In Florida last week, a judge used the Equal Access Act, originally promoted by organizations seeking to protect after-school prayer clubs, to rule in favor of students who set up a high school gay-straight alliance:
As long as we’re Imagining, let’s think about schools in which it’s safe to be lesbian or gay. A federal court did just that last week in Gay-Straight Alliance of Yulee High School v. School Board of Nassau County, holding that two high school students must be allowed to set up a Gay-Straight Alliance at their north Florida high school.
According to the students’ complaint, school officials had vetoed the name “Gay-Straight Alliance,” arguing that a phrase “highlighting specific sexual orientations” would violate school board policy and would be “disruptive.” The school said that, if the students would agree to a name that would not “communicate [the club’s] gay-specific mission,” the matter could be reconsidered – though the school did not promise to allow the club even under those circumstances.
The dangerous-name argument reminded the judge of a California case in which the school had demanded that the Gay-Straight Alliance rename itself the “Tolerance Club,” “Acceptance Club,” or merely the “Alliance.” That district lost too, the court noting that no other clubs had been forced to change their names, and that the right to select one’s name is protected by the First Amendment.
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