Transcripts

JON GORDON: About three dozen citizens testified before the school board's teaching and learning committee. About half of them spoke against a program the board approved in March, which allows the district to seek private funding to hire a coordinator for gay and lesbian students. The program's purpose is to educate teachers about the problems and needs of homosexual students and to establish support groups for the students.

Conservative Christian groups mounted a campaign against the program and had pushed for last night's hearing. Tom Gerlach of Saint Paul told the committee that schools have no business being advocates for gay and lesbian students.

TOM: Support groups lie in the area, in my estimation, of social services, not in education. We seem to have enough to do, I think, in educating our kids than to be wasting our time and our resources on such non-educational nonsense.

JON GORDON: Advocates of the program say it's needed because gay and lesbian students are discriminated against and many feel isolated and suicidal at times. There are already two school sanctioned support groups in operation, one at Central High School and one at Como High. Erin Ferguson, a recent graduate of Central, says central school's gay and lesbian support group boosted her self-esteem.

ERIN FERGUSON: I feel incredibly lucky, not only because I was fortunate enough to have been born a lesbian, but also because I got to be part of the group at Saint Paul's Central all four years that I was there. And I wish I could explain to you all how wonderful that was and how important that was to be able to go there every week and have people be there to tell me that it was OK to be gay, and it was a good thing, and it was OK to tell other people, and to have other gay friends of my own age and to be part of the gay community.

JON GORDON: Some at the hearing objected to the program on grounds that it would close homosexual students to the possibility of going straight or convince vulnerable kids to become homosexual. Raymond Wirth is a retired Saint Paul School teacher.

RAYMOND WIRTH: By having a homosexual support group, it gives opportunity for the homosexuals to recruit members.

JON GORDON: But Saint Paul School board member Al, Oertwig who told the audience he's gay, says gays and lesbians don't choose their orientation. Oertwig delivered an impassioned speech in favor of the program.

AL OERTWIG: For those of you who are opposed, I would simply say, yes, in fact, gay youth are hearing your message. They're hearing that message because you can see it in the suicide statistics.

JON GORDON: The teaching and learning committee turned back a motion by board member Tom Conlon to stop developing the program and abolish the existing support groups at Central and Como high schools. The committee voted to study the issue further, but it's not expected to reconsider the issue. Last night's proceeding was a bit unusual since the board in March had already given the go ahead for the district to seek private funding for the program, but the board had not allowed public discussion at that time.

Last night's hearing was an attempt to make up for that. If the district hires a coordinator, as expected, Saint Paul will be only one of a handful of cities to offer such a service to gay and lesbian students. Jon Gordon, Minnesota Public Radio.