COLUMN ONE : Gay Rights Fight Moves on Campus : Activists on both sides have targeted high schools in battles over curriculum and support groups. Some celebrate a new boldness, others say values are best taught at home.

John was stunned to find himself caught in an uproar after he helped form a gay support group at Fountain Valley High School last fall.

He shouldn’t have been.

The 17-year-old and his friends had become unwitting combatants on one of the most volatile fronts of the gay rights struggle: America’s schools. Some of John’s classmates printed up T-shirts proclaiming “No Gays.” Hundreds of angry Fountain Valley residents staged demonstrations and bombarded school officials with letters demanding that the group be banned, saying it promoted an immoral way of life.

Such scenes have been repeated from Los Angeles to New York as gays and lesbians lobby for programs that cater to gay teen-agers and foster understanding of homosexuality. It is a crusade with far-reaching implications, in some sense a struggle for the hearts and minds of today’s youth. Remembering their painful passage through self-loathing adolescence, gay leaders are trying to smooth the way for the next generation to reach adulthood with a positive self-image.

“People accuse me of proselytizing,” said Jerry Battey, founder of the EAGLES Center, an alternative high school program for gay youngsters in the Los Angeles Unified School District, many of whom dropped out of mainstream schools because of harassment. “But I am just helping them to be proud of who and what they are and to move forward.”

Those are fighting words for people who view such efforts as a pernicious attempt to tinker with values best taught at home and to use public schools as a forum for advancing the gay movement.

“When you really cut through the fat you see the agenda is to confirm the lifestyle,” said the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, one of the most vocal critics of gay-oriented school programs. He calls the phenomenon part of a national gay effort to “overhaul straight America.”

For many, the issue raises the same kinds of questions surrounding sex education and condom distribution in the schools. When, where and by whom should such matters be addressed?

“These are not all ‘homosexuals-will-die-in-hell’ parents,” said Dirk Voss, a Huntington Beach Union High School District trustee. “They just don’t want it around their kids.”

He opposes the formation of any “sexually oriented” clubs on public school campuses. “I don’t believe in any of them, whether they’re heterosexual, homosexual or ‘virgin and proud,’ ” Voss said. “They are all inappropriate. This is a value issue and parents have the right to say: ‘I don’t want my kids around that.’ ”

For their part, many Fountain Valley High students seem to view the matter as much ado about nothing. “The feeling a lot of them have is that, ‘I’m not gay, it doesn’t affect me. If they want to have a group, I don’t care,’ ” said Christine Baron, an English teacher who has observed a growing sophistication in high school culture during the 20 years she has taught at the school.

Not too long ago, simply the notion of organizing gay youths would have been radical. Encouraged by the gains of the gay rights movement and an atmosphere of rising tolerance, teen-agers have begun to come out nationwide. They are demanding the right to form gay social clubs, take dates to the prom and enjoy other privileges that their heterosexual peers take for granted.

“I’m proud to say I’m gay,” declared Christine, a 16-year-old junior in the EAGLES program. On one arm she sports a large tattoo: two entwined female symbols with the words “I love you” and her girlfriend’s name.

“What we’re really seeing is the blossoming of the gay youth movement,” said Los Angeles school board member Jeff Horton, who came out several months after assuming office in 1991. “The youth are becoming more bold and more willing to take risks.”

That boldness was vividly demonstrated last year when hundreds of Massachusetts high school students converged on their Statehouse to successfully lobby for passage of the first law in the country to explicitly ban discrimination against gay students in public schools.

Lawmakers credited the tremendous effort by the teen-agers--both homosexual and heterosexual--with pushing the bill out of committee, where it had languished for years.

Elsewhere, there is growing interest in establishing programs for gay youths, along with limited attempts to deal with homosexuality in curricula--an area ignored by most districts.

Chelsea House, a New York publisher that specializes in nonfiction for children and young adults, has launched two book series that it will market to school and public libraries. One is a 30-volume series of biographies of famous gay men and lesbians. The other will cover such topics as gays and sports or growing up gay.

“I think there’s been an explosion of awareness,” said Frances Kunreuther, executive director of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a 15-year-old New York City agency that runs a number of programs for gay youth, including a small alternative public high school, the Harvey Milk School, and an extensive array of after-school services.

Every week, Kunreuther said, the institute gets 30 to 40 calls from social service agencies, schools and gay youngsters seeking information on Hetrick-Martin or wishing to start projects of their own.

Los Angeles and New York have been pioneers; California has long bubbled with controversy over school issues involving gays.

In 1978, voters defeated the Briggs initiative, which would have permitted schools to fire gay teachers. Six years later, Fairfax High School teacher Virginia Uribe started Project 10 in the Los Angeles school system. The program, which offers counseling and support groups for gay teen-agers, has been widely praised by educators and vilified by critics who have used it as a rallying cry in gay rights battles nationwide.

When the Los Angeles school district proclaimed June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month two years ago, protesters demonstrated in front of district headquarters. A small furor also erupted in 1992 when state educators proposed health education and textbook content guidelines that included scattered references to gays and families headed by same-sex couples. The guidelines were adopted with some changes, but the mention of homosexuality was retained.

The issue turned explosive in the New York City school system more than a year ago with the emergence of the “Rainbow” curriculum, designed to teach first-graders respect for cultural and ethnic diversity. Among the document’s more than 400 pages were a few urging teachers to mention gay people during a discussion of families. On a long list of recommended readings were three children’s books dealing with gay families, including “Heather Has Two Mommies” and “Daddy’s Roommate,” which includes a drawing of two men sleeping together.

