Posted on 04/01/2008 4:34:44 PM PDT by Libloather
Teacher who campaigns for gay rights wins award
Allison Douglas, For the Tribune
A gay right’s activist and elementary school teacher from Flagstaff will receive the Arizona Education Association Human and Civil Rights Award this month at a Mesa ceremony.
Annie Crego will receive the award April 25 during the Salute to Excellence dinner sponsored by the AEA Foundation for Teaching and Learning at the Phoenix Marriott Mesa hotel ballroom.
“I started teaching 34 years ago when no child ever admitted to being gay because they would be beaten or shunned,” Crego said. “Teachers never admitted they were gay, and everything was in the closet and hidden. But this work has let me get it out in a way that lets people understand.”
Crego said her mission began in 1998 when Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten unconscious and tied to a fence, later dying. Crego learned that a minister from Kansas picketed the boy’s funeral with a sign that included a slur against homosexuals. At that moment, she knew she had to do something.
“I decided, as a teacher, I could no longer sit back and watch this happen to children,” Crego said. “If there was anything I could do to stop that from happening to children, I needed to do that.”
Crego began to work as an officer for the Gay Straight Alliance Caucus, through the Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union.
“We work in ways to help school districts and associations begin to write language that will protect both students and teachers who are gay or perceived to be gay,” Crego said.
AEA President John Wright said Crego has made it possible for schoolchildren and employees to be safe under all circumstances, regardless of sexual orientation.
“I see her as a close friend and have seen her sensitivity and compassion firsthand,” Wright said. “She has real leadership and an ability to help people act on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Crego has also worked for six years with the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification Presidential Advisory Committee for the AEA. This committee works with students and teachers who are either gay or perceived to be gay. Additionally, she worked on the Human and Civil Rights Committee at the state level for five years.
“I’m not talking about sex,” Crego said. “For me the point is that every child has a right to be safe. And school, for many of these children, is the only place they are safe.”
It's time to pull your kids out of any public school.
It is time to defund public education!
Oh, yeah. "Begin[ning] to write language" always protects people. This woman is a teacher?
All the more reason that sodomites should openly identify themselves. Then, all the known homosexuals could be banned from being within 2000 feet of any school, since they're about 15 TIMES more likely than normal people to be child molesters.
I guess I actually agree with that weirdo on something. Who'd a thunk?
Exploiting Matthew Shepard
We were told that this University of Wyoming student was murdered simply because he was a homosexual. The truth is that he was the victim of a robbery gone bad by two drug addicts. What’s more, Shepard was also a heavy drug user who was HIV-positive.
Not only were the perpetrators of this brutal crime not “homophobes,” but one of them knew Shepherd and was allegedly bisexual. The real story of the Matthew Shepard case, as the prosecutor says on “20/20,” concerns the dangers of methamphetamine. The two killers and Shepard were big meth users.
http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/exploiting-matthew-shepard/
34 years ago very few people lived together if unmarried. Even fewer would attempt to stay in a hotel together if unmarried. College dorms were NOT co-ed and boys were NOT allowed into the room areas of the dorm. You had to check in and out. You did not expect your parents to let your boyfried sleep at home with you are even enter your bedroom for a very long period and you could forget about closing the door. Divorce was much less as was welfare and law suit happy parents and others. Most schools would bring you up to the front of class and whip your behind. Your parents were not called even when you were sick most of the time. There were no school nurses handing out condoms and birth control pills and taking girls to abortion clinics. So what in heck is she yacking about. I am sick and tired of the liberal nuts giving each other awards for awful behavior.
I’m no fan of Fred Phelps and I’m all for stopping school bullying, but this kind of activity does not belong on the school grounds.
Where it should remain. I don't CARE what goes on in the privacy of your own bedroom. It's none of my business, remember? Then don't announce it to the world.
Sounds admirable but dollar to donut she's pro-abortion all the way...
The "it's for the chill'rin" crowd never seem to get called on that.
Annie Crego, NEA Director, AZ
The founder of GLSEN, Kevin Jennings, was also a teacher:
http://massresistance.blogspot.com/2008/01/glsen-founder-kevin-jennings-leaving.html
Jennings is hosting a fundraiser for Obama:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1994675/posts
Her goal this first year is to make sure that all western region states are represented at NEA sexual orientation trainings, and that GLBT training is presented at the Western Region Leaders' Conference in January.
It's time to pull your kids out of any public school.
Any mention of the drug using, robbery gone bad victim Shepard must be balanced by reminding people of the poor kid who was brutally raped, tortured and murdered by a monogamous 'gay couple'
The problem is that this woman sincerely believes that what she is doing is right. The people giving her the award believe that what they are doing is right. The moral rot extends far beyond the gay rights movement. “Nice” people think that they are being loving and righteous by working against “hate”.
We are on the same weary path taken by latter day Romans and Greeks as well as countless other civilizations. We will be finding out through experience (again) that unhealthy sexual life styles need to be discouraged for the sake of our physical, moral and spiritual health.
I have no doubts as to her sincerity. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
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