O.C. School’s Gay-Support Group Debated

A volatile but evenly divided crowd of more than 200 students, parents and church leaders jammed the Huntington Beach Union High School District board meeting Tuesday night to debate the future of a gay-support group at Fountain Valley High School.

Establishment of the Fountain Valley High School Student Alliance in October has created a public furor and become a rallying point for gays as well as some within the religious right, who have demanded that district trustees ban the student organization.

Angry students and their parents who oppose the group have held demonstrations, charging that the group would promote homosexuality and transform Fountain Valley High into a magnet for homosexuals. They have bombarded trustees with letters accusing them of promoting an “immoral” lifestyle.

“The public school system should not in any form be supporting gay or lesbian behavior on campus,” Joseph Vandrovec, a Huntington Beach father of three, told board members. “It’s a lifestyle that creates depression, despair and low self-worth.”

However, a large number of Student Alliance supporters, including a coalition of gay and lesbian business leaders, attended Tuesday’s meeting to speak in favor of the student group.

Fountain Valley High alumni who are gay, as well as parents of gay children, urged board members to keep an existing policy that allows all groups to meet, regardless of “religious, political or philosophical” views.

No board action was taken Tuesday night.

Under the district’s “equal access” policy, as long as one school group is allowed to meet on campus for non-instructional purposes, administrators must afford the same privilege to all others so long as they abide by certain conditions.

The only other non-curricular group that meets on the 2,500-student campus does so for Bible study. School officials have explained that because of recent court rulings, if the Student Alliance were banned, the Christian group would have to be banned as well.

Robert Hodges, a 14-year resident of Huntington Beach, said he supports the Student Alliance. “It’s good for helping people to understand themselves and others,” he said. “I was horrified to read about the demonstrations, which only show how much the alliance is needed because of all the hatred and ignorance out there. This group is no threat, it’s just simply hysteria.”

The Student Alliance was formed to foster tolerance and understanding of gays and lesbians. Supporters believe high school is an appropriate forum for students to learn to respect sexual diversity and people who are otherwise different from themselves. School administrators have said that those attending group meetings discuss such topics as how to get along with parents, teachers and fellow students, but do not discuss sex.

Supporters of the Student Alliance argued that it serves a vital need, reaching out to gay teen-agers who feel ostracized by their heterosexual classmates.

Senior Ron Katz, 17, a founding member of the group, told trustees of his personal struggle in coming to terms with his sexuality and his fear of being gay in a homophobic society.

He said that “it’s not an issue of whether you’re gay or lesbian, but that we are allowed to meet. . . . These students need to meet. This group will provide the support they need to know they are not alone.”

Judging from the vigorous debate that took place, sentiment on the issue continues to run high, and the Board of Education auditorium was filled to capacity, with people spilling out into the hallways.

Matthew Gratius, a sophomore at Fountain Valley High, said he and most of his fellow students oppose the Student Alliance.

“You can’t imagine the reaction in some students when they see boy kissing boy, and girl kissing girl,” he said. “I’m afraid it will lead to violence.”

Gratius claimed that some members of the Aryan Nation had contacted opponents of the group, offering to “handle the problem” for them if school officials don’t.

The alliance began meeting in classrooms on Fridays in October after receiving approval from school administrators.

Fountain Valley High School Principal Gary Ernst said students had been approaching him for the last couple of years about starting a gay-support group. This year they mustered the support and strength in numbers. Five gay students and a number of heterosexual students have been attending the meetings.

However, it wasn’t long before protests were raised about the Student Alliance meetings.

Last month, about 150 students clutching cardboard signs saying “Gays Go Home” and wearing T-shirts proclaiming “No Gays” held a demonstration in front of the school. An opposing group calling itself the Future Good Boys of America was formed to promote “strong morals.”

While the Student Alliance is believed to be the first such group in Orange County, counseling groups for gay students have been part of the landscape in Los Angeles County for several years.

The most widely known program is Project 10, which takes its name from estimates that 10% of the population is gay. Started in 1984 by Virginia Uribe, a teacher at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, the program was designed to stop harassment of gay students and keep them from dropping out. Today, just about every high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District has Project 10-trained counselors on staff.

However, plans to launch a Project 10 program in Long Beach nearly three years ago were dropped amid heavy opposition similar to that which is occurring in Fountain Valley. Parents, high school principals and others deluged the school board with hundreds of letters and phone calls opposing the plan, resulting in a quiet about-face.

* ALUMNI SPEAK OUT: Gay graduates wish they had had a support group. A14

BACKGROUND

Most Orange County school districts have an “equal access” policy to prevent discrimination on the basis of religious, political or philosophical differences. Under the Equal Access Act, it is illegal for a public secondary school to ban one group of students from meeting on campus during non-instructional time if the district has already allowed other organizations to do so. According to the act, whenever one student group is allowed to meet, there is a “limited open forum” that entitles other groups to the same privilege. The act withstood a legal challenge in 1990 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a public secondary school that allowed chess, scuba and service clubs to meet could not ban religious clubs. Four of Orange County’s 27 school districts have not passed an equal access policy. Consequently, no student groups there are allowed to meet on campus for non-school-related reasons. They are Saddleback, Irvine, Tustin and Capistrano unified school districts.