There is a “war of words” over a gay-straight alliance at Okeechobee High School in Florida at TCPalm.com, the online news site for Southern Florida’s few newspapers.

In traditional “pro-con” style, columnist Kenric Ward and Brandon Hensler, Communications Director for ACLU-Florida, battle it out over the issue of gay-straight alliances in the schools.

Read Ward’s “con” piece here and Hensler’s “pro” piece here.

The most shocking statement made was one from Ward:

Advocates for the Gay-Straight Alliance call it a civil-rights issue. And they’ve employed the courts to overturn school district policies to launch more than 3,000 such franchises across the country.

One of their most effective tools, ironically, has been the federal Equal Access Act, a 1985 law enacted at the behest of Christian student organizations that complained they were being blocked by school administrators fanatically buttressing the wall between church and state.

Fair’s fair in the eyes of the law, but let’s take a reality check here. To equate Bible study groups and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes with Gay-Straight Alliances is tantamount to comparing the Sistine Chapel with a strip joint.

Hensler is good, though… his “pro” counterpoint says the exact legal and obvious social truths:

The federal Equal Access Act requires a school that allows any club to meet on campus to allow every club to meet. The law was originally endorsed and pushed forward by Sen. Orrin Hatch, one of many conservatives who promoted the law as a way to ensure that religious clubs were able to meet at school.

Ironically, Christians are now trying to circumvent that same law to discriminate against people with a message that is different from their own.

Lawyers for Okeechobee High have attempted to mischaracterize the club, painting a picture that is far from the club’s actual goals.

Ward and all those opposed to gay-straight alliances always attempt to paint them as “sex-based clubs.” We had the same problem here in North Carolina’s Rowan-Salisbury School System; they completely banned all “sex-based clubs” and, of course, they interpret the mission of gay-straight alliances as being “sex-based.”

Gay-straight alliances are not about sex. In the time that I ran my gay-straight alliance at R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, NC, never – not even once – did we talk about sex. What we did talk about was discrimination and how to prevent it and harassment and the effects it has on students. We also talked about other diversity issues and took part in activities for Black History Month and Women’s History Month.

Hensler continues in his column to relate the tale of the court which upheld the Okeechobee High School students’ rights to form the club (see previous post). Okeechobee’s policy, similar to that of the Rowan-Salisbury School System’s, was shot down by the court.

“The court,” Hensler states, “Seems to be sending a clear signal to Okeechobee School District: Stop discriminating against these students or we will force you to stop.

“Whether it’s a GSA or a Bible club, equality means everyone is entitled to equal treatment, not just some.”

Technorati Tags: Kenric Ward, Brandon Hensler, ACLU, GLSEN, gay-straight alliance, GSA, Okeechobee High School, Florida, Rowan, Salisbury, North Carolina