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 Gay Club Without Students, Judge Rescinds
Order
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: March 20, 2008 - 12:30 pm ET
(Okeechobee, Florida) Even though Okeechobee High
School's Gay-Straight Alliance no longer has any members, a federal lawsuit by a
former GSA member is continuing.
This week a judge rescinded an earlier ruling
that required the school board to allow the GSA to meet on campus while the
lawsuit played out.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore agreed to a
motion by school board attorney David Gibbs who argued that it is
"inequitable" to force the school to permit a club to meet on school
property "that has no members, no officers, no meetings and no
events."
Nevertheless the lawsuit by the GSA's former president
Yasmin Gonzalez, who now attends university, will go to trial in June.
In 2006 Gonzalez and her girlfriend were told
they could not attend the school prom as a couple. The rejection was one of
several incidents targeting LGBT students at Okeechobee High School and led to
the formation of the GSA.
The school blocked the club from meeting on
campus and the students sought the help of the ACLU which filed the federal
suit.
The ACLU argues that the Equal Access Act
stipulates that when a school allows any non-curricular club to meet on campus,
it must allow all non-curricular clubs to meet on campus.
Last year Moore issued the preliminary injunction
ordering the school district to allow the club to meet on school property while
the civil rights lawsuit is being heard. (story)
The school district argues that the Equal Access
Act can't be used in the case of a GSA and that Florida law requires schools to
teach abstinence, "while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual
marriage."
©365Gay.com 2008
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