Student journalist hears from religious right
after story on gay teen
By COLMAN McCARTHY
Special to the National Catholic Reporter Colorado,
Colo.
She didn't see it coming: the storm clouds, the venting of
opposition, being sucked into controversy.
But it came late last October when Mary Margaret Nussbaum, the
18-year-old editor of The Lever, the prizewinning student newspaper at
Palmer High School, wrote a l,000 word front-page article on the lives and
thoughts of gay and lesbian teenagers.
The story, headlined "Finding True Love: Gay Teens Search For a
Place," came off as a balanced mix of quotes, information and reporting that
included a visit to the Penthouse, a local gay dance club. The article was not
an editorial advocating a stance but a news story reporting on an issue. It was
in keeping with the journalistic excellence that has made The Lever a
nationally honored newspaper.
Nussbaum, whose college choices this fall include Northwestern and
Notre Dame, quoted a pseudonymous Palmer student who plans to move in soon with
her girlfriend. "When I came out, it wasn't like I made an announcement," the
student said. "I told one person and they told five and they told 10. The
people who didn't like it stayed away and the people who didn't care just told
me how much they loved me."
The young reporter revealed an ear for the telling anecdote. She
wrote that the lesbian student's poise and confidence helped "get her through
the times when she's walking down the street with her girlfriend, holding hands
and a man yells 'You're the reason I can't get a date.' "
In the months since the article appeared, Nussbaum has been in the
middle of controversy over her story and the issue of student sexuality.
Writing such an article might be viewed as a nervy undertaking for
a high school senior anywhere. But the effort takes on added significance in
Colorado Springs, a stronghold of fundamentalist Christian activism. This city
was the site nearly three years ago of a secret meeting of religious right
leaders from around the country to outline their anti-homosexual agenda.
One of the early and most aggressive critics of Nussbaum's article
was Will Perkins, a Colorado Springs car dealer and chairman of the board of
Colorado for Family Values, a conservative organization closely aligned with
right-wing political and religious groups. As stated in the CFV Report,
the monthly published by Perkins and his nonprofit organization, "The mission
of Colorado for Family Values is to proactively lead and assist those opposing
the militant homosexual attacks on traditional family values."
The mission is also "to preserve the right to disagree with and
resist, in a civil and compassionate manner, the forced affirmation of the
homosexual lifestyle."
In a statement of faith the group professes: "We are committed to
the behavioral standards as enunciated in the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New
Testaments, as encompassed in the Judeo-Christian ethic and demonstrated by the
Life of Jesus Christ. We understand that there are other world views and faiths
which incorporate these same standards. We welcome them as partners in this
issue."
CFV's most visible activity has been spearheading opposition to
any legislation in the state recognizing the rights of homosexuals.
Postcard campaign
The Perkins group, following Nussbaum's article, distributed an
estimated 130,000 postcards via more than 100 churches. The postcards had the
local school board's address on one side and a message on the other with a line
for a signature.
Under the headline "PROTECT THE CHILDREN," the card read: "I
strongly urge you to enact a policy for every aspect of school life which
discourages experimentation with any kind of promiscuous sexual activity,
promotes abstinence, and affirms traditional marriage." CFV claims that by
mid-January more than 7,500 supporters "formally endorsed this position."
In addition to being a stronghold for conservative Christianity,
Colorado Springs, population 350,000, has long been a fortress of conservative
Republican politics. Its congressman, Rep. Joel Hefley, first elected in 1986,
has one of the safest seats in Congress, winning by 72 percent in the last
election. He routinely received high -- and often the highest -- ratings from
the American Conservative Union and some of the lowest from the AFL-CIO and
Americans for Democratic Action. Hefley is a ranking member of the House Armed
Services Committee.
