Tolerance, Sex and the Gay-Straight Alliance

* Regarding the Gay-Straight Alliance club at El Modena High School (Dec. 8):

I was disappointed that the Orange Unified school board took the expedient course rather than the one dictated by logic and reason.

This matter required that the board set aside all arguments made by opponents concerning whose lives and attractions are valid and whose are not and rule simply on the matter of whether a group of students meeting for the purpose of understanding between gay and straight students was curricular. Clearly this is not what they did.

Their conclusion that the club constituted sex education was specious. When those entrusted with education abandon cogent reasoning in favor of fallacious reasoning or their own personal bigotries, students lose.

They lost a club that might be a powerful tool in promoting understanding and reducing violence against those students who are gay or perceived to be so.

They also lost the opportunity to look up to their school board members as examples of clear thinking and courage.

BILL MOSER

Long Beach

* Reading that the trustees decided that a “gay club” (actually a Gay-Straight Alliance) cannot be allowed at El Modena High School because the club is academic, in that it deals with sex, made me aware that prejudice is like a dog chasing its own tail.

The trustees, who are obviously ignorant when it comes to matters of sexual orientation, have allowed their own ignorance to fuel their prejudice. Remember, these are people who are in charge of education.

Their ignorance of sexual orientation has led to their prejudicial belief and assumption that a “gay club” would be about sex, and that has led them to ban it.

This [club] is about education on sociology, psychology, civil rights, civil liberties, history, politics and diversity.

The trustees may as well say that home economics clubs are about sex because they teach girls to be good mothers.

JESSEA GREENMAN

Oakland

* The Orange Unified school board sent a message that discrimination against gay people is not only acceptable but rightfully sanctioned.

They faced a lawsuit no matter which way they voted, but the Supreme Court has already ruled on this issue. Ultimately, the board will have to either allow the club or shut down all clubs.

It would have been wiser to monitor existing Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in Orange County to verify whether the fears of those opposed to the club were warranted before making such a horrible decision.

LAWRENCE INGALLS

Coto de Caza

* Several people in favor of the Gay-Straight Alliance club have stated that homosexuals are born to be homosexual and should therefore be affirmed and accepted as such.

Yet people on both sides of the debate have presented statistics indicating that those who embrace a homosexual lifestyle have a much higher rate of suicide, are much more likely to contract AIDS and generally have a shorter life expectancy.

It is well accepted in the medical profession that some people are born with a predisposition toward alcoholism. If these people start to drink, they will become addicted to alcohol.

If you care about someone who has this predisposition, you encourage him or her not to drink. And you certainly wouldn’t start a club that would encourage that person to drink or to feel good about drinking.

In the same way, a person with a predisposition toward homosexuality should be encouraged to avoid that lifestyle because of the problems that it will likely bring.

And certainly a club should never be formed that will encourage people with homosexual tendencies to start or continue in that lifestyle.

CARL AND KATHLEEN NAGY

Orange

* I wonder if the people who are promoting gay clubs on high school campuses really understand what they are doing.

Every club I ever belonged to or heard of was created to promote, discuss and engage in some action. The promoting and the discussing were an adjunct to the real reason for the club, which was the action. Golf clubs play golf. Bowling leagues bowled and chess clubs played chess.

Homosexuality is a sexual orientation. I cannot imagine the Gay-Straight Alliance club members will meet to discuss race cars or the deer population in Oregon. They will meet to discuss what the club is about, which is sex.

If you are going to allow a gay club then you can hardly turn down a “straight” club, but whatever its orientation, a sex club on a high school campus is ridiculous.

JOHN WAUGEN

Anaheim

* I thought that it was an interesting juxtaposition of letters Dec. 5 concerning the Gay-Straight Alliance.

The first letter argued the legal issues involved. The second letter didn’t address the legal issues but rather made statements that articulated the prejudices of the letter writer.

If one didn’t know which was the parent and which the school board member, one would have thought that the first was the school board member and the second the parent. This, however, was not the case.

I thought that since school board members were elected public officials, they took an oath to uphold the law. It is interesting that the school board member didn’t address the legal issue at all but rather used the age-old diversionary tactic of blaming “outside activists.”

This tactic of avoiding the real issues and resorting to name-calling has long been used by people who know they can’t win on the merits of the argument and so resort to obfuscation. This was the well-known tactic used by segregationists in the South to oppose civil rights and voting legislation.

If this board member represents the majority view of the board, then it is easy to see why a suit must be filed to ensure the legal rights of the students of the district.

JACK MUNSEE

Fountain Valley

* Regarding the Dec. 5 letter by Linda Davis concerning the Gay-Straight Alliance club at El Modena High School in Orange:

As a member of the Orange Unified school board, Davis should promote tolerance for all students and stop worrying about conspiratorial agendas lurking around every corner.

The 20th century has largely been about overcoming intolerance and injustice. As we enter the 21st century, bigotry and intolerance will hopefully perish.

Davis and the school district must do the Christian thing and cast aside their prejudices. Stop breaking federal law and allow this club to enter the 21st century in an era of tolerance. R. DOBSON

Orange