Confrontational evangelists condemn abortion and gay marriage. Conservative students bash President Obama’s bailout plan. The rhetoric is heated, and the discussions not always polite.

College campuses have long been hotbeds of activism, from Vietnam War protests a generation ago to more recent efforts to roll back affirmative action in admissions.

But a rash of confrontations in recent years has led to a nationwide effort to promote civil debate on campus. A $4 million Ford Foundation initiative that began in 2006 and was expanded this year aims to promote dialogue on college campuses after a series of clashes between liberals and conservatives.

One of the colleges taking part in the foundation’s effort is the University of Missouri, where a survey several years ago found widespread reports of harassment targeting minority student groups.

“We’re not here to tell people what to believe and what not to believe,” said Roger Worthington, the school’s chief diversity officer. “The overall goal is to create safer places for the free exchange of ideas.”

Missouri recently hosted a Ford Foundation “difficult dialogues” workshop for campus leaders from nine schools: Alaska-Anchorage, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri-St. Louis, Oklahoma State, Texas-Austin, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.

Participants spent four days swapping stories about volatile classroom encounters and tips on promoting academic freedom, while tolerating offensive speech without allowing racial, ethnic, cultural and religious slurs or sexually explicit remarks.

They engaged in role-playing exercises including one that simulated an unpleasant classroom encounter between an evolution-denying student and an astronomy professor struggling to control her lecture. They also learned to avoid the name-calling shout-fests that often pass for public debate on cable television and political campaigns.

“The culture wars have been ongoing in this country for many years,” Worthington said. “We can’t afford for the university to become a political battleground.”

That’s just what happened at the University of California’s Irvine campus, where disputes between Jewish and Muslim student groups escalated in the aftermath of 9/11.

At the Orange County campus, vandals struck both a Holocaust memorial and a symbolic model of the barrier separating Israel and the West Bank. When some Muslim students wore garments at graduation that critics said paid tribute to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, an outside group filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.

The department refused to take up the complaint. But the tensions caused the school told hold its own “difficult dialogues” workshop, which led to the creation of several courses and public events designed to promote religious and cultural diversity.

Robert O’Neil, who heads the Ford Foundation effort, called the balancing act required of faculty members faced with divisive classroom comments a “constant dilemma.”

“If you react candidly, you may stifle the student’s inclination to participate,” said O’Neil, the director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. “But if you say, ‘That’s a great point’ every time, your comments cease to have value. The issue is how to strike a balance.”

In a February essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education, scholars A. Lee Fritschler and Bruce L.R. Smith decried what they called “the new climate of timidity on campus,” a fear among professors of appearing too liberal that prevents them from speaking out or being overly cautious when it comes to confronting intolerance – or simply ignoring controversial topics.

Such an approach deprives students of one of the fundamental college experiences: the opportunity to be expose to intellectual ideas and philosophical approaches contradictory to their own, O’Neil said.

“As a constitutional law scholar, I have to address polygamy, faith healing and gay bishops, among other subjects,” he said. “My commitment is to never avoid talking about these issues, but to do so in a way that doesn’t offend students in the trenches.”

A new study released Monday by the Pew Research Center found Americans of different ages increasingly at odds over a range of social and technological issues. It also highlights a widening age divide after last November’s election, when 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Democrat Barack Obama by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Almost eight in 10 people believe there is a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today, according to the independent public opinion research group. That is the highest spread since 1969, when about 74 percent reported major differences in an era of generational conflicts over the Vietnam War and civil and women’s rights. In contrast, just 60 percent in 1979 saw a generation gap.

Asked to identify where older and younger people differ most, 47 percent said social values and morality. People age 18 to 29 were more likely to report disagreements over lifestyle, views on family, relationships and dating, while older people cited differences in a sense of entitlement. Those in the middle-age groups also often pointed to a difference in manners.

Religion is a far bigger part of the lives of older adults. About two-thirds of people 65 and older said religion is very important to them, compared with just over half of those 30 to 49 and 44 percent of people 18 to 29.

In addition, among adults 65 and older, one-third said religion has grown more important to them over the course of their lives, while 4 percent said it has become less important and 60 percent said it has stayed the same.

“Around the notion of morality and work ethic, the differences in point of view are pretty much felt across the board,” said Paul Taylor, director of the Pew Social and Demographic Trends Project. He cited a greater tolerance among younger people on cultural issues such as gay marriage and interracial relationships.

Still, he noted that the generation gap in 2009 seems to be more tepid in nature than it was in the 1960s, when younger people built a defiant counterculture in opposing the Vietnam War and demanding equal rights for women and minorities.

