Florida High School Students Challenge Gay Club Ruling
Fresh from the AP (bold mine):
An attorney for two gay students at a north Florida high school told a federal judge Thursday they should be allowed to form a campus club promoting tolerance toward gays, despite a school prohibition.
But a lawyer for the Nassau County School Board said the group's name, Gay-Straight Alliance, is against school policy.
Yulee High School students Hannah Page and Jacob Brock, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, are suing the school board to overturn its decision banning them from forming the club at school. Yulee is about 25 miles north of Jacksonville, near the Georgia state line.
For those of you who are following the Prop 8 hearings, I think this story serves as a very interesting microcosm of what's happening 3,000 miles away -- even if it doesn't get the press that Prop 8 does.
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.
The funny thing about this is, the school board has no problem with letting the Fellowship of Christian athletes meet on campus. They have no problem with that group's name. But use the word GAY in a school club, and FIRE AND BRIMSTONE!!
If anybody is wondering why support for overturning Prop 8 or even doing as little as supporting gay civil unions is lagging, this is a perfect example. In Florida, they won't even let you talk about gayness in high schools, much less consider legalizing gay marriage. And now, these students have to fight just to let them use the word "gay" in their school club's name.
Sometimes I think we really are living in the year 1650.
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Cross-posted at Daily Kos
By the way, if anybody is a Daily Kos user and likes this post, I'd really appreciate a tip and a rec over at their website. This story should be getting more press, in my opinion.
You can find the diary here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/5/134616/1541/777/705031
Thanks.
March 5, 2009 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, as a resident of Nassau County Florida, I can assure you that this policy/lawsuit is no surprise. Every elected official in the County and it's incorporated Cities is a Republican. This is truly whacko land.
Our Sierra Club (I'm a member) has been fighting the development of an Island designated as Conservation. The County Commission approved a Planned Unit Development for 219 homes and Condo's on the Island. We have raised over $30K to fight this and right now still owe our attorney $20K. The great news is we won, The bad news is the County and the developer are appealing the decision. They are trying to break us by running us out of money.
Meanwhile, the County has had to slash it's budget and the School Board has had to eliminate all foreign language classes except Spanish and eliminate art classes as well. The School Board has stated they will probably lose in the lawsuit but they will do everything possible to prevent the formation of this club.
You see, you have to keep your priorties in order around here. This is Palin's real americans land.
As far as the school lawsuit goes; our small liberal and progressive community has provided lots of emotional and civic support to the GSA group, including many letter to the editor of local newspapers condemning the School Board.
If you would like to help us save a barrier Island (Crane Island); one of the last nesting areas for the endangered Brown Wood Stork you can get mail to us at Nassau County Sierra Club, P.O. Box 38, Fernandina Beach 32034. We don't have a way to send funds to us via the web but here is our web addresss http://florida.sierraclub.org/nassaucounty/
The good fight goes on.
March 6, 2009 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I really must protest you mentioning how close this is to Georgia. We Georgians (I still identify with that state despite no longer living there) have enough of our own crazies that we don't need you to associate Florida's crazies with us, too, also.
Oh, but other than that, great story, and thanks for bringing it to our attention.
March 7, 2009 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink