Homosexual Activists Suspected of Pulling Students' Strings in GSA Lawsuit
by Jim Brown
October 18, 2005
(AgapePress) - A conservative activist group is accusing the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union of using students to further its radical, pro-homosexual agenda in schools.
Two seniors at Maple Grove High School have sued their school and the Osseo School District for allegedly discriminating against their student group called "Straights and Gays for Equality," or SAGE. The students claim the school has violated the Federal Equal Access Act by not allowing the homosexual group access to meeting rooms, bulletin boards, and the public address system on campus.
However, Linda Harvey of the conservative pro-family group Mission America believes the students' lawsuit is yet another ploy orchestrated by pro-homosexual activists in an effort to gain legitimization for homosexuality. "This is one more of these situations, I would have to say, where students are being motivated and manipulated by adult homosexual activists and civil liberties proponents, and especially the American Civil Liberties Union," she contends.
Harvey believes Maple Grove High School can avoid trouble by not considering homosexuality to be a viewpoint, as the students claim. She argues that the Osseo School District need not accept Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) like SAGE in order to have "viewpoint equality" on the campus, because homosexuality is not a viewpoint -- rather, it is a dangerous, high-risk behavior.
And the school, the Mission America spokeswoman would argue, has both the right and the responsibility to protect students from unhealthy or unsafe activities on its campus. "What's going to happen in these homosexual clubs," she asserts, "is that they are social venues where kids will meet other kids who are also inclined to homosexuality."
The students in these club settings will also network with other GSAs and homosexual clubs around the city, Harvey says. "They will be introduced to college-age and adult homosexuals, and they will be fast-tracked right into the active practice of homosexual sex. What school ever wants to be in the situation of saying [that] homosexual sex is no problem for youth?"
The lawsuit, initiated with the help of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union, was filed September 20 in U.S. District Court on behalf of two senior girls, a parent of each student, and SAGE, claiming the school unlawfully denied the group equal access to school resources and facilities.
The Osseo School District has countered that, although Maple Grove does have different guidelines for different groups, those guidelines are not based on acceptability or moral judgments, but differ according to whether a group's purpose is related to the school's curriculum.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
