September 14, 2000
RELEASE ON RECEIPT

LEADING GAY-RIGHTS ACTIVIST TO SPEAK AT OBERLIN COLLEGE OCTOBER 4

Guest lecture:
"The American Dream."

8 p.m. Wed., October 4
Root Room Second floor, Carnegie Building
52 West Lorain Street

Free public event
For more information please call 440/775-8474.

Jennings' talk is part of Oberlin's "Common Ground: Education for Democracy" initiative funded by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to enhance campus community dialogue about pluralism and multicultural issues.

Media Contact: Betty.Gabrieli@oberlin.edu

http://www.oberlin.edu.

OBERLIN, OHIO--On Wednesday, October 4, one of the country’s leading activists working in the fight for equality for gay and lesbian youth will come to the campus of Oberlin College to discuss "The American Dream" in a free, public talk.

Kevin Jennings--named to Newsweek Magazine’s "Century Club" as one of "100 people to watch in the new century"--co-founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN in) in 1990, to bring together gay and straight teachers, parents and community members who are working to end anti-gay bias in K-12 schools. Today he is executive director of GLSEN, one of the largest organizations of its kind in the U.S., with chapters in over 80 cities.

In the early 1990s Jennings co-chaired the education committee of the Governor’s Commission on Gay & Lesbian Youth, which successfully led the fight to make Massachusetts the first state in the U.S. to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against public school students and to establish a state-wide program called "Safe Schools for Gay and Lesbian Students" to combat anti-gay bias in K-12 schools.

The author of several books, including Becoming Visible: A Reader in Gay and Lesbian History for High School and College Students, the first book of its kind designed especially for a high school audience, Jennings also wrote and produced the documentary Out of the Past, which won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary.

Jennings served on the faculties of the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts’ Concord Academy from 1987 to 1994. In 1992, he was named one of the 50 "Terrific Teachers Making a Difference" by the Edward Calesa Foundation.

He received the B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1985, the M.A. degree from Columbia University in 1994, and the M.B.A. degree from New York University in 1999.

Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli 9/14/00 #18 bg