Isn’t this rich: A Florida high school would have no problem letting students form a gay-straight alliance, if only it didn’t violate school policy … by being called a gay-straight alliance.
Just north of Jacksonville, Yulee High School students Hannah Page and Jacob Brock, backed by counsel from the ACLU, are suing the school board for not letting them form the club.
U.S. District Judge Henry Adams Jr. said he would issue a ruling on a motion for a preliminary injunction “as soon as I can,” but gave Nassau County three days to submit additional written arguments. The students want an injunction to allow them to meet until the case goes to trial.
ACLU Attorney Robert F. Rosenwald Jr. argued that Page and Brock had been the target of anti-gay epithets and threats of violence at school and wanted to start the Gay-Straight Alliance to open a discourse among students.
Attorney Frank Sheppard, who represents the school board, said the district’s main complaint is the name of the group, saying it does not approve of groups dealing with sexual orientation and noted the school has an abstinence-based sex education curriculum.
“If they change the name and comply with Nassau County School Board policies they can meet,” he said.
The judge questioned Sheppard over the school’s objection to the name.
“A Gay-Straight Alliance, that covers everybody doesn’t it?” Adams asked. [AP]
Kary
I spent a week in Jacksonville, Fla last October. It felt like 6 years in a Ku Klux Klan encampment. A church on every corner, and redneck behind every tree. Truly frightening and ignorant shithole of a place.
L
Seems like the Prom committee certainly deals with sexual orientation. But, anyway, tell the school board that “gay” and “straight” refer to affectional orientation – problem solved.
RichardR
“Abstinence-based sex education.” Thank you George W. Bush
Phoenix (Limp-Wristed And Proud Of It)
When I was a teenager, if the school admin or the parents thought something was ‘scandalous’ and tried to ban or sanitize it for “our protection” we would do something even more outrageous just to give them the middle finger. Don’t like Gay-Straight Alliance? Think it’s too provocative? What do you think of “The Nancy Boy and Bike Dyke Lavender Lovers Appreciation Society”? Subtle enough for ya’? Doesn’t have that nasty word ‘gay’ in it anymore, huh?
Our ‘fuck you’ attitude is why when the churchies protested the formation of a powder puff football league because girls shouldn’t play football, we had a record turn out….and their cheerleaders were our men’s wrestling squad in drag.
Sebbe
aaaaa Florida again. Can’t we just see the state to Cuba?