The gay references were bitterly denounced by many parents and school board members and the ensuing uproar contributed to the ouster of the city’s schools chancellor. Slightly revised guidelines continue to refer to same-sex couples and the new chancellor has indicated that discussion of homosexuality will remain.

To avoid such a tempest, educators in conservative Fairfax County, Va., put their family life program through extensive public review before adopting it in 1990. Now, ninth-graders in the county’s public schools view a 29-minute film, “What If I’m Gay?” and then complete a homework assignment in which they ask their parents gay-related questions.

A vocal contingent of parents has attacked the program, but coordinator Jerald Newberry says only about 1% of parents have opted to pull their children out of the family education classes.

The San Francisco school system offers counseling similar to Project 10 and also touches on homosexuality in the sixth grade, in a lesson about name-calling. High school sessions deal with the “myths and stereotypes of homosexuality.”

But most school districts steer clear of the subject. “We found the whole issue of sexual identity and orientation is one of the least covered topics,” said Debra Haffner, executive director of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States, a sex education clearinghouse and advocacy group.

Even in the earliest grades the council maintains that it is appropriate to introduce the idea that people experience different kinds of love and that some fall in love with people of the same sex.

“I can tell you that my 4-year-old asked me what gay was,” Haffner said. “They’re exposed to language like ‘You’re a faggot’ on the playground and some of them are growing up in gay and lesbian families or have gay and lesbian relatives or friends.”

Haffner has a standing reply to complaints that such school discussions inappropriately legitimize homosexuality or encourage youngsters to become gay: “If education and environment were the cause of orientation, we would all be heterosexual,” she said. “The vast majority of role models present only a heterosexual model.”

Increasingly, gay advocates see school and youth programs as critical not only for gay youngsters, but for the gay movement.

“I really think it is the most explosive, fastest developing front in terms of lesbian and gay activism,” said Al Kielwasser, coordinator of Project 21, a national alliance promoting the inclusion of information about gays in curricula and textbooks.

“What many groups realize,” he said, “is that if we are fighting hate crimes or challenging bigoted legislators--so much of that stems from the fact that as children, people are not given fair and accurate information about who we are. . . . It’s just practical for our community to make sure another generation is not raised to hate.”

“We are not a moral issue,” Kielwasser added. “We are a social fact. Schools have no more right to deny our existence than say the Earth is flat. Parents have the right to teach their kids the Earth is flat. Schools don’t.”

Gays also point to research indicating that gay teen-agers are more prone to suicide than their heterosexual peers. A 1991 University of Minnesota study found that of 137 gay and bisexual boys ages 13 to 21, 30% had attempted suicide.

But what is support and “fair and accurate information” to gays can be “homosexual propaganda” to others.

Parents who object to the gay support group at Fountain Valley High have placed so much pressure on the school board that trustees have agreed to vote Tuesday on whether to revise their policy on non-academic after-school clubs.

“Children have rights and we agree with that, but when they’re given a right that’s harmful to health and growth, we as parents have the right to say something,” said Jim Fuller, 35, a parent of three Fountain Valley High students and one of the group’s most vocal critics. “How anyone can condone orientation into (homosexuality) is beyond me.”

If necessary, Fuller said, he will sue the school board to wipe the club policy off the books.

Should the board alter the policy, however, the future of 30 other clubs would be jeopardized. Under the state equal access law, public school officials who refuse to allow one club to meet on campus must also prohibit all other non-curriculum-related organizations.

Ironically, many of those who now oppose the equal access policy because it permits a gay group were instrumental in getting the law passed. Church groups have used it as ammunition before the U.S. Supreme Court to win the right to form Bible study groups at public schools.

Calling themselves the “Future Good Boys of America,” some students at Fountain Valley have organized against the gay club. Among other things, they printed up the “No Gays” T-shirts and held a protest in front of the school in October that drew 150 people.

“Many people call it Faggot Valley High School,” lamented Joe Khalil, 19, one of the Future Good Boys. “We’re not gay-bashers but we don’t want the gay club returning.”

A school board meeting in November drew an overflow crowd, including gay rights supporters from other parts of Orange County and Los Angeles. Among them was Pam Woody, 44, co-chairwoman of the Orange County chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

“They are basically seeking to express their feelings--how difficult it is to be a teen-ager, period, then to be a gay teen-ager on top of it,” said Woody, adding that she was initially devastated when her son came out to her on his 23rd birthday more than a year ago. “When my son was in high school, he didn’t have anyone to turn to for support so he ended up being pretty much of a loner.”

Patrick Henigan, 26, a former Fountain Valley student, has been following the controversy from his New Jersey home. He described the emotional toll of hiding his sexuality from friends and family in a letter to the school board pledging his support for the student group.

Henigan, who graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average and went to Harvard University, said he suffered frequent bouts of depression while in school despite being popular and successful: football star, member of the homecoming court and student government representative.

“I was moral, athletic and intelligent but I just felt like I didn’t fit in,” he said. “It wasn’t just an overt sexual thing but a perspective on life. I had a lot of suicidal thoughts at the time.”

John, the gay support group’s co-founder, who did not want his real name used, is amazed at the uproar. “I never would have thought any of this would happen,” he said. “I just wish it would all go away so we can go back to what we were trying to do, which is to foster a better understanding of sexual diversity.”