“Today, it’s more of a general outlook, a different point of view, a general set of moral values,” Taylor said.

Among the study’s other findings:

-Getting old isn’t as bad as people believe in terms of health, but isn’t as good when it comes to lifestyle. While more than half of those under 65 think they will experience memory loss when they are older, only one-quarter of people 65 and older say they do so. Older people reported fewer instances than expected of problems such as serious illness, not being able to drive, being less sexually active or depressed.

On the other hand, older adults end up having less leisure time than expected. While 87 percent of those under 65 think they will have more time for hobbies and other interests in older age, only 65 percent of older people report having it. Life at 65 and older also fell below expectations when it came to time with family, travel, having more financial security and less stress.

-Hispanics are more likely to report problems in old age. About 35 percent of Hispanics 65 and older say they have a serious illness, compared with 20 percent of whites and 22 percent of blacks in the same age group. More older Hispanics reported being depressed, lonely or a burden to others than did whites and blacks. They also were less likely to do volunteer work or be involved in their communities.

-Younger people are more likely to embrace technology. About 75 percent of adults 18 to 30 went online daily, compared with 40 percent of those 65 to 74 and about 16 percent for people 75 and older. The age gap widened over cell phones and text messaging. About 6 percent of those 65 and older used a cell phone for most or all of their calls; 11 percent sent or received text messages. That’s compared with 64 percent of adults under 30 for cell phone use and 87 percent for texting.

-Americans differ on when old age begins. On average, they say 68. People under age 30 believe it begins at 60, while those 65 and older push the threshold to 74. Of all those surveyed, most said they wanted to live to 89.

Pew interviewed 2,969 adults by cell phone or landline from Feb. 23 to March 23. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. In cases where older persons were too ill or incapacitated, their adult children were interviewed. Pew also used surveys conducted by Gallup, CBS and The New York Times to identify trends since 1969.

 But the study, by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, also found they are more likely to speak out about LGBT issues in the classroom.

Called ”Harsh Realities: The Experiences of Transgender Youth in Our Nation’s Schools,” it is the first comprehensive study on transgender students.

Nearly nine out of 10 transgender students experienced verbal harassment at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation and gender expression, more than half experienced physical harassment because of their sexual orientation and gender expression and more than a quarter experienced physical assault because of their sexual orientation and gender expression.

The levels of victimization were higher than those faced by the non-transgender lesbian, gay and bisexual students who participated in the GLSEN ”2007 National School Climate Survey.”

“[This] demonstrates the urgent need for educators, policymakers and all who care about safe schools to address the disproportionate victimization of transgender students and to improve the knowledge and understanding of all members of the school community about issues related to gender and gender expression,” said GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard.

“It is important to note, however, that in the face of extreme harassment, transgender students are resilient and taking the lead to bring up LGBT issues in school,” she said.

In addition to looking at comparisons between transgender and non-transgender students, “Harsh Realities” specifically examined the experiences of the 295 transgender students who took the ”National School Climate Survey.”

The high rate of victimization had a direct impact on school attendance and academic performance. Transgender students who experienced high levels of harassment were more likely to miss school because they felt unsafe and had lower grade point averages than those who experienced lower levels of harassment.

Less than a fifth of transgender students said that school staff intervened most of the time or always when hearing homophobic remarks or negative remarks about someone’s gender expression.

In addition, school staff also contributed to the harassment. A third of transgender students heard school staff make homophobic remarks, sexist remarks and negative comments about someone’s gender expression in the past year.

The justices did not comment in denying the appeal of Timothy Morrison, who alleges he was harmed by the policy of the Boyd County Board of Education.

The federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled last year that Morrison failed to show how he was harmed by the policy and tossed out the lawsuit. The ruling was a reversal of a previous ruling that held Morrison should be allowed to pursue the lawsuit.

Morrison, a senior at Boyd County High School, sued the Boyd County school district over a policy that required students to undergo anti-harassment training. He claimed the policy threatened him with punishment for expressing religious beliefs in opposition to homosexuality. Morrison is a professed Christian who believes his religion requires him to speak out against what he sees as behavior that doesn’t comport with his understanding of Christian morality.

Morrison was never punished under the policy, which was later changed to exempt speech that would normally be protected off campus.

The school district adopted the policy and established the anti-harassment training as part of a 2004 legal settlement that ended a lawsuit between the school district and a now-defunct gay-rights group that wanted recognition as an extracurricular group.

Members of the Boyd County High School Gay Straight Alliance argued that the school district violated their constitutional rights by refusing to allow them to meet on campus.

Morrison was represented by the conservative Alliance Defense Fund.

