Let Gay Clubs Meet?

Not in school, says one California district

YES

We oppose efforts of the Orange, California, school board to prevent the Gay-Straight Alliance of El Modena High School from meeting on school property.

We believe that young people should have the right to form clubs and discuss whatever they think is important.

Student clubs promote the development of future leaders, good citizens, and healthy members of our society. Organizations like the Gay-Straight Alliance benefit the whole school community by helping to establish a school climate where verbal and physical harassment and other hateful acts are viewed as unacceptable. Such clubs can explicitly condemn the bigotry that is too often ignored due to our society's fears about homosexuality.

Gay and Lesbian teens are suffering in our schools because of prejudice and harassment. Added to the other stresses of the teen years and the challenge of rapid passage into adulthood, this problem can lead young people to feel bad about themselves and turn to self-destructive behavior, including isolation, dropping out, drug abuse, and even suicide.

Student clubs such as the GSA help dispel stereotypes, diminish feelings of isolation, and help build self-esteem for their members. They can help make our schools a safer place for all children to learn.

--RUSTY KENNEDY

Executive Director Orange County Human Relations Commission

NO

I believe that homosexual behavior is wrong. That doesn't mean homosexuals are any worse than the rest of us; we're all sinners. I don't presume to judge who is righteous and who is not.

But when a school authorizes a student group called the Gay-Straight Alliance, it isn't just giving kids a place to talk about how they feel. It's also giving homosexual behavior an implied stamp of approval from a tax-supported government institution. A young freshman who encounters the group's name is likely to conclude, "It must be OK, or they wouldn't allow it." And I believe that's wrong.

I would feel the same way about a student group whose name promoted premarital heterosexual sex. In fact, I don't even like it when schools install candy and soda machines. Their presence suggests that school authorities think it's all right to fill up on candy and soda pop all day. And it's not.

I understand that young people who find themselves attracted to persons of the same sex may feel different, isolated, traumatized, or confused. I would be entirely in favor of their having a school club with a name based not on sexual-orientation labels but on the goals of promoting tolerance and eliminating harassment. And I think some of the youths in the El Modena group would be agreeable to such a compromise. But the outside agitators in the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network insist on the name Gay-Straight Alliance, because it's part of their agenda. They're like predators, using the El Modena kids to further their own ends.

--BILL LEWIS

Board Member, Orange Unified School District