An Open Letter to the GLSEN Community the Morning After Election Day

Nov 03, 2004

I watched the election returns with growing dismay as candidates who stood for greater inclusion of LGBT people went down to (in some cases apparent) defeat and discriminatory ballot measures won, often by outrageous margins.

I would be less than honest if I did not admit to feeling a bit deflated today. As an educator and activist who has devoted nearly 20 years of my life to ensuring safe schools for all students, particularly those who are or are perceived to be LGBT, I am concerned for not only what this may mean for these students but what this could mean for our education system over the next four years.

According to the 2003 National School Climate Survey, 1 out of 3 LGBT students report skipping school at least once in the last month because they were afraid to go.

These are difficult times for our youth. But now is not the time to lose hope.

Those in whose footsteps we follow faced far darker days in their struggles for justice – struggles in which they inevitably prevailed.

Think of African-Americans who in the 1880s saw their civil and voting rights stripped away as they were disenfranchised after the false morning of Reconstruction.

Think of the Progressives and LGBT people of the 1950s who lived in constant fear of the hysterical witch-hunts of the McCarthy era.

And many of us know first-hand the devastating effect of our government’s callous response to the deaths of thousands of Americans, predominantly gay men, to AIDS in the 1980s. Whatever we are feeling today, our forbearers felt it ten fold in the dark days of their struggles.

I remain hopeful because, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Indeed the events of the 2004 elections seem to have lengthened the arc of our struggle, but inevitably, justice will prevail.

At GLSEN we continue to press toward our vision of a future in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

And we are encouraged by the firm belief that Americans understand that violence, bullying and harassment of any kind is wrong. The same faith that made me believe the Red Sox could win the World Series, an event over eight decades in the making keeps me strong.

I am sure our victory will come a little faster than that. Now, we simply get back to the important work we still have to do.


Sincerely,
Kevin Jennings
GLSEN's Executive Director