Judge Forces School District to Host Meetings of Pro-Homosexual Club
by Jim Brown
July 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Georgia school district has been ordered to permit a homosexual activist group to meet on campus.
Federal District Judge William C. O'Kelley issued a permanent injunction requiring White County High School in Cleveland to allow students in the "gay-straight alliance" (GSA) club PRIDE to meet on campus. On behalf of three students in the club, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the school district in February, claiming that school officials violated the students' rights under the federal Equal Access Act.
A spokeswoman for the ACLU of Georgia calls the ruling "a great victory for the lesbian and gay students and their friends" at the school that will allow them to address "violence and harassment against gay students" at White County High. Beth Littrell also says all students will benefit because the school had shut out all non-curriculum-related clubs and activities in its attempt to block PRIDE from meeting on campus.
But Mike Johnson, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, points out the Equal Access Act cited by the ACLU was intended to ensure that religious clubs in public secondary schools receive the same treatment afforded to secular non-curriculum-related student clubs. Johnson says for the last 20 years, that legislation has bolstered the religious freedom rights of Christian student clubs, but now is being used to force schools to admit organizations they regard as morally objectionable.
"If at least one non-curriculum-based organization is allowed, the school probably has to remain open to all such organizations," Johnson says. "But the solution there is what we call 'compliance without complacency.'"
The attorney explains that means school districts like White County ought to enact "very specific and strict regulations" that would prohibit any student program or presentation that is "unlawful or vulgar," would contribute to the delinquency of a minor, or be disruptive to the school.
"The discussion of human sexuality will very often cross the line and even violate existing state statutes," he notes, "and we have had courts uphold those kinds of restrictions."
Judge O'Kelley says the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and other groups that have also been "denied access" will now be allowed to meet on campus.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
