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Gay-Straight Alliance Compared To K.K.K.


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Gay-Straight Alliance Compared To K.K.K.

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: September 16, 2005 5:00 pm ET

(Atlanta, Georgia) 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. (story)

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.

©365Gay.com 2005

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