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It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School is a 1996 American documentary film directed by Debra Chasnoff and Helen Cohen. It provides educators with information on how to teach elementary school children to be tolerant of gay and lesbian people. The film was noted as the "first of its kind" and was generally well received, although there was some backlash from conservatives. It was released in several film festivals and had screenings in the 2000s. It's Elementary did not receive much support from PBS due to backlash from the American Family Association. Prior to airing the film, television stations received calls, letters, and e-mails from people who did not want PBS program directors to broadcast it. The film was awarded the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary, Best Documentary at the Reeling Film Festival, and the Silver Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival, among other awards. The film had two sequels: That's A Family! and It's Still Elementary. (Full article...)

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Olga Bezsmertna at Neue Stimmen in 2011

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... that Qiandama expanded from a single shop to more than 3,700 locations in less than ten years?
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... that Dong Leshan has been cited as "one of the best and most prolific Chinese translators in the 20th century"?
... that New York City officials seized the tax-exempt Moore-Jackson Cemetery in 1954 for nonpayment of taxes?

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On this day

March 29: Boganda Day in the Central African Republic (1959); Martyrs' Day in Madagascar (1947)

Viking siege of Paris

845 – Viking expansion: Viking raiders, possibly led by the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok, plundered and occupied Paris (depicted), holding the city for a large ransom.
1800 – William Matthews was ordained as the first British America-born Catholic priest.
1807 – German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Vesta, the brightest asteroid and second-most massive body in the asteroid belt.
1982 – Queen Elizabeth II granted royal assent to the Canada Act 1982, which ended any remaining constitutional dependence of Canada on the United Kingdom by a process known as patriation.
2010 – Islamist separatists of the Caucasus Emirate detonated two bombs on the Moscow Metro, killing 40 people and injuring 102 others.

Santorio Santorio (b. 1561)
March Fong Eu (b. 1922)
Pap Cheyassin Secka (d. 2012)

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Today's featured picture

Hayley McFarland (born March 29, 1991) is an American actress. Seen here in 2011, she is best known for portraying Emily Lightman in the Fox crime drama series Lie to Me, and she portrayed Nancy Perron in the 2013 supernatural horror film The Conjuring.

Photograph credit: Aaron Delani

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