Highschool Gay-Straight Alliance wins groundbreaking lawsuit in FL
A highschool in Okeechobee, FL didn't allow their GSA to organize. They reached out to the ACLU who then filed a federal lawsuit. A year and a half later, the GSA won through one of the first decisions of its kind.
via Alternet.
In his first-of-its-kind decision on July 29, Moore ruled in Yasmin Gonzalez vs. School Board of Okeechobee County that not only can the club meet, but also that a school board "is obligated to take into account the well-being of its non-heterosexual students."
It is one of a kind in that it explicitly states protecting the rights of non-straight conforming students.
Also, via the ACLU website:
"Judge Moore's ruling that GSAs are beneficial to gay students and that they don't harm straight students is unparalleled. This is a clear victory for the students, for the Okeechobee GSA and indeed for all high school students in Florida," said Robert Rosenwald, Director of the ACLU of Florida LGBT Advocacy Project. "These are brave students who would not be silenced and did not tolerate discrimination. So many children cannot stand up for themselves, but hopefully this ruling will serve as warning to other Florida schools that equal access truly means equal access, and schools that choose not to follow the law will be inviting similar litigation."
Yes, this is your happy for today.
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Awesome news!
This is wonderful! Congrats to those brave students.
"It is one of a kind in that it explicitly states protecting the rights of non-straight conforming students."
Not sure if this sentence got cut off or what, but what the judge said in his order was that schools have a responsibility to take the well-being of non-straight students into consideration just as they do the well-being of straight students.
"non-straight conforming students."
Is sort of offensive. It implies that people who are straight are only so because they're trying to "conform", or fit in.
Badass! My husband went through a similar thing this year. His school wouldn't let students organize a GSA, which he had volunteered to sponsor. Then, they said they could organize, but they had to call it the "Sociology Club". WTF?
My awesomely PFLAG husband pushed the issue all the way to the school board (because he knew he was leaving the school at the end of the year), where the district's lawyers stepped in and told the board that legally it would be a bad idea to NOT allow GSAs.
His former district is really conservative, which makes it even more important, in my book, because many kids who are LGBTQ have zero parental support. One of his kids came out to her parents, who them promptly e-mailed my husband and told him that their daughter was not allowed to be in his "AIDS Club".
Ironically, all this went down around Day of Silence.
That's so awesome to hear! I did an OPed on this story a little over a year ago and hadn't heard anything about it since, so thanks for that update!
I'm cheering quite enthusiastically right now!
Also, I like exclamation marks!
YEAH GSA!!!