Nevada GLBT Youth Center Closing After 8 Years

According to KTVN News:

‘A Rainbow Place‘ is a local non-profit center that’s helped gay and lesbian youth for eight years. Now it’s shutting its doors.

“In 2000 when the center was founded, there was five youth that committed suicide and they really had no safe place to go. And so to not have this center now is just a terrible, terrible loss,” says Board President Eddie Reynoso.

Reynoso says that in recent years funding problems have plagued ‘A Rainbow Place.’

The recent economy also hasn’t helped.

It was the only counseling center that specifically catered to young gays and lesbians coming to terms with their sexuality and dealing with life.

But the organization says it’ll continue to provide as much help as possible. “Ultimately we need to focus back on the youth or these at-risk teens and find them the proper referrals.”

For the time being, the center will still counsel those who need it most.

‘A Rainbow Place‘ will work out of a small office at Northern Nevada Hopes. It’ll also work with the Crisis Call Center.

You can make donations at PO Box 2935, Reno, NV, 89505.

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GLBT High School Plans Postponed Again

Proponents of a proposed “gay friendly” high school in Chicago have yet again postponed presenting their proposal for a vote, stating they wanted to take another year to finalize plans.

The proposed school has been the subject of a great deal of pressure from both ministers and gay activists.  The “Social Justice Solidarity High School” planners have already changed the name of the school and they have widened the focus to create a school that would be one of the nation’s largest, with the goal of serving any student who has been a victim of bullying and harassment.

The proposal was pulled Tuesday night, only hours before a scheduled vote that was to be held today on the school’s creation, however, according to the planners, the school’s projected opening date remains fall 2010.

“The proposal has changed since the Oct. 8 public hearing, and the design team is taking an additional year to finalize the proposal.”

Proposed School for GLBT Students Expands Mission

From the Chicago Tribune:

Organizers behind a plan to develop Chicago’s first public high school catering to gay and lesbian students have changed the name and broadened the focus of the school to include all disenfranchised groups of students, according to officials.

The revised plan is expected to be voted on Wednesday by the Chicago Board of Education. It comes after religious leaders, some gay rights activists and Mayor Richard Daley expressed concerns that developing the proposed School for Social Justice’s Pride Campus would segregate gay youths. If the school is approved, it will be named the Social Justice Solidarity High School when it opens in 2010.

“While the school will be open to all students, its special mission will be to provide a haven where students can feel safe and valued for who they are,” reads the mission statement of the proposed school.

Chicago Delays Vote on Gay High School

Arne Duncan, the Chicago Schools Chief Executive Officer said Friday the proposal to build the city’s first high school aimed at gay youths won’t go before the school board for a vote until the board’s November 19th meeting. The planned School for Social Justice Pride Campus was previously scheduled for a final vote Wednesday.

The Pride Campus plan has attracted national attention, and earlier this week, Duncan met with local ministers who blasted the plan. Duncan denied the delay was the result of the meeting.

Earlier this month, Duncan gave preliminary approval for the district to build the campus, designed as the city’s first school for gay, lesbian and transgender teenagers, but open to all teens.

You can read more about the proposed school here at GayAgenda.com.

New Zealand Schools Ban Gay Rights Group

According to Radio New Zealand News:

A youth support agency says some schools are breaching human rights by refusing to allow students to set up gay support groups.

Rainbow Youth says the refusal is a breach of human rights and another form of homophobia.

Education officer Serafin Dillon says she knows of four schools that have refused to allow students to set up the support groups.

Ms Dillon will not name the schools, but says staff told her that school authorities feared the groups could trigger an outbreak of homophobia.

She says the schools are not the same ones that recently banned same-sex couples at school balls unless they signed a contract confirming that they were gay or lesbian.

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