The Oregon Citizens Alliance’s first ballot measure since the organization’s defeat at the polls in 1996, Ballot Measure 9 has made schools the latest battleground for gay rights in Oregon.
If Measure 9 passes, all state schools from kindergarten through community colleges would be prohibited from sanctioning or promoting homosexuality, and those schools that do encourage it could lose state funding.
Counseling programs, gay student unions, health education and school tolerance policies would be challenged, though supporters and opponents of the measure disagree about how they will change.
Though OCA director Lon Mabon said the OCA could convince the legislature to bar state universities from sanctioning homosexuality if the measure passes, Oregon University System spokesman Bob Bruce said state universities would be unaffected.
The University’s neighbor, Lane Community College, however, would be significantly affected by the measure’s passage.
“It would affect LCC just as it would affect K-12 schools,” Robert Ackerman, chairman of the LCC board, said, adding that the LCC school board unanimously voted Sept. 13 to oppose the measure. “We view this as a denial of free speech, a violation of academic freedom and the marginalization of a group of students.”
Opponents of the measure say that its passage would brand non-heterosexual students as targets and could lead to higher rates of depression and teen suicide.
Susan Matthews, LCC multicultural adviser, said the measure would change the atmosphere of the community college.
“It would completely change the climate here to one that is completely intolerant of LGBT students and staff,” she said. “I think that just having the measure on the ballot is devastating. It legitimizes homophobia.”
Mabon, however, that the measure would allow criticism of homosexuality but not harassment of gay and lesbian students.
“We are opposed to harassment at any level,” he said. “But a lot of these programs are just disguising acceptance.”
Though the measure’s opponents say its passage would eliminate counseling for non-heterosexual students, Mabon disagrees, saying school counselors would be barred only from telling students it’s acceptable to be gay. They could still counsel for depression and encourage students to seek support from independent counselors.
Another concern opponents expressed is the possible restriction of health education.
“Measure 9 would place a stranglehold on the ability of schools to provide good HIV education,” said May Gossart, a Planned Parenthood education director.
Jose Solano, a Portland high school teacher who supports Measure 9, said health education would not be restricted but rather expanded to include the what he called the dangers of homosexual sex.
“It’s harming students,” Solano said of his school’s decision to suppress books that encourage homosexual students to change. “We have students who are swearing that they’re born that way, that they can’t change, that we can’t help them. They’ll believe it, they won’t want to change and they’ll face the health hazards of the gay lifestyle.”