Members of the Gay & Lesbian Association of San Antonio College and from the Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio speak before the Alamo Colleges board on June 22.

ACCD vote excludes transgenders from anti-bias policy
QSanAntonio.com, June 23, 2010

The Board of Trustees of the Alamo Colleges voted unanimously on June 22 to add sexual orientation, but not gender identity/expression, to the district’s anti-discrimination and harassment policy. The vote was taken after members of the GLBT community pleaded with the board to postpone the vote for 90 days so board members could learn more about transgender issues.

In a Facebook posting after news of the vote, Amanda Benton, President of the Gay and Lesbian Association of San Antonio College wrote, "GALA received a partial victory tonight. Sexual Orientation has been voted in to all relevant policies. The Chancellor has promised to rewrite his Clarification (which would hold people discriminating against transgender people in the bathrooms accountable for their actions). Unfortunately the attorneys still believe that gender identity and expression and protected under ‘gender.’"

ACCD Chancellor Dr. Bruce H. Leslie wrote the clarification that Benton refers to in her post. In it Leslie writes that transgender individuals are protected under the "gender" classification of the policy. His clarification however goes on to suggest that transgendered students or ACCD employees could be expelled or fired for using the wrong bathroom.

In an interview with the San Antonio Express-News Leslie says GLBT activists misread his words: "If, for instance, a man who identifies as a woman uses the women’s restroom and no one cares, there is no problem, he said. If someone complains that it makes them uncomfortable, school staffers will work to find a reasonable solution, he added."

This type of assurance is not enough say local activists who contend that protection of transgender students and employees is not possible until they are expressly listed in the policy as a protected class.

Several people spoke prior to the vote including representatives from GALA, the Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio, Equality Texas, the Human Rights Campaign and the San Antonio Gender Association. Three transgender women spoke -- Julia DeGrace, Debbie Bohanan and Josephine Paulette Titsworth a social worker and board member of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition in Houston.

One young transgender man who is a student and employee at Alamo Colleges spoke about the difficulty he’s had with completing required courses because no accommodation has been made for his use of public restrooms and locker rooms.

Blakely Latham Fernandez

Members of the Stonewall Democrats are particularly distressed by the ACCD board vote. The group recently endorsed Blakely Latham Fernandez who ran for a District 7 position on the board.

As part of her bid for a Stonewall endorsement Fernandez filled out a questionnaire where she promised support for issues affecting the GLBT community.

Stonewall not only endorsed Fernandez they also gave her a $100 donation and hosted a phone bank for her at the home of Lauryn Farris, a transgender woman and member of Stonewall who lives in Fernandez' ACCD district.

Fernandez was victorious and sworn in on June 22, the same day as the vote.

Stonewall contends that rather than try to persuade her fellow board members to postpone the vote, Fernandez voted with them instead.

QSanAntonio asked Fernandez what words she had for the GLBT community now that she voted to exclude transgender individuals from protection under ACCD's anti-discrimination policy. Here is her reply:

"Thank you for your email. I disagree with your assessment with the results of last night’s meeting.

Last night, the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees adopted an anti-discrimination policy that adds genetic information and sexual orientation to the list of protected classes. The board did not separately add gender identity or expression to the policy statement based on the advice of counsel that these classifications are included in the existing statement under the heading of gender.

I appreciate that there is not consensus, on a national level, as to whether the term gender includes gender identity and gender expression. We know that where, for example, Congress has not expressly included gender identity and gender expression in the definition of gender, courts cannot infer those terms to be there. Accordingly, the Board of Trustees asked the Chancellor to make clear that, for our purposes at the Alamo Colleges, the definition of gender was expressly stated to include gender identity. This has been done.

If you were not at the meeting when this item was discussed, you can review the discussion on-line. The District’s attorney was very clear that gender identity and expression are included in the anti-discrimination policy."

GALA to request postponement of ACCD non-discrimination vote
QSanAntonio.com, June 18, 2010

The Gay and Lesbian Association of San Antonio College will go before the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees on June 22 to ask that a vote to include sexual orientation in the organization’s non-discrimination policy be postponed until it includes gender identity/expression as well.

GALA has appeared twice before the ACCD board asking that the school’s non-discrimination policy be changed to include sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. At the last meeting on April 12, the board tabled the motion. (See related stories below.)

The policy affects all GLBT employees and students at San Antonio College, St. Philip's College, Northeast Lakeview College, Palo Alto College, and Northwest Vista College.

This week GALA learned that the board would vote on the issue on June 22. However, the vote will not include gender identity/expression. Dr. Bruce H. Leslie, ACCD Chancellor offered a "clarification" to the exclusion.

In his clarification Leslie wrote: "The Alamo Colleges values and affirms the diversity of its students and employees. The Alamo Colleges also support inclusiveness that recognizes, values, and reflects the diversity of our community. This inclusiveness extends to trangenders . . . The Alamo Colleges policies and procedures specifically prohibit discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender."

However, Leslie's clarification later states, "…nothing in this clarification or the policies or procedures shall be construed to establish discrimination or harassment based on gender identity due to the denial of access to shared facilities in which being seen unclothed (even partially, such as in restrooms) is unavoidable."

