pulbic (government) schools become battlefields to promote

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Gay Rights Battlefields Spread to Public Schools

 

By MICHAEL JANOFSKY

Published: June 9, 2005

Emboldened by the political right's growing influence on public policy,

opponents of school activities aimed at educating students about homosexuality

or promoting acceptance of gay people are mounting challenges to such programs,

at individual schools, at statehouses and in Congress.

 

 

Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times

Kerry Pacer led an effort to create a club of gay and straight students at her

high school in Cleveland, Ga., but officials there would not allow it.

 

Chief among the targets are sex education programs that include discussions of

homosexuality, and after-school clubs that bring gay and straight students

together, two initiatives that gained assent in numerous schools over the last

decade.

 

In many cases, the opponents have been successful. In Montgomery County, Md.,

for example, parents went to court to block a health education course that

offered a discussion of homosexuality, while in Cleveland, Ga., gay and lesbian

students were barred from forming a high school club of gay and straight

youths.

 

Leading figures on both sides of the fight say they have never seen passions

about public school activities run so high. They agree that much of the reason

is conservative groups' eagerness to meet their adversaries with a forcefulness

more common to modern-day election campaigns.

 

"The intensity of the culture wars has heated up over the last few years," said

J. Michael Johnson, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative

group that specializes in issues involving religion. "People are becoming more

aware that they have rights, and they're feeling more emboldened to defend

them. Across the country, people are saying enough is enough."

 

Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel of another conservative group,

Liberty Counsel, said: "We're concerned about the effort to capture youth

through indoctrination into the homosexual lifestyle. Students are a captive

audience, and they are being targeted by groups with that as an agenda."

 

The growing conflicts are centering on three issues: whether classrooms are an

appropriate venue to explore issues of homosexuality, whether schools should

lend sanction to extracurricular activities in which gay culture is a focus and

whether textbooks that acknowledge homosexual relationships are suitable for

younger children.

 

This spring, in one instance of the conservative response, the Alliance Defense

Fund organized its first national Day of Truth for high school students

uncomfortable with the National Day of Silence, an event sponsored for nine

years by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to protest

discrimination in schools.

 

"We needed to present a counter or Christian perspective," said Mr. Johnson,

whose event attracted participation by 340 schools. Kevin Jennings, founder and

executive director of the gay education network, said more than 3,700 junior

and senior high schools took part in his group's event.

 

Mr. Jennings and other gay rights leaders say the growing opposition to their

efforts is in keeping with a predictable trend set off by disputes over issues

like same-sex marriage that are playing out on the national stage.

 

"These are a bunch of people who very much want to remove from public discourse

any mention of homosexuality," said James Esseks, litigation director of the

Lesbian and Gay Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. "They

don't want any mention of the fact that gay people exist."

 

The struggles have broken out everywhere.

 

Last month in Montgomery County, Md., a parents' group, alarmed because

revisions to a health education course for 8th and 10th grades included a

discussion of homosexuality and a video that demonstrated how to use a condom,

went into federal court and gained a restraining order to halt them. The county

school board then voted 7 to 1 to eliminate the amended program, six months

after unanimously approving it.

 

Conservative groups applauded the board's vote as a victory for religious

conviction, and described the litigation strategy as a model for school

districts across the country.

 

"This was huge," said Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family

Institute, which seeks to apply biblical principles to public policy.

 

Another battle involved student journalists at East Bakersfield High School in

California. They wrote a series of articles for the school newspaper this

spring that explored gay issues through student experiences. But the principal,

John Gibson, citing concern for the safety of students who had been interviewed

and photographed, would approve publication only if their identities were

withheld.

 

The journalists refused and, with the help of the American Civil Liberties

Union, sued the school district on May 19, seeking an emergency order that

would have allowed the articles to be published in the final issue of the year,

six days later. A county judge declined to overrule Mr. Gibson, saying the

issues were too important for an instant ruling.

 

Christine Sun, a lawyer for the A.C.L.U., said that if Mr. Gibson had been

motivated only by concern for student safety, "his actions are completely

illogical."

 

"These kids were already 'out' on campus," Ms. Sun said of the articles'

subjects. "To the extent there is any threat against them, neither they nor

their parents were notified by the principal or anyone from law enforcement."

 

Mr. Gibson did not respond to a call seeking comment.

 

The war is being waged at the state level as well. Alabama lawmakers are

considering a bill that would bar state spending on books or other materials

that "promote homosexual lifestyle." Oklahoma passed a resolution last month

calling on public libraries to restrict children's access to books with a gay

theme. Louisiana is considering a similar measure.

 

Charles C. Haynes, a senior scholar at the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan

free-speech advocacy group, said gay rights issues involving public schools had

become a litmus test to many religious conservatives.

 

"They feel the public schools are getting ahead of the country," Mr. Haynes

said. "They believe the schools are imposing a view of homosexuality that

offends their faith and is not consistent with where we are as a country."

 

Two members of the Southern Baptist Convention have prepared a "resolution on

homosexuality in public schools," to be introduced at the denomination's annual

gathering this month. The resolution implores Baptist churches to determine

whether schools in their area have "homosexual clubs or curricula or programs"

and, if so, to encourage parents to remove their children from the schools.

 

"Churches and parents need to be aware of what's going on," said Bruce N.

Shortt, a Houston lawyer who is a co-author of the resolution.

 

After-school clubs known as Gay-Straight Alliances, which draw together

students to share common experiences and concerns, have become a particular

source of conflict. The issue has roiled a number of communities, including

Ashland, Ky.; Klein, Tex.; Hanford, Calif.; and Cleveland, Ga., where a small

group of gay and lesbian students were denied permission this year to form an

alliance at White County High School.

 

Federal law often frowns on administrators' barring some clubs while allowing

others, but Cleveland school officials told the students that they would

abolish all after-school organizations before allowing a gay-straight alliance.

 

"They're just scared of change," said Kerry Pacer, 17, who is leading the

students' effort. "We live in the Bible Belt. Anything that threatens change,

people here don't want that."

 

Complaints over the students' endeavor led State Senator Nancy Schaefer to

introduce a bill that would have required a parent's written permission before

a student could join any after-school club. The legislature later deferred to

the Georgia Department of Education, which is now considering a modified

approach allowing each local school board to develop its own policy.

 

Ms. Schaefer dismisses the compromise as too weak.

 

"I just don't feel like homosexual clubs have anything to do with readin',

writin' and 'rithmetic," she said.