Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: Bill could jeopardize gay-straight clubs
By Adam Strong
The Utah Statesman (Utah State U.)
02/13/2006

(U-WIRE) LOGAN, Utah — A new bill has reached the state Senate recently. Sen. Chris Buttars proposed a bill this month that would "limit or deny" clubs that involve human sexuality, or more specifically, gay-straight alliances in public schools. Sen. Buttars claims that these "conditioning clubs" promote homosexuality. There are 14 gay-straight alliances in the state right now, all of which would be banned.

I was friends with the only openly gay student in my high school. A simple stroll through the halls was an experience I didn't envy. The looks we received and the things that were said were shocking to me - to say the least. I was furious that people could be this insensitive to another individual simply because of his sexual orientation, and I only heard it for five minutes. I can only imagine hearing it for an entire lifetime.

I remember hearing about the gay-straight alliance he attended. He said it was really the only place he felt safe from the bullies that hounded him day after day. These clubs were a place for him, as they are for many others, to escape the horrors of being an adolescent homosexual in Utah.

Classes in early education harp on the concepts of racial discrimination, as they should. Children know what words are inappropriate when dealing with race, they know that the color of someone's skin does not matter, and while racial discrimination is still a problem, it is at least being dealt with. Isn't somebody's sexual orientation in the same category as race? Is saying a derogatory statement to a homosexual any different than shouting racial slurs at an African-American?

We, as human beings, have the moral responsibility to treat everyone with dignity and respect, especially if that person is different from the majority. When we think of the word "minority," we think race, but there is more to minority than race. While racial discrimination is still a large problem, there are other problems that need to be dealt with.

These clubs were a step in the right direction in dealing with a less-discussed type of discrimination, and now they are being threatened by a conservative senator who thinks he knows what is best for everyone. The only safe place for a lot of troubled students is on the verge of being taken away because a man in power only sees things how he wants to see them. He does not hear the vulgar words in the hallways and he doesn't see the dirty looks in the classrooms. All he sees is another way to promote the lifestyle he believes to be right.

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