Leslie’s declaration that the ACCD policy already covers transgender individuals under the "gender" classification is flawed. Local activists say that by not including transgenders specifically, the policy actually omits them and adds insult to injury by saying they can't use the restrooms on campus.

GALA says that it is standing fast on its request that the policy should include gender identity/expression. They issued the following statement on June 17:

"GALA is standing firm on their original intention of asking for sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. We feel that the board has not had enough time to educate themselves on the importance of transgendered rights. We will be asking the board to postpone their vote in the hope that it can be revisited in 90 days."

Many GLBT community leaders have expressed concern that the board will ignore requests for postponement and go ahead with the vote to approve the inclusion of sexual orientation leaving the transgender vote to languish in committee.

Members of GALA were at the June 17 meeting of the San Antonio Gender Association to assure the group that GALA wanted the policy to include the entire GLBT community and asked SAGA members to speak before the ACCD board on June 22.

GALA is asking all concerned citizens to come forward and have a voice in the matter. The next Citizens to be Heard session will be at the ACCD Board Meeting on June 22. Any individual is allowed to speak for 3 minutes. Groups are allowed 5 minutes.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the George E. Killen Community Education and Services Center 201 West Sheridan. Citizens to be Heard speakers should arrive by 5:15 p.m. to sign-in.

Commentary -- ACCD policy should be inclusive of all
By Julia DeGrace, QSanAntonio.com, June 18, 2010

In regards to the Alamo Colleges pending improvement to their anti-discrimination policy, I highly support the inclusion of sexual orientation to the list of protected classes. But I cannot understand the omission of "gender identity and expression" from the proposed policy revision.

It appears the vice-chancellor who added a clarification to the policy to say that gender shall be understood to include transgender persons has his heart in the right place, but cannot accomplish fairness and equality with such a statement.

Although our country’s non-discrimination law includes gender as a protected class, Congress never considered transgender people in its deliberations when it created this law. The intent was to put females on an equal footing with males in issues of discrimination.

Although some lawyers and judges may interpret gender to apply to transgender in an individual case, that interpretation will always be subject to being overruled. It would be better to add the phrase "gender identity or expression" and to clarify the policy with a definition of what the college defines as transgender and transsexual.

In my opinion, the most humiliating transgender discrimination is denying use of public bathroom facilities. As a transsexual woman, I understand the problem quite well. I do not expect the colleges to allow every transgender person access to whatever single-sex facility the person chooses at the moment. There is no need for a cross-dresser or a drag-performer to have access to these facilities when not cross-dressed or not in drag. I’ve never seen these individuals roaming campus "en femme" or in-drag. Is that happening now?

In the case of an intersexed person or a transsexual who is being treated by a professional doctor and/or therapist, and who presents him/ herself EXCLUSIVLY as the gender opposite that which he/she was assigned at birth; that person should be allowed access to the facilities that most reflect his/her outward appearance. PERIOD.

To require an intersexed or transsexual person to use a special facility or, as I have had required of me, to leave my campus to go pee at a Jack-in-the Box is humiliating, degrading and just plain wrong. It is no way to build school spirit or employee morale.

The policy should be if a genetic, (cisgendered) person is uncomfortable with us in the bathroom, they should wait until we are finished or go to another facility; better yet, just get over it! We are not going to attack you and you cannot catch what we were born with. There has never been a recorded case of a transsexual causing a disturbance, or molesting anyone, in a public bathroom.

Genetic (cisgendered) men and women have started a disturbance about us, but we have never gone there to do that. We are special people, we are talented people, but we cannot hold our water forever.

Requiring a transsexual woman to walk past the men standing at the urinals, or requiring a transsexual man to go boldly into the women’s room is what will cause disturbances. In most cases, others in the restroom do not even know that there is a transsexual present.

I present well. I chat with other women while waiting in our long lines and they have no idea that I once had to present myself to the world as a man. And even though there is no line at the men’s room, I don’t ever want to go in there again.

Julia DeGrace is a member of the San Antonio Gender Association.

GLBT students again challenge Alamo Colleges’ non-discrimination policy
QSanAntonio.com, April 16, 2010

On April 20, the Gay and Lesbian Association of San Antonio College will once again go speak before a meeting of Alamo Colleges’ board of trustees to request they include sexual orientation in the district’s non-discrimination policy.

This is GALA’s second time asking that the board to consider the change, the first was on March 23. (See related story below.) The group is concerned that sexual orientation is not a part of Alamo Colleges’ EEO statement and neither is it included in the student non-discrimination policy, the student non-harassment policy, the employee non-discrimination policy, the employee non-harassment policy and the community non-discrimination policy.

The policy affects all GLBT employees and students at San Antonio College, St. Philip's College, Northeast Lakeview College, Palo Alto College, and Northwest Vista College.

GALA makes the case that many Texas schools embrace sexual orientation protection clauses including the community colleges systems of Houston, Austin, and Dallas, the University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Texas at Austin, Trinity University, University of the Incarnate Word, and Texas State University. They add that prominent local corporations have sexual orientation protection clauses including HEB, USAA, Clear Channel, AT&T, and Valero, to name a few.

