A Letter From The President

Anti-Bullying Law Is in Everyone’s Best Interest

 Bob Dorr, PFLAG Omaha

 Posted on January 21, 2008

An amazing thing happened in Lincoln on Jan. 16. The conservative Nebraska Legislature gave overwhelming approval to an anti-bullying bill.

The 39-1 first-round vote makes it likely that Legislative Bill 205 will become law. The bill requires Nebraska’s school districts to adopt policies that give protection against bullying to ALL students. School districts must set up a process for investigating complaints. A student could be expelled, suspended or reassigned for bullying.

Much credit goes to Sen. Gwen Howard of Omaha, main sponsor of LB 205, and to Michael Gordon, executive director of Citizens for Equal Protection. Sen. Howard introduced anti-bullying legislation in 2005 at the request of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. The legislation went nowhere. Sen. Howard didn’t give up, reintroducing the bill and talking with her fellow senators about the need for anti-bullying legislation.

Michael Gordon visited with state senators and organized lobbying efforts. PFLAGers and others met with senators in their offices and testified at committee hearings. The most powerful testimony came from GLBT students who described for senators how they had been bullied.

PFLAGers called and emailed state senators. The day before the Legislature’s Jan. 16 vote I called the office of my state senator, Pete Pirsch. He returned the call on his cell phone that night as he drove home from Lincoln, and we had a cordial 20-minute chat. Sen. Pirsch said some senators had specific concerns, but he thought most senators were positive toward the bill.

After the vote, Sen. Howard told The World-Herald there has been growing awareness by legislators about the prevalence of bullying and the harm it can cause. The Nebraska Association of School Boards, a key group, initially opposed anti-bullying legislation, thinking that it was not needed, but changed its mind because of widespread public attention to bullying.

Most of the committee testimony supporting anti-bullying legislation has come from the GLBT/Ally community. In the end, however, debate on the legislative floor focused on whether sufficient need existed for an anti-bullying bill protecting all students. The words “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender” never came up during 2 ½ hours of debate. In my view, that was good. The GLBT/Ally community’s chances for success are best when our interests are the same as the interests of a lot of other people.

STRAIGHT FOR EQUALITY: National PFLAG’s newest campaign involves an effort to enlist the help of many more straight people—not just those with a GLBT son or daughter, but members of the general public who might not have any GLBT family member—in our fight to win affirmation and equality for all of us and for our loved ones. Come to Omaha PFLAG’s Feb. 14 meeting to find out what this is all about. It’s more interesting than you might think. Carrie Spencer and I will tell about Straight for Equality. We will have support time, as always, at 7 p.m. followed by the program at 8 p.m. Our meetings are in Mead Hall on the west end of First United Methodist Church, 7020 Cass St.

PRIDE PLAYERS: Don’t miss the Pride Players benefit at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1, at the upstairs Hitchcock Theater in the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center, 20th and Farnam Sts. All the $15 per-ticket donation goes to Omaha PFLAG, Omaha GLSEN and Proud Horizons, PFLAG’s youth support group. This is an opportunity to see talented Omaha-area high schoolers perform short skits and monologues telling about their experiences as GLBT and ally youths. If you didn’t receive an electronic or mailed invitation, or lost your invitation, and you would like to attend, give me a call at 333-7064 or email me at bobcdorr@cox.net and I’ll get you on the list.

PRIDE PROM: The date for this year’s Pride Prom for Omaha-area youths has been set. It is May 17.

SCHOLARSHIPS: This year National PFLAG is giving three $5,000 scholarships, three $2,500 scholarships and up to 10 $1,000 scholarships to graduating seniors who will enter higher education this year. We’ve distributed applications widely, but if you know someone who might like to apply, please get that word to PFLAG board member Sharon Landreth and she will get you the forms. We can claim one of last year’s $1,000 winners: Tue Tran, who attended Proud Horizons and graduated from Creighton Prep.

FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO: A dozen or so PFLAGers joined members of the GLBT Professionals Group in attending this film Jan. 3 at Film Streams, a new theater just north of downtown. The film told the experiences of five families with a gay child--one being the family of Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson. It was great. If you get a chance, make it a point to see “For the Bible Tells Me So.”

Bob Dorr, Omaha PFLAG president