ACLU: Two Big LGBT Victories At Florida High Schools

The ACLU has bagged big victories on two different LGBT issues at Florida high schools.

Victory One: At a rural Florida high school a federal judge has finally overruled the local school board and allowed the Gay-Straight Alliance to meet on campus.

In a move the American Civil Liberties Union is calling "groundbreaking," a federal judge has ruled in favor of students who claimed the school board discriminated against them by opposing their gay tolerance club. The Gay-Straight Alliance of Okeechobee High School may now meet on campus like all other non-curricular school groups, and their case against the School Board of Okeechobee County is closed, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore wrote in an opinion signed Tuesday. Moore granted the GSA's motion for summary judgment and ruled the School Board violated the club's First Amendment rights by refusing to recognize it as a non-curricular student organization. Moore also ruled that the School Board is statutorily obligated by the federal Equal Access Act to grant the club the same rights to meet on campus as other non-curricular student groups do.

Okeechobee is a tiny farming town near the center of the state. The case had dragged for the last two years. Previous coverage on JMG is here.

Victory Two: The Holmes County School Board must pay $325,000 in attorney fees after a federal judge ruled that the principal at Ponce de Leon High School violated students' constitutional rights by banning gay-supportive clothing, stickers, and buttons.

"The Holmes County School Board has imposed an outright ban on speech by students that is not vulgar, lewd, obscene, plainly offensive, or violent, but which is pure, political, and expresses tolerance, acceptance, fairness, and support for not only a marginalized group, but more importantly, for a fellow student at Ponce de Leon," Smoak wrote. Smoak held that any disruption in the school was not a result of the "innocuous symbols and phrases at issue" but due to Davis' "animosity toward students who were homosexual and his relentless crusade to extinguish the speech supporting them." At trial, [Principal] Davis testified that he believes homosexuality is a sin and an abomination that God will punish.

The above case grew out of straight student Heather Gillman's protest over the principal having called the parents of a lesbian student to out her. Gillman led supportive students to wear gay pride buttons and slogans written on their bodies. Previous coverage of Heather Gillman's story on JMG is here.

Once again, we all owe the ACLU a debt of gratitude for doing the grunt work of the LGBT movement.

ACLU Wins Reversal In Florida Gay-Straight Student Alliance Case

Via the Palm Beach Post:

A judge has reopened a case involving the Gay-Straight Alliance of Okeechobee High School, allowing students to challenge the school's refusal to allow the club to meet on campus. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore dismissed the case last month, saying the club's founder, Yasmin Gonzalez, no longer was affected by the school's decision because she has graduated.

But Moore reversed the decision Friday, saying Gonzalez still has a stake in the case because she seeks nominal monetary damages. The judge also allowed current student Brittany Martin to become a plaintiff in the case against the school board of Okeechobee County.

"We are absolutely elated," said Rob Rosenwald, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the students. "I know that the students at Okeechobee High School are very excited that their rights will be vindicated."

Attorneys for the school board could not be reached for comment. Gonzalez and the club she created sued the school board in November 2006, claiming it violated the federal Equal Access Act by allowing other extracurricular clubs to meet on school grounds but banning the Gay-Straight Alliance.

In April 2007, Moore ruled that the school had to allow the club to meet on campus while the case worked its way through court. But Moore rescinded the order last month and dropped the alliance as a plaintiff when it appeared that the club no longer had any members. After Gonzalez graduated, subsequent club officials also left the school.

Last month, Moore also rejected Martin's request to become a plaintiff, saying she hadn't suffered because she wasn't a member of the Gay-Straight Alliance when it first was banned from campus in 2006. However, Rosenwald argued that Martin had suffered because she tried to organize club meetings in April and was denied by the school's principal.

In Friday's ruling, Moore agreed Martin had the right to challenge the school district in court. According to court records, school board attorneys have argued the club was denied in April because it was too late in the school year to start a school group.

Moore disagreed, saying in his order that the Gay-Straight Alliance already existed, so Martin was not trying to start a new club. What's more, the judge said the school district has made clear it would deny the club regardless of the date, because it passed a new policy last year denying any clubs that are "sex-based or based upon any sexual grouping, orientation or activity of any kind." Gonzalez has said she started the Gay-Straight Alliance to provide a haven for students to talk about homophobia and to promote tolerance of one another regardless of sexual orientation.

Yasmin Gonzales. Brittany Martin. Heather Gillman. The kids are alright.

Victory Dances

It's been a good week for the movement.

-The ACLU claimed a victory in Okeechobee, Florida, a small town near the northern edge of the Everglades, where their federal lawsuit forced Okeechobee High School to recognize the Gay-Straight Student Alliance. The school had banned the group as a "sex-based club", saying it violated their abstinence-only policy.

-New Hampshire's state house has approved civil unions for same-sex partners. The bill also provides for New Hampshire to recognize out of state civil unions. If it passes the NH senate, the bill will be presented to Gov. John Lynch.

-Indiana's proposed ban on same-sex marriage failed to make it out of committee, making it unlikely that the ban would face a vote this year. Conservative Hoosiers are tearing their hair out.

-The HRC busted the American Family Association for lying on their site, Stop Thought Crimes, where the AFA claims that there is no current federal hate crime law to which LGBT people can be added. "The federal hate crimes law (18 U.S.C. section 245), covering race, religion, color and national origin, has been on the books since 1969."

-Family Pride, the gay family advocacy group, will be live-blogging beginning tonight during their wait for tickets for this year's White House Easter Egg Roll. Family Pride expects hundreds of LGBT families to take part, doing what parents do best, showing off their kids. It's a beautiful thing.
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Another Gay-Straight Club Suit In Florida

Two high school students in Jacksonville, Florida are being backed by the ACLU in their lawsuit to establish a gay-straight club.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed the suit Tuesday in federal court on behalf of Yulee High School students Hannah Page, a freshman, and Jacob Brock, a junior. The lawsuit claims violations of the First Amendment and the Federal Equal Access Act. The act requires schools to grant access and recognition to a Gay-Straight Alliance and other groups if the school allows any extracurricular group to meet on campus, said ACLU attorney Robert F. Rosenwald. The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to allow the club to meet at Yulee High while the case makes it way to trial. Page said the group just wants to meet like others do. "We just want the club so that straight and gay kids can get together to talk about harassment and discrimination against gay kids in an open environment. The school is discriminating against us and that's exactly the kind of thing we want to prevent," she said.

The Nassau County School Board, who was served with the suit, says that clubs that "highlight sexual orientation" are a violation of policy. Last year the ACLU won a similar case against Florida's Okeechobee County.