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Gay-straight clubs posing challenges for schools

Posted: Monday, March 25, 2002

   STRATFORD, Conn. -- For the Gay-Straight Alliance at Stratford High School, progress can be measured in the hallways: These days, only some of its posters get torn down.

   Harassment and name-calling haven't vanished from the 900-student school. But its gay students -- and their straight allies -- are pleased to have a club of their own, a weekly forum to share worries, frustrations and laughs.

   For Michael Burgess, a sophomore who co-founded the club with some friends in the fall of 2000, it was partly an act of self-protection.

   ''We were having a lot of problems,'' Burgess said. ''Not one day passed that I wasn't being called a (name).''

   Gay-straight alliances, or GSAs, first appeared in Massachusetts in 1989 and have spread rapidly coast-to-coast in recent years. About 1,000 of America's 26,000 high schools now have them, according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

   Critics argue that GSAs promote homosexuality and have no place in schools. Defenders say the clubs are invaluable in encouraging tolerance and easing the isolation that drives many gay students into substance abuse and suicide attempts.

   ''Any other minority group has their families, churches and communities behind them,'' said Patricia Boland, a school psychologist in Chesterfield County near Richmond, Va. ''Gay youth don't. If they're getting harassed, often they don't tell their parents. They're very much on their own.''

   She said anti-gay sentiment can be damaging even to straight students.

   Some GSAs consist almost entirely of gay and lesbian students. Others, like Stratford High's, have many straight members.

   ''A lot of my friends are gay,'' said junior Julie Baron. ''I'm straight, but because I'm in the club, somebody called me a (name). They need to grow up.''

   The GSA's adviser, English teacher Michael Fiorello, is heartened by the high-spirited camaraderie that has developed among the students. ''When I was in high school, if you wanted to experience anything gay, it was going to be dark and dangerous,'' he said.

   In some schools, GSAs emerged due to the efforts of a few activist students, then collapsed after they graduated. Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, blames indifferent and hostile school administrators.

   ''With other school clubs -- the French club, the math club -- the system commits to supporting them so they will always be there, but the system hasn't made that commitment to GSAs,'' Jennings said.

   Efforts to form GSAs have been resisted in some communities by parents, school boards and clergy. But court rulings generally side with GSA supporters, primarily because of a federal law that requires equal access to public school facilities.

   The National Education Association, the country's largest teachers union, has asked school districts to crack down on harassment of gay students and staff.

   Gerald Newberry, executive director of the NEA's health information network, said some teachers worry that working with a GSA may label them as gay, but students generally find a faculty sponsor.

   Jennings agreed that joining a GSA can entail risks.

   ''But it's more damaging to feel invisible than it is to feel like a target,'' he said. ''When they form a group and have allies, that gives them a sense of power they don't have when they feel alone.''




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