place. We’ll start in 1988 when Dr. Robert A. Hatcher’s book Contraceptive Technology of 1988-1989 described the authors’ attitudes toward “Abstinence and the Range of Sexual Expression.”

Dr. Hatcher, then-Director of Emory University’s Family Planning Program, now Professor Emeritus of Emory’s School of Gynecology and Obstetrics, is the first of seven Contraceptive Technology authors listed. Along with Dr. Hatcher, 37 other Georgians contributed to his book, which is currently in its 19th edition. Of 23 states contributing to the 1980s editions, Georgia’s 37 participants far outnumbered other states. California came in second with only 19. Continue reading →

July 1, 2016 Radio Commentary

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Georgia’s First LGBT School

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, July 1, 2016 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

A new private school is scheduled to open in Georgia in September.  Its name is Pride School Atlanta and its aim is to attract lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and teachers.  Pride School Atlanta will be the first private school for LGBT in the South, but not first in the country.  The first opened in Oak Lawn, Dallas, Texas in 1997, but closed in 2004.

New York City’s Harvey Milk school opened in 2003 as a public LGBT school funded by 3.2 million tax dollars,  That school originated from a 1985 social-service agency program teaching displaced youths to earn a GED degree.  In 2001 it became an accredited, four-year, diploma-granting high school.

The founder of Pride School Atlanta is a transgender male who has taught math and other subjects since 1992.  The school will initially operate out of a church – the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta.  Tuition will be about $13,000, with financial assistance available.

Pride School Atlanta will be a “Free Model school” tailored after schools in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Brooklyn.  “Free Model” means students will “explore freely, think critically, and work collaboratively, across ages, to govern themselves and their school.”  Brooklyn’s Free Model School embedded “education for social justice” strategies throughout its curriculum. Continue reading →