ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses what political organizing strategy is the most viable for addressing the policy issues? It also discusses the implications of the analysis regarding the assimilationist and liberationist approaches to political and policy change for social-movement theory. The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has collected survey data regarding the lesbian and gay experience in schools. These data provide empirical evidence to support the claim that lesbian and gay students face hostile environments in many of the nation's schools: 97 percent of students in public high schools in Massachusetts reported regularly hearing homophobic remarks from their peers in a 1993 report of the Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. The chapter presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in this book. It shows why social movement needs a variety of political organizing strategies that can be applied at different times in response to the Christian Right and at all levels of the political system.
