LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
SPEAK Out |
| The Delaware Division of Libraries recently entered into an agreement with the database company EBSCO to provide a free public trial of their LGBT Life databases through our statewide shared database resources. Library card holders throughout Delaware can now access this database through the end of June through their library homepage's database link.
LGBT Life with full text is offered for more than 70 of the most important and historically significant LGBT journals, magazines and regional newspapers, as well as more than 100 full-text monographs/books. Full text content available in LGBT Life with Full Text includes The Advocate, Gay Parent Magazine, Girlfriends, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies, James White Review, ISNA News, Ladder, Lesbian Tide, New York Blade, ONE, Tangents, Washington Blade, and many more. Richard James Administrative Librarian Delaware Division of Libraries It was breathtaking how quickly the bill permitting same-gender charter schools in Delaware sailed through both chambers of the General Assembly. Introduced on Jan. 10, it was passed in the House by Jan. 22 and in the Senate by March 19, in both cases by overwhelming majorities. This whirlwind happened despite the mixed findings on the efficacy of same-gender learning environments, and the disturbing separate-but-equal civil liberties implications. Compare that movement with the decade-long effort to protect gay Delawareans from workplace discrimination. A bill outlawing anti-gay employment discrimination was first introduced in 1998 and was quickly defeated, even though a Newsweek poll at the time showed 84% of Americans opposed workplace sexual orientation discrimination. In 2001, 2003 and 2005 sexual orientation antidiscrimination bills passed the House but each time died in a senator's desk drawer. Last year Senate Bill 141 was introduced but cannot get out of a Senate committee. Our lawmakers took only two months to pass a bill ensuring that a charter school may discriminate on the basis of gender. They have now begun their second decade of dithering over workplace fairness for the many thousands of Delaware's gay employees. Douglas Marshall-Steele Letters to Letters should be addressed to Editor@camprehoboth.com or mailed to Editor, 37 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach, DE19971. Please include your name and phone number for verification. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. |
|
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 18, No. 05 May 16, 2008 |