Debate Is a Magnet for Interest Groups, Media

A 21-year-old senior who attends an alternative high school for gay students in Los Angeles. A Lakewood mother who was initially “devastated” when her 23-year-old, married son told her that he was gay. A TV production crew from New York filming a documentary about gays for a PBS special.

These and more than 300 others came here Tuesday to witness the Huntington Beach Union High School District’s board vote, which was scheduled to determine the future of the first gay support group at an Orange County public high school.

Many of those who made the trip did so with the sense that they were participating in a historic occasion with far-reaching implications.

That was ACLU attorney Alan Friel’s primary reason for being there.

“Our interest was not so much in the students’ trying to start a gay support group, but in the community’s attempt to prevent them from doing so,” said Friel. “Under California law, the government cannot discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation.”

Supporters were joined by parents and students vehemently opposed to the gay support group, named the Fountain Valley High School Student Alliance. They have accused the alliance of promoting an immoral way of life.

They included Fountain Valley High School Senior Robert Dodge, 17, who organized the Future Good Boys of America specifically to oppose the gay support group. Dodge believes the law itself is being abused.

“I think in theory the equal-access law is good,” Dodge said, “but it doesn’t have any limits.”

Wayne Harropson, who said he was a member of a group of concerned parents who have been meeting since the controversy erupted, passed out a four-page flyer criticizing homosexuality.

“Homosexuality must be removed from its legitimizing status as ‘lifestyle,’ ” Harropson wrote in the flyer. One backer of the support group, Brian Dreesman a 21-year-old student at EAGLES Center--Los Angeles’ only high school for gays and lesbians--said he began lining up students to make the trek to Orange County as soon as he got wind of the controversy back in November.

A half a dozen other students and teachers from EAGLES center were planning to join Dreesman. A television film crew from New York, which is preparing a four-part PBS series on the gay community in which the EAGLES center will be featured, followed the group.

“This (support) group is like an island of hope for gay and lesbian youth,” said Dreesman, a former varsity football star who dropped out of a Catholic boys school with a 4.0 grade-point average because he said he could no longer deal with the emotional toll of hiding his homosexuality.

“I just wanted to educate those who are trying to prevent it and let them know that it’s more than sex--it’s about love,” Dreesman said.

Adult gay-rights advocates from throughout the Orange County and the Los Angeles area also turned out to voice their support for the group.

Pam Woody, co-chairwoman of the Orange County chapter of Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians, was among them. Woody, who was shocked when her married son told her he was gay, later joined the group. The organization has more than 200 members.

“I thought it was important for them to know that not everybody opposes having a gay and lesbian group on campus,” said Woody, whose 24-year-old son is gay. “I don’t know that people understand or realize the depth of harassment that gays and lesbians undergo throughout their teen-age years.”

Among the hordes of outsiders, Fountain Valley residents like Ted Bach felt themselves somewhat outnumbered.

Bach, 54, the father of four grown children who attended Fountain Valley High School, said he was interested in the outcome even though his offspring, ages 23 to 31, have long since graduated.

“Since it’s an organization promoting tolerance and understanding, I don’t see why they can’t be a part of the high school campus,” Bach said. “I thought the numbers of people who are supportive might help sway the board.”