Home > Publications > Synapse > Spring 2005 > What the SWAT?

What the SWAT?

by Lydia Pelot-Hobbs

Hey everyone! My name is Lydia Pelot-Hobbs and I am the current Working Action Manager (WAM) of Young Religious Unitarian Universalism (YRUU)! My job is to organize around the Working Action Issue (currently Education Reform and Multiculturalism) and coordinate the SWAT (Super Working Action Team—the folks who are organizing around this issue in their congregations, communities, schools, districts/regions, or anywhere else). A resolution was passed last year at Youth Council to make Education Reform and Multiculturalism the long-term Working Action Issue so YRUU can help make significant change. If you are wondering how to get involved, it's simple: You can be on SWAT (it is a self-selected job; If you decide this is something you want to put your time into, you can request a Super Working Action Team Packet of Activist Tools (SWAT PoAT (PDF, 29 pages) which is a resource on Ed Reform and Multiculturalism from the Youth Office), come to the YRUU Social Justice Conference (YSJC), participate in the Day of Action, support the Working Action Issue at General Assembly, or do anything else you can think of! Change is not that difficult.

Every school I have ever heard of has a non-discrimination policy. You know, those statements on websites or pamphlets that say, "All-American/Canadian High School does not discriminate based on sex, race, color, creed…" Yet many policies are missing something, something pretty important: sexual orientation. For example, in the United States the only states that have statewide non-discrimination policies that include actual or perceived sexual orientation in public schools are Hawaii, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Washington. That means that in the other forty-four states it is perfectly legal for schools to expel students who are queer, fire teachers solely based on their sexual orientation, ignore when students are harassed for being queer, and not address other serious acts of discrimination.

What do you do, you ask? Well how do you think sexual orientation got added to those six states' non-discrimination policies in the first place? Students (you!) rallied, organized, got mad. Students, faculty, staff, parents, civil rights organizations formed coalitions to make sure everyone, including queer youth, were as protected in their schools as heterosexual youth. They went to school board meetings, had educational workshops, lobbied their legislature, wrote letters to the editor, and countless other actions. By having one district or school change at a time, these states were able to get sexual orientation on their statewide non-discrimination policy. These are YOUR schools, they should/need to be accountable to you as citizens but more importantly as students. But what if you don't go to a public school? You have strength in numbers and can do many of the same things your public school peers can. You can be an ally to public school students by working in the legislature for rights for queer students. Then, hopefully by having state/province-wide support society will start to have a greater acceptance of queer folks that will lead to rights for queer students in private schools.

To get you started, here are some resources:

Lydia Pelot-Hobbs is a bridger from St. Louis, MO. She currently attends Oberlin College in Ohio.

For more information contact youth @ uua.org.

Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.