This anti-gay decision has been denounced by Jess Montgomery, president of The Triangle Foundation, Metropolitan Detroit's best known gay rights organization. "They're saying they didn't really want to protect everyone's rights," said the activist.

The public officials voting against equality and justice represent the Wayne-Westland School Board.

Carole Shields, President of People For the American Way, a nationwide organization, wholeheartedly agrees with the Triangle Foundation's president. The venerable organization that Ms. Shields represents is composed of non-profit groupings dedicated to defending civil rights; democratic values, religious freedom, respect for diversity; and the development of a culture of opportunity and tolerance for individual differences.

Last month, People For the American Way * released Hostile Climate 1997, a state by state report of institutional anti-gay activity.

The organization has issued the following statement critiquing the Wayne-Westland School District for its abrupt repeal after having adopted such properly inclusive protections only last January.

"By deleting sexual orientation from its non-discrimination policies, the Wayne-Westland School Board is sending a dangerous message to bigots and the uninformed everywhere. Just earlier this summer, we saw a vivid example of the kind of harassment gays and lesbians face when anonymous anti-gay fliers appeared on the streets of Wayne County attacking Patricia Brown, the incumbent president of the school board. Such ugly anti-gay incidents are repeated every day at schools and in meeting rooms across the nation.

"At People For the American Way, we know that to be gay in America is to confront an entirely different environment from that which heterosexuals face. In addition to the all too real threat of anti-gay violence and the daily reality of prejudice, gays and lesbians also face a clear message of exclusion and rejection from many of the institutions of our society."

Wayne-Westland School Board President Debra Fowlkeys insists she is concerned about the welfare and safety of gay men and lesbians but that their inclusion as a protected category is unnecessary. Fowlkeys said existing codes of conduct and state law already protects students and staff from harassment and discrimination.

"It was a matter of duplication," she said.

Those who believe this is double talk, also believe The Wayne-Westland School Board has come under the thumb of the religious right. They wonder why the Board made changes in January -- if its members believed sexual orientation was already truly protected.

The President of People for the American Way continued:

"The very least a school board could do to counter these messages which do harm to individual students is to provide protection from some of the most blatant forms of hatred -- harassment and discrimination. The Wayne-Westland School Board has instead chosen to reverse its own step in the right direction. We fear that the result of their action will be to make it that much more difficult for gay and lesbian students and teachers to learn and to teach," she said.

Trish Brown, a former School Board president and a lesbian, said the school board is "caving in" to parents and others misled by fundamentalists and other religious zealots into believing that the school district, by including sexual orientation as a protected category, has been "catering" to gays and lesbians.

Michael Chiumento, a Westland resident who teaches band in Plymouth-Canton schools, says that the School Board is exhibiting cowardice.

"The real people behind this are the ones hiding behind Christianity, "he said.

* CONTACT: