A Long Island parent-teacher-student group is little more than a week away from becoming the nation's first chartered PTA to focus on the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their families.

The National Parent Teacher Association and its New York State branch have put aside concerns about the group originally using the PTA name without an official charter and are welcoming the Long Island Gay Parent Teacher Student Association into their network.

"We are kind of excited," said Maria Fletcher, president of the New York State PTA, based in Albany. "We are very much on board to try to formulate a curriculum that is sensitive to those students' needs. ... The more people who are involved in the education of children, the better."

The Long Island group is to approve its charter and elect a slate of officers from Nassau and Suffolk counties at its April 19 meeting in Garden City South.

Fletcher said the group will be one of two community Parent Teacher Associations in the state that are not tied to an educational institution -- the other one is a countywide PTA in Queens -- and the only one focused on a specific population of students.

"We are kind of excited," said Maria Fletcher, president of the New York State PTA, based in Albany. "We are very much on board to try to formulate a curriculum that is sensitive to those students' needs. ... The more people who are involved in the education of children, the better."

James Martinez, a spokesman with the National PTA in Washington, D.C., said his organization often works "with other groups that involve gay and lesbian parents" but did not know of a PTA unit set up specifically for that purpose.

The Long Island group will work with Gay-Straight Alliances of students at school districts but also with parents, teachers and anyone interested in equality advocacy for LGBT students or those raised by same-sex couples.

"There was a need somewhere in the schools to reach out to families," said Laurie Scheinman, 49, of Sands Point, who has been nominated as the group's co-chairwoman. "While many of our schools are tolerant, they don't have a system set up for any issues if they are to arise."

Students encounter discriminatory behavior ranging from jokes to the use of demeaning terms and outright harassment, said her daughter, Rachael Scheinman, 18, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at the Portledge School in Locust Valley.

"We've had many instances ... where negative comments are said" and are ignored for lack of a better strategy, Rachael Scheinman added. "The PTSA will kind of remove those barriers between parents and schools."

The new Long Island group also wants to foster understanding and appreciation of their community, said David Kilmnick, the new group's director and chief executive of the Long Island GLBT Services Network.

"It's not about sex education, but about teaching about gay Americans who have contributed to American history," including slain San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk and Long Island poet Walt Whitman, Kilmnick said. "We want to teach about these accomplishments so we don't repeat the errors of history."

(Contact Victor Manuel Ramos at victor.ramos(at)newsday.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service,http://www.scrippsnews.com)