BY JOELLYN MANVILLE AND JASON WEAVER
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Salt Lake City high school students are involved in a showdown against politicians and rightists over the students' rights to form gay, lesbian, and bisexual support groups in Utah high schools. In December students at East High in Salt Lake City petitioned to form the Gay- Straight Alliance, prompting an attempt to ban registration of the group.
Despite a statement from the Utah Attorney General's Office that the students have the legal right to form such clubs, the Utah Eagle Forum, members of the State Senate, Gov. Mike Leavitt, and Sen. Orrin Hatch have teamed up to find a way to outlaw the clubs.
State Sen. Charles Stewart claimed that homosexuality "is a divisive issue for the whole society. It is drawing a line in the sand of what is civil and bestial. What is human being and what is animal." Stewart convened a secret meeting of members of the Utah State Senate, in violation of state law, to plan strategies to deny the students their rights.
Stewart has suggested the state forego $100 million in federal education funds in order to get around the Equal Access law and ban the club. Other politicians propose banning all nonacademic clubs in order to defeat the students.
More than 200 people jammed the Capitol rotunda February 6 to defend the students and condemn the secret meeting, That same night, people poured into a meeting of the Salt Lake City School Board to show solidarity with the students.
More than 170 people turned out for a February 9 Militant Labor Forum on the issue. Members of the East High Gay- Straight Alliance, Young Socialists, National Organization for Women, and ACLU, as well as union activists and other high school students gathered to discuss ways to continue defending the democratic rights of the students. Students from at least four other Salt Lake City high schools announced their intention to form Gay-Straight Alliances at their schools.
The School Board is scheduled to meet February 20 to decide whether to allow the club or ban all nonacademic clubs. High school students, gay rights activists, and supporters of democratic rights plan to mobilize for the February 20 school board meeting to support the club.
Joellyn Manville is a member of the Young Socialists and a founding member of the East High Gay-Straight Alliance. Jason Weaver is a member of the YS.