One of the local political ironies is that the emergence in the
past few years of such groups as Colorado for Family Values has made Colorado
Springs less of a one-party town. Stephen Handen, a resident since the 1960s, a
former Catholic priest and a longtime social worker with ministries to young
people and low-income families, says that once-sleeping moderates and liberals
have been energized of late by CFV and its larger and richer ideology-mate,
Focus on the Family, run by broadcaster James Dobson. "Suddenly there are some
alliances between Republicans and Democrats because of the way in which the
newcomer conservative groups have colored the political complexion of this
town," said Handen. "Colorado Springs has become much more politically alive
because of the wishes of some people to create a theocracy."
Some of that liveliness was on display at school board meetings in
recent months, including one in January attended by more than 600 people. A
local reporter said that "general civility -- and a lot of security guards --
held their sway." A Baptist minister told the crowd that Colorado Springs was
like the biblical Babylon, destroyed "because people kept quiet" about
sinfulness. From the other side came the charge that "the CFV proposal is yet
another thinly veiled, cloaked attempt at sweeping censorship."
Mary Margaret Nussbaum recently took a few moments to offer her
reflections. She sat in a conference room at Colorado College, a premier
liberal arts college where her mother serves as a Catholic religious
counselor.
"I never had any interaction" with Colorado for Family Values
before the article, Nussbaum said. "One of the things this dispute has shown me
more than anything is just how divided this whole community is. ... It's really
unfortunate. I admire that [CFV] has strongly held beliefs."
Many at the school board meetings, she said, "were people who had
never had any interaction with Palmer High School or the students. A lot of
them hadn't even read the article they were so upset about. They read the
headlines or other people's reports. It wasn't that they actually knew what
they were talking about."
If the issues are religion and protection of family values,
Nussbaum might be considered by some an unlikely target. She is one of five
children in a Catholic family that attends Mass faithfully. Her father, a
University of Notre Dame graduate, is a lawyer whose clients include local
churches and evangelical groups. Her mother, Melissa Musick Nussbaum, recently
published I Will Lie Down This Night, a book about family life and
spirituality. The prayerfulness of the Nussbaum family shines through in this
mother's stories of her family's faith and their reliance on God's grace.
Throughout her ordeal, Mary Margaret Nussbaum has retained her
calm. In addition to the support of her family, Nussbaum has had the support of
her high school principal and newspaper faculty adviser.
As well as learning about the tactics of right-wing religionists,
she has had a close-up glimpse of the media. "There have been lots of radio and
TV news shows that have been pretty irresponsible. One of the more recent ones
was talking -- they didn't mention my name specifically -- but they were
talking about the type of person who would write an article like this, who must
have been raised without any religious or moral foundation. On the one hand, it
was kind of insulting. On the other, it was just funny. Anyone who knows my
family knows that it's, like, all religion all the time!"
A national pattern
The Colorado Springs controversy about gay and lesbian teenagers
is part of the national pattern. Rea Carey, executive director of the National
Youth Advocacy Coalition, a four-year-old membership group based in Washington,
believes that "as there is an increase in visibility of student gay and lesbian
groups, there is often an increase in response -- a negative one. We have
tracked a four- and fivefold increase in formal and informal youth groups that
were started by gay and lesbian students themselves. They were not receiving
the support they deserved and asked for from the staffs at their schools."
Not all the responses are negative. Carey reports that in such
cities as Boston and Seattle and in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, safe school
programs have been put in place. "The programs go from tracking anti-gay
violence to training staff and administrators," she said. "Some even focus on
policy changes in a school district. Programs that are comprehensive have been
very successful -- success meaning that they have not seen the same kinds of
attacks that other programs have experienced. They have done their political
background work to ensure the survival of the programs."
In Colorado Springs, the Inside Out Youth Support Group holds
weekly meetings for gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers. Three certified
therapists offer individual or group therapy. Between 20 and 30 teenagers rely
on Inside Out, which offers a friendly place to socialize. Publicly funded
through the El Paso County Health Department, Inside Out was begun six years
ago by Regina Dipadova, a Flushing, N.Y., native with a Catholic background who
came to college in Colorado and stayed. Three other health departments in the
state have used Inside Out as a model.
National Catholic Reporter, May 30,
1997
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