After GALA’s initial request on March 23, the board of trustees met on April 13 and the Policy and Long-Range Planning Committee decided, after deliberation during executive session, to indefinitely table any discussion of adding "sexual orientation" to the organization’s policies, pending further research into the matter.

In a "call to action" issued by GALA they write: "GALA will be taking the matter a step further! We will also request that ‘gender identity/expression’ be included in all Alamo Colleges non-discrimination and non-harassment statements! We are asking for all concerned citizens to please come forward on April 20 and have a voice in this matter."

GALA is asking for community support at the next "Citizens to be Heard" session of Alamo Colleges’ board meeting on Tuesday, April 20. Any individual is allowed to speak for 3 minutes, and groups are allowed 5 minutes.

The meeting begins promptly at 6:00 p.m. "Citizens to be Heard" speakers should arrive by 5:15 P.M. The meeting place is the George E. Killen Community Education and Services Center, 201 West Sheridan.

For further details or questions, please contact GALA's faculty advisor: Richard Farias at 210-486-0673 or richardfarias@mac.com.

GALA mourns shooting death of SAC student
QSanAntonio.com, March 29, 2010

Members of the Gay and Lesbian Association at San Antonio College awoke Sunday, March 28 to the shocking news that one of their own had been shot to death.

According to a report in the San Antonio Express-News, 19-year-old Jasmayne McCullough was fatally shot in the head in the 7800 block of Callaghan Road and pronounced dead at the scene at 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning.

McCullough was at a birthday party for a friends when shots rang out as the result of an argument between two guests.

Police questioned several people at the scene and found shell casings in a hallway. On Sunday night, KENS-5 TV reported that stray bullets, which entered through an apartment window, killed McCullough immediately. She was not the intended target, just an innocent bystander.

Amanda Benton, President of Gala, told QSanAntonio in an email, "Jasz was the musical genius of our group and was going to be our entertainment for our Spring GALA on Wednesday. She was one of those people that hugged everyone, even people she just met."

Benton convened club members for an emergency meeting on March 30 at which a SAC counselor was available. Later in the week, GALA met with Darrell Parsons a therapist and Governor of the local HRC Chapter for additional grief counseling.

On Thursday, April 1, GALA members started a rememberance wall near the San Antonio College campus with pictures and notes memorializing McCullough whose funeral was held on Friday.

In Facebook posts on March 29, GALA members expressed their shock and grief regarding McCullough’s sudden death. Richard Anthony posted a particularly poignant remembrance:

"Jaszi you will be missed. You are an amazing person and I love you and I will miss you and think about all the great times we had so full of laughter and spirit, and dance! I trusted you and let you into my life and even throughout all the drama we managed to make the times good and memorable. Jasmayne "Jasz" McCullough R.I.P."

Change urged in anti-bias policies
San Antonio Express-News, March 24, 2010
The lessons in discrimination that Alicia "Ethan" Palmer learned while living as a man at Northwest Vista College are enough to fill a book. In fact, she plans to write one. Her transgender experiment, which ended Tuesday night, also moved her to speak out at the Alamo Colleges board meeting and urge trustees to change the district's anti-discrimination policies to include sexual orientation.

Students seek to add sexual orientation to Alamo Colleges’ non-discrimination policy
QSanAntonio, March 19, 2010

On March 23, members of GALA, the Gay & Lesbian Association of San Antonio College, will attend the board meeting of Alamo Colleges and make a presentation asking that sexual orientation be included in the organization’s current non-discrimination policy.

Colleges that operate under the Alamo Colleges banner include Northeast Lakeview College, Northwest Vista College, Palo Alto College, St. Phillips College and San Antonio College.

The current policy states: "The Alamo Colleges do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability with respect to access, employment programs, or services."

The appeal by GALA will be made during the "Citizens to be Heard", a portion of the meeting where people from the community, students, and employees can stand up and voice their concerns.

GALA is asking all members, along with other GLBT organizations, faculty, staff, administrators, and concerned citizens to be in attendance.

In a posting on Facebook, Amanda Benton, President of GALA, says, "If you would like to stand with us when we speak please let us know. If you are a group or organization you can also sign up for five minutes, and individuals have three minutes to speak."

"Citizens to be Heard" sign up begins at 5 p.m., and the meeting begins promptly at 6 p.m. Benton says it is very important to get there early if you plan sign up as a speaker.

Alamo Colleges board meetings are broadcast on Saturdays 12 noon - 2 p.m. and Sundays 9 -11 a.m. on Time Warner Cable Channel 98, Grande Cable Channel 21 and AT&T U-verse Channel 99.

For questions and more information about this event contact: Richard Farias, Advisor of GALA, and English Instructor at SAC at rfarias14@alamo.edu or Amanda Benton at galaofsac@gmail.com

Gay & Lesbian Assn. of San Antonio College Black & White Ball, Jan. 23, 2010
Photos (copyright) by Antonia Padilla