Drama advisor Ron Martin tells the Los Angeles Times that principal Fal Asrani ordered him to drop “Rent” because of its gay characters.  Asrani disputes Martin’s claim.  She says she only asked to see the script.

“Rent” tells the story of a group of struggling artists in New York City, several of whom are gay.

Martin tells The Times that he chose the story to teach tolerance after hearing students use gay slurs.

“My responsibility as a drama teacher is to expose my students to a variety of different types of plays,” Martin told The Times.

He also said that he removed a portion of the script that showed a sex scene between two of the gay characters and that he discussed the production with Asrani before assigning it.

Further, he asserts that at a recent meeting with Martin and a representative from the teachers union, Asrani said the production could not go on and that she needed to review the script because of “prostitution and homosexuality.” There is no prostitution in the musical.

Asrani tells The Times she did not order the play cancelled and never received a copy of the script.

Dana Black, president of the Newport-Mesa Board of Education, said that the district does not shy away from edgy subject matter, and, “we don’t want anybody feeling alienated.”

In the meantime, Martin said he replaced “Rent” with “Charlie Brown” because it “is safe.”

The lawsuit claims violations of the First Amendment and the Federal Equal Access Act. The act requires schools to grant access and recognition to a Gay-Straight Alliance and other groups if the school allows any extracurricular group to meet on campus, said ACLU attorney Robert F. Rosenwald.

The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to allow the club to meet at Yulee High while the case makes it way to trial.

Page said the group just wants to meet like others do.

“We just want the club so that straight and gay kids can get together to talk about harassment and discrimination against gay kids in an open environment. The school is discriminating against us and that’s exactly the kind of thing we want to prevent,” she said.

John L. Ruis, the school district’s superintendent, said in a letter to Rosenwald that “a club highlighting sexual orientations will not be permitted as it would violate school board policy.” The Nassau County School Board was served with the lawsuit.

The ACLU recently won a similar case in Okeechobee. A judge there ruled schools must provide for the well-being of gay students and cannot discriminate against the Gay-Straight Alliance.

Rosenwald said the Okeechobee County School Board paid $326,000 in attorneys fees in the case.

Yulee is about 25 miles north of Jacksonville.

Unlike most other compilations of LGBT-inclusive children’s books, the Rainbow List is selective, chosen by a panel of librarians from across the country who work with young people. This year’s list of 34 titles published in the last 18 months represents 26 publishers/imprints and 36 authors and illustrators. They include two picture books, two middle-grade novels, two graphic books, one short story collection, one translation, and five nonfiction titles.

The committee chose four titles for special recognition:

• 10,000 Dresses, written by Marcus Ewert and illustrated by Rex Ray. Bailey dreams of wearing beautiful dresses, but her family disapproves of her understanding of her true self.
• Skim by Mariko Tamaki (text) and Jillian Tamaki (artwork). This graphic novel tells the story of Skim, a goth girl at an all-girls private school in Toronto who falls in love with her English teacher, Ms. Archer.
• Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole. In this novel with an all-Latino cast, sixteen-year-old Laura is outed at school, kicked out of her home, and dumped by her girlfriend, but ultimately finds herself and her community.
• Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon. Seventeen-year old Ben tries to adjust to his new home in rural Montana shortly after his dad comes out.

To be considered for the list, a book needs “significant” GLBTQ content, and must be well written, well illustrated, and appeal to young people. Ward says they evaluate the books with the same standards as other ALA book selection committees, including the ones that choose much-cited lists like Best Books for Young Adults and awards like the Newbery and Caldecott Medals.

The ALA backing is also important, Ward asserts, to inform librarians of the titles and provide justification for purchase. “Librarians are the people who will get these books into the hands of young people and their parents,” she says. The ALA’s Booklist, a periodical aimed at librarians and booksellers, will carry news of the Rainbow List in its March 15 issue.

This year’s books range across the entire GLBTQ spectrum, although most are focused on gay and lesbian experiences. A “wonderful breakthrough,” Ward says, is 10,000 Dresses, a picture book about a transgender child. “Typically the picture books will cover relatives,” she observes, “but they won’t cover the child themselves being part of GLBTQ.”

Although she is pleased with the quality of the books, she is disappointed there are so few for younger readers: only two picture books and two middle school novels. She would also have liked to see more nonfiction.

Some people, however, still consider GLBTQ-inclusive books inappropriate for young children. One of the books on this year’s list, Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, has already been challenged in at least two libraries, with patrons requesting that it be removed or placed in a special area. A picture book on last year’s list, And Tango Makes Three, was also the most-challenged book in the country in 2006 and 2007, according to the ALA.

