Tn the porch during a break in a full-staff meeting, the smokers talked and puffed. Other times, the lesbians, staff of color, the travelers, the meat eaters, the Penn graduates would congregate, and common experiences would yield conversation, analysis, story swaps. When I moved to Massachusetts, I missed the conversations among lesbian staff at my Philadelphia program. There never seemed to be an opportunity or the critical mass in Massachusetts gatherings. I would talk with one person in the car on the way to Worcester, with another during an overnight. Spurred on by a visit to the Highlander Center, which trains community activists, I increasingly wanted to do something for what I defined as my own community. Even though I have a social circle that includes gay and lesbian friends, I wanted a sense of gay and lesbian community to be part of my professional life too. It turns out, I wasn't alone.

Some History
In 1994, Marta Mangan and Josette Henschel presented at Network on the Safe Schools project. Safe Schools is an amazing initiative. Its purpose is to make sure that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) youth can attend school without suffering harassment. Mangan and Henschel had attended the Safe Schools training and offered adult educators the information on how to keep their programs safe zones for GLBT students. The room was packed with a mix of staff. It's my opinion that the huge turnout was not because safety for GLBT students is one big problem that ABE staff encounter, but because this was the only venue not only in the Network conference but in any formal gathering of ABE staff for gay and lesbian educators to get together and talk about the place of sexual orientation in our work lives.

In 1995, I joined Marta and Josette in a Network workshop. In spite of a late slot in the day, we had a good turnout of people who responded to the title: " It's a Heterosexist World Out There." Shortly after Network, Alice Levine called me to bring my attention to a chapter in a Longman book for ESOL students titled, Our Own Stories. The chapter titled, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," contained references to homosexuality that Alice and I found negative. (Editor's note: For more information about the Longman struggle, see All Write News, Vol. XII, No.7, July/August 1996.) This was the perfect catalyst for a group meeting. I compiled a mailing list of everyone I could think of. I kept the outside discreet, kept the list conservative (didn't mail to everyone I "suspected"), and hoped nothing embarrassing would happen. The first gathering was a potluck with a chance to talk about our status -- out or not -- in the classroom and the values that guided those decisions. In addition, we formed a subcommittee to draft a letter to Longman outlining our problems with the chapter and our recommendations.

We agreed to meet monthly and we established goals: we brainstormed how to connect with Safe Schools and gay and lesbians of color groups; we wanted to have materials that would help us introduce g/l/bi issues in the classroom; we wanted access to training and we wanted to encourage straight staff to include g/l/bi issues in their curricula. Later we added benefits for domestic partners to the wish list. When the whole group met to review the recommendations to Longman publishers, the group finally got its name. Due to some Microsoft Word glitch, every page of the letter was numbered page 4. As we were referring to various points, whoever was lost would ask what page. It was frustrating, inevitable and laughable that every time the answer was the same: Page 4. This became the group's name: The Page 4 Coalition.

Page 4 Continues
We met regularly and watched videos like "It's Elementary," and developed our response to Longman. We also made suggestions for workshops, which were brought back to the ALRI. Each year, the ALRI has done at least one region-wide workshop that explicitly addresses gay and lesbian issues. Rheua Stakely did a workshop including two women from the G/L/Bi Speakers Bureau (now called Speak Out). In 1998, Ann Goglia did a workshop on storytelling to counter prejudice. In February 1999, Amy Battisti-Ashe and Charissa Ahlstrom did a workshop on expanding definitions of family.

Judy Przybek took over facilitation of the Page 4 group for 1997-98. Judy and I surveyed programs, interviewed teachers who had gotten benefits for their domestic partners, published in the All Write News, and designed a workshop for Network on benefits for part-timers and gay/lesbian families. We gave some visibility to the benefits issue, but as much as people want better benefits, there is a sense of resignation surrounding this issue. Turnout for meetings that year was smaller. It seemed that we just didn't have the critical mass of people who wanted to spend a free evening with work colleagues talking about curriculum. Our multiple roles felt like an insurmountable obstacle. Given that the group included administrators, counselors, and all levels of teachers, these conversations stayed broad.

Eventually, we left the sharing group and workshop formats to have a purely social event. This was the first of periodic game nights which included partners, friends, and other family members. The laughter and camaraderie have been wonderful. Yet I have a small nagging worry is that these events aren't really about the field or about g/l/bi activism.

In the spring of 1998, I attended an event sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves. This was to have as much impact on me as the visit to Highlander. The preview for the coming exhibit, "Choosing to Participate," included speakers and video. The keynote speaker who had heroically pulled an Asian-American man from a crowd of angry rioters made a huge impression on me. He said that acts of heroism in life or death situations are not what "choosing to participate is ideally about." Risking life or death for either victim or ally is not the goal. Rather, building communities where people know each other and can work as allies to prevent potentially violent situations is the goal. Gathering socially, knowing each other, and having a mailing list, don't smack of the glory of organizing. It doesn't look sensational, but in the case of gay/lesbian, and bisexual ABE staff, it situates us so that we can respond if necessary. We have the support of many behind us if a situation at a program feels difficult or unsafe. And now we have a brief history, too.

Martha Merson is the ABE Specialist at the Adult Literacy Resource Institute. She can be reached at 617-782-8956.