In the Jan. 12, 1998, Media Circus, "How I learned to stop worrying and love Gloria Allred," by Frank Sanello, it was incorrectly reported that the man who molested one of Allred's clients was sentenced to life in prison. He was actually sentenced to jail for three years, of which he served 18 months. Salon regrets the error.
_______________ THE SHOWDOWN AT SAN LEANDRO HIGH, PART ONE AND PART TWO BY IRA EISENBERG (06/01/98)
	This story made me profoundly sad. Why do such side-issue absurdities continue to dominate and divide our nation? While I dislike pinning myself to a specimen board with a neatly typed label reading "Proud gay male, open to friends and co-workers since the middle '70s and family since the early '80s," I must in order to attempt the clear expression of my personal opinion. Teenagers, throbbing sacks of hormones that they are, do not need assistance from politicians, activist groups, school boards and teachers with their sexuality. From schools they need knowledge, and from parents they need unconditional love. Sadly, as Ira's story illustrates, they get precious little from either. All of us alleged adults lucky enough to arrive at our adulthood without suffering the horrible crime of molestation (and I sometimes feel we are far too few) eventually came to our present straight or gay sexuality through the fear and ignorance that so dominate our culture because sex is so obviously and uniquely central to who and what we are. I wish we could develop some method to ensure that every child learns to love and look forward to the wholesome and individual path their life will become as they grow into the loved and self-actualized beings God intended. The market-driven and stereotypically sexualized culture of today drives each of us further into self-doubt and isolation and hinders the construction of the joyfully diverse tapestry that could be the fabric of humanity. Sloppy public displays of private acts, whatever the age or sexuality of the participants, are not just embarrassing or lurid entertainments but pitiable attempts to claim some meager and misperceived stake of self-worth and respect before a family that has failed to love them and a society that has failed to teach them. The sub-groups of today are an expression of our failures. Integration of all into a true family of humankind will be the definition of eventual success. -- Sean Malloy I'm confused. I thought Salon was interesting and informative enough to bookmark and check out occasionally. So when I read your "Holy War in San Leandro" story, I wondered if Salon had become a right-wing hate forum since the last time I checked it out? Do you have some other explanation? I live in the East Bay, and I'd encountered this story as it was reported in the San Leandro Times and in the East Bay Express. Did you check to see if the rant you ran had any relation to the facts reported in those papers? This one instance is so bad that for me you've lost credibility in everything you post. Salon is deleted from my bookmarks and good riddance. -- Gina Covina The article "Gay rights vs. Parents' rights" was well written and discusses very well what seems to be a reasonable argument -- that public schools are not the place where children should be exposed to ideas that their parents oppose. However, for me, it's just too close to the arguments against integration. Very similar things were argued back then, and there were (and unfortunately are) people who argued that integration was "wrong" and that their children should not be exposed to beliefs they disagreed with. Occasionally parents' rights have to take a back seat to teaching children an idea like tolerance, which is a societal good. I did agree that it isn't and shouldn't be appropriate for kids to have sex at school, but the parallels to busing made me too uncomfortable to agree with the idea that there's much space to compromise. I applaud Salon for publishing the article, however. -- Anne Stephens I am amazed at the blatant distortion in Ira Eisenberg's feature on San Leandro High, presented blithely under a weak guise of reason and accuracy. After assuring us of his liberal objectivity and the consequences of his independent stance against the oppressor, he then presents an endless series of explanations and opinions from PIPE members and supporters, offering only a few token, out-of-context quotes from GLSEN and G/SA, usually putting the opposing side's "needs" and "beliefs" in "quotes" to belittle their "veracity." I would expect such heavy-handed slanting from the likes of David Horowitz and Camille Paglia, which is why I usually skim their articles and move on, but I expect more from a two-part, in-depth Salon cover story. I grew up in a working-class, depressed "rust belt" community in Pennsylvania with many apparent similarities to San Leandro. Any signs of diversity, whether it was in terms of religion, race, ethnicity, class or sexual orientation, were cowed into submission by the socially conservative majority and then ignored. Not surprisingly, few racist or homophobic incidents were ever reported in my school, but any student could (and still can) attest that such incidents occurred on a daily basis, in the form of verbal and physical harassment and were usually condoned or even committed by the faculty. Any teenager could have told Mr. Eisenberg (if he had chosen to talk to any) the first rule of the schoolyard: Never give any indication that something bugs you. Saying that because he found no gay bashing on record it must not be a problem is akin to saying that date rape isn't really an issue because so few cases go to court. You don't need white robes and swastikas to create an atmosphere of intimidation, and a student can be harassed for being gay or lesbian for little or no reason. Somehow I doubt the students at San Leandro who throw the terms "nigger" and "slut" around do so with the same venom and intent that usually accompanies "faggot" or "dyke." No, racism and homophobia are not equal or even comparable. That doesn't make one any less important than the other. Obviously, the civil rights struggle is just that: a struggle to acknowledge and accept individual differences, not a quest to equalize the entire population. Now people who grew up with experiences are realizing that public education doesn't have to address only the majority; and a few brave teachers, students, parents and activists are actually speaking up and demanding the basic respect that everyone deserves. In doing so, they are enhancing education, not destroying it. -- J.J. Fenza Ira Eisenberg either fails or refuses to see what I consider to be three key points. 1. Gay students go to schools. All schools. Your school. We cannot, as a nation, permit prejudice in schools -- not against people of color, or women, or the disabled, or gays, or Jews or anyone. Permitting prejudice against one group opens the door for the same treatment of any other group. 2. Those gay students have a very hard time. As Larry Kramer pointed out years ago, gay people are the only oppressed group born into the enemy camp. Show me a kid who is gay, who is hated at home and hated at school, and I'll show you a headstone. Gay kids are three to four times as likely to commit suicide as their hetero peers. 3. Of course, nobody should be making out in front of the school, and Henrietta and Gladys shouldn't be either. But which is worse -- an expression of love or an expression of hate? Of course, the jeering and name-calling should have been stopped first, and stopped firmly. Then the two girls should have been reprimanded. -- Sharon Jill Bear Bergman SALON | June 5, 1998