Where's the commission?

September 1996 [Articles]

Where's the commission?
by Tom Witkowski

Tom Witkowski is a freelance writer living in Somerville. He can be reached at twitkowski@aol.com.

By appointing the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth in February, 1992, and funding its programs, including Safe Schools, Governor William Weld has pushed the envelope of gay-rights support among politicians.
In his first four years in office, Weld arguably did more than any governor, congressman, or president has done for gays and lesbians. His reputation as a supporter seemed cemented in the gay-and-lesbian community. But in his second term, Weld has made decisions that threaten to undo much of the goodwill he has built up. Which leaves many wondering if Weld, in his own brashly independent, nonconformist, Grateful Dead-listening way, is now courting the conservatives. Or if this is just typical, unpredictable, libertarian-leaning Weld, and nothing to be worried about.

Safe Schools?
Cuts and bruises
Growing pains
The state of the commission
Where's the commission?

The first sounds of alarm came last year, when Weld appointed John Silber of Boston University, never a friend to the gay-and-lesbian community, chairman of the state's board of education. Weld gave his one time adversary the keys to the state's public schools -- in effect letting him take the schools for a test drive. Supporters of Safe Schools wondered if the program would be allowed to go along for the ride, or be left at the first pit stop.
"That to me was tantamount to undoing all the good things [Weld] did for gay and lesbian youth," says Al Ferreira, a teacher in Cambridge who founded Project 10 East, a gay/straight student alliance at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.
"You have to also ask yourself if for the next year or two whether the Department of Education might be under some pressure from Silber," adds Arthur Lipkin, an instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "We certainly know what his thoughts on gay and lesbian issues are." Lipkin, who is also head of the Harvard Gay and Lesbian School issues project, has received grants from the Safe Schools program to train teachers.

No danger?
David LaFontaine, chairman of the governor's commission, says that the governor and Lieutenant Governor Paul Cellucci have guaranteed the survival of Safe Schools, and have even started putting aside extra money to start a similar program in human-service agencies.
"I think it is totally groundless for people to have any fears about the Safe Schools program or the commission's work," he says.
But in the state's one school system where Silber has played a major role, there has been no Safe Schools training. Boston University administers the schools for the city of Chelsea, and its lack of Safe Schools input should give people an idea what could happen in the rest of the state, educators say.
"Really, I'm most concerned that Silber is head of the Board of Education," says Bob Parlin, who has worked as a trainer for Safe Schools. "I'm very concerned about what role Silber will play."
"The key people in this are Bob Antonucci for the Department of Education, and Weld and Cellucci for the administration. And their support is very firm, so we've been told not to worry," LaFontaine says.
In fact, LaFontaine, a Weld supporter, says he worries more about the Democrats in the legislature who cut the budget money from the state's tobacco tax in the first place.
"I'm assuming the governor's commitment has been so strong that there has to be some kind of an understanding Silber won't do something to hurt the program. That doesn't mean having [Silber] in the position he's in won't have a chilling effect on the bureaucracy," says Lipkin.

Conservative white guys
That chilling effect, some say, is amplified by the commission itself, which some say is too white, male, and conservative. And too reluctant to rock the boat in an election year for its benefactor.
"I wish the commission was more diverse racially, there were more women on the commission, more young people on the commission," says commissioner Karen Harbeck, the only woman appointee out of five active board members. (See The commission.)
"I think the commission needs to be rejuvenated with a more diverse and constructive membership," she adds. "Maybe there needs to be more restructuring. I wish the gay-and-lesbian community was more involved."
Ferreira was an original member of the commission who left when his workload from teaching became more demanding. But that wasn't the only reason.
"I wasn't totally happy with what was happening on the commission," he says. "It was too male and too white."
LaFontaine, though, points out that two new commissioners are about to be appointed as part of a rejuvenation: one a student and the other a teacher.
"We've wanted for a long time for the commission to be diverse," he says. "What's made it tough for us is it's still politically incorrect to serve on a commission in a Republican administration. I think the political correctness really harms the cause of supporting gay and lesbian youth."
But Ferreira, who tempers his criticism with words of admiration for LaFontaine's dedication to gay-rights causes, says students on the commission previously left because they believed they were not listened to.
"I involved several students with the commission's work," says Ferreira, "and they were not comfortable because they felt they weren't being heard. When you invite people and they show up to meetings and they're not treated with dignity and respect, they're not going to stay. Both of them felt the adults on the commission were not respectful of youth voices. They would say something and the adults would jump in and finish for them."
Yet the commission has never been stronger, maintains LaFontaine. Weld and Cellucci are paying for more training in human-service agencies. Safe Schools is going to move into the college level. LaFontaine speaks of reaching out more to minority gay and lesbian youth.
But to educators and activists like Ferreira, the children should come first, not the commission or its politics.
"It's not that I'm angry as much as I'm sad that people whose principles would be focused on youth, their principles end up sidelined by politics," he says.
What is most frustrating to those who do think the commission could be doing more is that the commission -- and the governor -- are clearly national leaders in state support for gay-rights causes.
"We're the first in the country," says Karen Harbeck. "The governor has put a lot of money into this. We've created a lot of change. There's a lot to be proud of."

Safe Schools?
Cuts and bruises
Growing pains
The state of the commission
Where's the commission?