Vigil held to support gay texts - Multicultural lessons in high schools backed

The News & Observer, Oct. 29, 1993

By GREG EASTERLY

CHAPEL HILL -- About 100 people joined a candlelight vigil in front of the Franklin Street post office Thursday night to support the inclusion of homosexuality as part of a multicultural education plan for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.

The group consisted of gay and lesbian activists, as well as parents and students, who came out to show that not everyone in Chapel Hill opposes the school system's controversial multicultural program, which includes references to sexual orientation.

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The vigil, called "A Night of Healing," was arranged as a show of support for the school board's decision in May to add homosexuality to the school system's multicultural plan. Since that decision, parents opposed to the new plan have dominated several school board meetings. The debate has raged even hotter since last week's discovery of sexually explicit material in some selections of a reading list from Chapel Hill High School teacher David Bruton's class.

Support for the multicultural plan had been fragmented until the recent formation of groups called Many Voices, One Community and the Orange Lesbian and Gay Alliance. Both groups have criticized Putting Children First, a group that formed in August to combat the gay and lesbian aspects of the multicultural plan.

"There's a lot of misinformation being put out there," said Doug Ferguson of the gay-lesbian alliance. "If people knew who we were, then they would know that we are not the monsters that we are being made out to be."

Hugh Singeline, a board member of Outright, a gay and lesbian youth support group, said he has no problem with parents getting involved in school curricula. "But if forced ignorance is to be the goal, then there is a problem," he said.

Bruton attended the meeting Thursday night and did not address the crowd. But he said afterward, "This is much bigger than just Chapel Hill, and it's going to keep getting bigger until people learn to get along with each other and give up their closely held prejudices."

Carrboro Board of Alderman candidate Mike Nelson and former Chapel Hill Town Council member Joe Herzenberg, both of whom are openly gay, also attended.