Ward sees a growing acceptance of GLBTQ people, however, and feels the Rainbow List may play a part in that. “We need visibility for these experiences so that the young people who are dealing with them won’t feel invisible,” she says, “and so the young people who aren’t dealing with them at this time will recognize these things that happen to kids.”

Visit the Rainbow List Web site for the full list of titles.

Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian, a blog and resource directory for LGBT parents.

Last month, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Riley rejected a defense motion to get files and documents from the district attorney’s office.

Attorney Scott Wippert in appealing the ruling said that without the information he is unable to prepare a proper defense.

In an interview with the Ventura Couunty Star, Wippert said the documents could show whether there was an abuse of discretion or a misuse of authority, which he said would violate McInerney’s right to due process.

Wippert also told the paper that the case would have a major impact on how district attorneys throughout California prosecute tens of thousands of juveniles.

“Nobody has challenged the discretionary power of the district attorney,” said Wippert told The Star. “This case is bigger than any other case. This affects children all over the state.”

It is the latest defense bid to have the case moved to juvenile court.  Wippert has previously said there were mitigating circumstances and the teen should not be tried in adult court.

King, 15, often dressed in a feminine manner and told friends that he was gay. He was shot in the head during a morning class at an Oxnard school in February, 2008. More than 20 other students were in the room at the time. McInerney was arrested shortly after the shooting. At the time he was 14.

King died in the hospital after doctors declared him brain dead and his mother agreed to have life-support removed.

In December, a judge ruled that McInerney is competent to stand trial after hearing from a court appointed psychiatrist and a psychologist.

His attorneys sought to have the youth declared developmentally incapable of standing trial. If McInerney had been found not competent, he would have been sent to a mental health facility where he would be treated and held until he was deemed able to stand trial.

In October, Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox said that white supremacist materials had been found by investigators in McInerney’s bedroom.

If convicted as an adult, McInerney faces a sentence of 51 years to life.

“Ron shares my commitment to offer our city’s children the best education in the nation.  He understands that in a changing world a world-class education system is critical to our city’s long term economic future,” said Mayor Daley when he appointed Huberman last week.

Previously, Huberman served as President of the Chicago Transit Authority. Prior to that he was Chief of Staff to the Mayor from May 2005 to April of 2007.

Huberman holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and English from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and master’s degrees in Business Administration and Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago, where he was both an Albert Schweitzer and Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow.

Huberman, 37, improved management, cut spending and implemented innovative approaches that have improved services at the CTA, Daley said.

But he has his work cut out for him dealing with the the nation’s third-largest school system. Under Duncan’s leadership test scores, attendance and graduation rates all improved significantly but Dailey said he wants dropout rate decreased further and an increase in the graduation rate.

Since his appointment he has been busing it to work, taking the opportunity to talk with students. The first result: a draft of a new school security plan to ensure student safety.

Huberman was born in Israel. His family emigrated to the United States when he was 5, settling first in Oak Ridge, Tenn..

He came out to his parents at age 15.

While Chicago Public Schools has included sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy since 1997, schools have been slow to update their handbooks to include those protections, and students still find themselves fighting to establish Gay Straight Alliances.

Last year a proposal for a gay school was shelved following opposition, although supporters say they hope to revive it to open in 2010.

Attorneys asked the court to sanction the school district, saying it could not properly prepare its case without the documents which were to have been turned over last May.

Last fall, Judge Paul R. Cherry ordered the district to turn over the files and fined the school board $540 for dragging its heels. This time the fine is expected to be substantially higher.

In December 2007, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of K.K. Logan challenging a Gary School Corporation policy barring clothing that advertises sexual orientation or indicates that a student’s gender is different from the student’s sex.

Logan argues that the policy violates students’ First Amendment freedom of expression.  Logan also claims that his exclusion from prom constitutes discrimination on the basis of gender. 

Students and teachers knew that K.K. Logan was transgendered.  During his senior year, Logan attended West Side High expressing a deeply rooted femininity in his appearance and demeanor. At school, Logan wore makeup, accessories and clothing typically associated with girls his age.

However, on May 19, 2006, Principal Diane Rouse stretched her arms across the door of the senior prom, blocking Logan’s entrance because Logan was wearing a pink gown. Classmates and friends rallied to Logan’s defense to no avail—even though a female student was allowed to attend dressed in a tuxedo.

Principal Rouse enforced a Gary School Corporation policy that forbids any clothing or accessories that “advertise sexual orientation” or “portray the wearer as a person of the opposite gender.”

Ragen Hatcher, the attorney for the school district, said the board was not deliberately trying to prevent Lambda from access to the files, but that gathering the information had taken longer than anticipated.

Hatcher said that she is confident the board will win its case.