Gay-Straight Alliance
Compared To K.K.K.
by 365Gay.com From
the Web, September 17, 2005
Atlanta, GA -- A Georgia
school district has been told that Gay-Straight Alliances are as divisive as the
Ku Klux Klan.
More than 100 people crowded into a meeting of the Madison County Board of
Education this week demanding that a group of students be barred from starting a
chapter of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Madison County High School.
It was largest crowd to attend a board meeting that anyone could remember.
More than 60 students signed up for the club at the high school's club sign-up
day Aug. 26, Madison County High School Principal Wayne McIntosh told the
Athens, Georgia Banner-Herald.
McIntosh and School Superintendent Keith Cowne told the irate citizens that it
would be illegal discrimination to deny the students the right to have a club.
McIntosh told the meeting that the club could be a good influence in the school.
"We're hoping this club is a positive thing. This club offers support to
these children and makes their life easier in society," he said. And as
for the larger student body, "Kids have to live in the real world," he told the
meeting.
But one speaker disagreed with that assessment.
"I do not agree with the club, with their agenda, and I believe the vast
majority of the county would agree with me," he told the Banner-Herald after the
meeting.
Chandler said LGBT students are setting themselves apart from other students
could be setting themselves up for violence, comparing the club to the Ku Klux
Klan in its potential divisiveness.
The school board should adopt a "litmus test" for clubs, which this one would
fail, he said.
Meanwhile, legislation requiring parental permission for students to participate
in extracurricular activities that was dropped this spring is set to make a
return in the Georgia legislature.
Although it does not specifically name LGBT clubs, its intent was clear say LGBT
activists in the state. The measure was put forward after gay students
attempted to form gay-positive associations in several school districts.
Posted Sept. 16, 2005.
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