LESBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL ISSUES CAUCUS COLUMN
by Ed Check, Texas Tech University and Laurel Lampela, Cleveland State University
We are excited and honored to serve as guest co-columnists for the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues Caucus (LGBIC). Five years ago, a group of us met in Phoenix (during the NAEA annual convention) to begin organizing an affiliate devoted to visibility and validation of lesbian, gay and bisexual issues within the field of art education. In 1994, we unofficially organized at the Baltimore convention to actively work against misrepresentation, discrimination and bias in research and teaching in art concerning lesbian, gay and bisexual artists and issues. We wrote lots of letters, held meetings and listened to lots of people and their stories. Many of us worked endless hours to prepare for our application for affiliate status to the States Delegates Assembly in San Francisco. Our determination, anger, frustration, hard work and vision paid off. In July of 1996, the NAEA Board of Directors granted affiliate status to the LGBIC.
Like other affiliates in the NAEA, the LGBIC is open to anyone interested in lesbian, gay and bisexual issues in art and education. The LGBIC provides a forum to investigate and discuss sexual identity issues facing teachers and students in our schools. As a significant part of the student population in schools is gay or lesbian, the LGBIC is a valuable resource for teachers grappling with these issues on a daily basis. In a letter of support to the members of the NAEA Delegates Assembly Kristin Congdon pointed out that "[a]s we are all concerned with the well-being of children, we should also be painfully aware of how difficult it is for homosexual youth to accept and understand their sexual orientation in a culture that is homophobic." Curricular and pedagogical development of research (for example, anti-homophobic lessons and curricula) for art educators is just one of many goals of the LGBIC, one way to facilitate change and create new knowledge.
Late artist Keith Haring was not alone in getting tremendous personal satisfaction from working with children and organizing art workshops. He loved working with children and organized many workshops in his lifetime. Once asked in an interview if his work with children could be ruined by controversy because he was gay, Haring answered, "They [homophobes] could destroy me in a minute if they wanted to." The fears of loss of job and credibility in the school community continue to haunt lesbian, gay and bisexual art teachers. Straight art educators shy away from classroom discussions of sexual identity fearing similar reprisals. The LGBIC is our discursive space for all of us to continue the dialogue and conversations about these issues.
There are many people in the NAEA who deserve special thanks for helping to make the LGBIC a reality. Thank you Social Caucus and Women's Caucus for your unconditional support these past years. Leaders in both caucuses provided us with advice, support and workshop space for many presentations at national conferences. Thank you Doug Blandy, Laurie Hicks, Kristin Congdon and Amy Brook Snider. (Both Laurie and Amy wrote about the LGBIC group in many caucus news columns on numerous occasions.) Also, thanks to those people who wrote letters of support for our group to the NAEA a year ago: Kristin Congdon, Terry Barrett, Laura Chapman, the Michigan Art Education Association, the California Art Education Association and the Los Angeles Art Education Association. Also, thank you Terry Givens for your help negotiating us through Delegates Assembly and to Paul Kravagna for your expert networking skills. (Of special note are Paul's efforts getting a letter of support from the Mayor's Office of San Francisco.) Thanks also to the untold numbers of friends and allies who contributed to our success in multiple ways, too numerous to mention.
Robert Chappel (1994-96) volunteered to be our first newsletter editor. We owe him a great deal of thanks for his time, energy and expertise that went into each issue. The LGBIC newsletter continues as a forum for members to address issues effecting lesbians, gays and bisexuals that are relevant to the field of art education. The newsletter is an important networking tool for sharing ideas, resources, experiences and knowledge that guides us as we grow as individuals and as an organization. Letters to the editor, book reviews, stories from homes and schools and officer reports are examples of some of the newsletter's features. Anne Marie Manning (anne.m.manning@dartmouth.edu) is the current newsletter editor. Anyone wishing to submit items to the newsletter may contact Anne at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755.
For membership information, please contact: John Chamberlin
(jchamber@risd.edu) at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence,
RI 02909 or Laurel Lampela (l.lampela@csuohio.edu) at the
Department of Art, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115.