The Equal Access Act:Most public secondary schools already have at least one student-led, non-curriculum club - perhaps a chess club, scuba-diving club, or Bible study club. The federal Equal Access Act, (20 U.S.C. §§ 4071-74), requires that such schools must allow the creation of additional clubs, even if the school board or principal disagrees with the group's purpose. 1In 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that the Act is constitutional. 2,3 More details are available. The original intent of the law was to force school districts to allow religious clubs on high school campuses. But its wording protects the right of all religious, political, philosophical, or other groups to organize. The same law that protects an Evangelical Christian Bible club also supports the right of gays/lesbians/bisexuals to form a support group, to hold meetings on the high school campus before or after instruction hours, and to have equal access to the PA system, bulletin boards, newspapers, etc.
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Overview of GSA support groups:The People for the American Way (PFAW) is a liberal, civil rights group that promotes the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They issued the following news release in early 2000-JAN. 4
The Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN; pronounced "glisten") tracks GSA organizations in the U.S. As of late 2002, they are aware of a total of 1681 GSAs. Only Mississippi, North Dakota and Wyoming (the state in which Matthew Shepard was crucified) have no GSAs. Alabama has two; Massachusetts has 222; California has the greatest number, 245. 5
Conservative Christian reaction to GSAs:Beliefs about the nature of homosexuality differ greatly:
Support for GSAs: Family News in Focus, a service of the Fundamentalist Christian organization Focus on the Family, posted an unusual essay on their web site during 2000-APR. 6 Referring to GSAs as "unsavory groups" and "Sons of Sodom," and "objectionable clubs," the author nonetheless supported their right to exist. This conclusion was not based on the need of gays, lesbians, and human rights promoters to battle homophobia. It was not based on the need for gay and lesbian youth to learn safer sex techniques. It was not based on the need for mutual support and self esteem boosting. It was based on the preservation of conservative Christians' right to organize Bible clubs. Author Jordan Lorence supports GSAs because: "in order to keep the government from censoring unpopular groups like the Bible studies, all student groups should be allowed to meet. In a free society, we must tolerate speech we don't agree with...To empower school officials to ban the homosexual clubs would empower them to shut down the Christian groups as well. We should not give up our hard-won free-speech rights in order to stamp out a few objectionable clubs." Opposition to GSAs: Some months later, Focus on the Family published a curious essay on the Gay, Straight, and Lesbian Alliance in Jackson High School in Michigan. 7 A local pastor, Rev. Ira Combs, and some students had held a protest rally on campus, demanding that the school either violate the federal Equal Access Act by closing down their GSA, or shut down all extracurricular clubs "in the interest of student safety and health." His apparent belief is that if gays, lesbians and heterosexuals are allowed to meet and discuss topics like how to increase tolerance, how to reduce homophobia, and how to practice safer sex, that student safety and health will be adversely affected. His belief seems to be that violence and an increase in unsafe sexual activity would result from the existence of the Alliance. The Focus on the Family article does not explain how these two behaviors would be triggered by the the Alliance. Combs commented "There is no such thing as 'safe' homosexual and lesbian [sic] behavior." This is partly a true statement; there are many forms of homosexual behavior which are quite risky and unsafe. However, perhaps through ignorance, Rev. Combs did not explain the full picture:
School principal Jim Graham commented that some students wanted to form a conservative Christian club to counter the GSA. He was concerned that this could lead to conflict on campus: "That was my concern, was that we would draw that line in the sand between two groups and cause a lot of emotional upset or controversy among our student body." There is a general realization that under the Equal Access law, if one student-led extracurricular group exists, than students have every right to organize a conservative Christian Bible study club or a GSA. In fact, students probably have the right to organize a "anti-Gay-Straight Alliance" to counter the existing GSA -- i.e. a group that opposes inclusivity, promotes discrimination against gays and lesbians, promotes homophobia, and advocates celibacy for gay and lesbian students. Democracy and free speech do not necessarily guarantee the most tranquil campus life, but they can allow controversies to be engaged freely, with everyone's position being explored.
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Religious Tolerance
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