..::Nebraska Democratic GLBT Caucus

(Rally organized by Lincoln Public Schools Gay Straight Student Alliances.)
Speech given on September 12, 2005 by Barbara A. Baier, Nebraska's First openly Lesbian (or Gay Elected Official)

Hello, my name is Barbara Baier. I am the newest member of the Lincoln Board of Education, and I am a Lesbian mother. Does that make me special or unusual? Not particularly, yet, I, like you, am all too familiar with harassment and bullies.

Last January, the Lincoln Public Schools Gay Straight Alliances organized a march and a rally protesting the climate of anger and resentment that pervades our daily lives. I brought my five-year-old son to that rally. I have to admit that I felt a little scared as I always do when faced with taking a public stand. I worried that my visibility as a Lesbian mother might hurt him. He was getting ready to attend Kindergarten this fall. I worried that someone might pick on him because of me and his other mother. Each of you here knows that my concerns were and still are valid.

My spirits began to soar, when on that sunny January day, I saw hundreds of young people, adults, students, clergy, teachers, and many more gathered together for a common cause. It was then that I realized I had made the right decision to come.

As I looked around, I gained the courage to run for public office. I had thought about it for some time, but like most people my age, I have lived the habit of self-censorship for a very long time. Even though, I and my partner have been together and honest about our relationship for 17 years, I was still wary of the costs of being 'out' in a political race. It was your courage at a young age to be proud of who you are that gave me my courage.

Our community, state and country are filled with diversity. Our diversity has made us a strong, successful and creative nation. Even though our diversity is our strength, we continue to ridicule one another based on our differences.

I have to ask, why? Why do we as a culture invest so much energy into picking on those that we perceive as different? To answer this question, we need to ask what is the goal of the bully, whether we find him or her in the educational environment, the workplace or in a house of worship. Why does the bully harass those who are perceived as different? And why does society generally let it happen?

The goal of bully is to make the victim feel afraid and alone. Harassment of this sort only succeeds when we let it succeed. When we start to realize that we have something in common with all of the people targeted by bullies, then we begin to unravel the power of a bully. This is true in school, as well as the larger community. When we recognize the commonality of the human experience, we begin the work of building a true community where each member is valued.

A society that protects bullies wants you, as young people throughout your lives, to see each other for your differences, and not for your common spirit. A society that embraces violence, and anger, and fear wants you to believe that African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, Christian Americans, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Americans, in short, that everyone is a minority. The bully wants us to remember our differences and, thus, become marginalized.

Marginalized means to be placed on the fringe of society, always looking in, but never really a part of the community. To be marginalized means you have little or no power. So in essence, the bully wants you to be powerless, then he or she will have their way, whatever that maybe.

It is critically important in a democracy as great as the United States that our schools do NOT allow the bully to say who is 'in' and who is 'out.' We need the Anti-Bullying/Anti-Harassment Bill, LB 627, in Nebraska. We need policies throughout our state and country that ensure that our schools are safe, welcoming educational environments that do NOT emphasize our differences, but promote our commonalities as human beings. The truth of the matter is there is no such thing as 'minorities,' we are all of the same human family. We cannot afford to allow the bully to marginalize people based on differences.

I am proud that the Lincoln School District is among the first in our state to pass an Anti-Bullying/Anti-Harassment Policy. It includes the gay community. We, as a Board, took the first step in the long road to seeing each of our students enjoy a safe, welcoming school environment. We now need to embark on the difficult task of actualizing this policy by investigating and utilizing anti-harassment curriculum in the classroom. We need training for our administrators and teachers so they have effective intervention tools to stop bullies and harassment when they witness it.

We also need to take notice of the outcomes of bullying and harassment. We need to pay attention to our non-graduation rates. Here, in Lincoln, as elsewhere in this country, there is a crisis among our youth. Too many students drop out of school and do not graduate. Too often those who drop out are the students who are labeled as different by society, whether it is based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or ability.

Don't let the bullies and the harassment keep you from your education! Knowledge is power. If you give up on school, you have let the bullies win. Without an education, you will remain at the margins of society. WITH an education, you can change the world! By stopping the bully, you empower each other! Your work here today proves that knowledge is powerful! Keep up the good work!