Utah Foes of Club Say They Aim to Protect Children

A small coterie of anti-gay activists from Utah has arrived in Orange County to fight against a gay student support group that won a court case for the right to meet at a public high school.

The America Forever Foundation came at the invitation of a group of Orange parents who oppose the Gay-Straight Alliance at El Modena High School, said parent Sherry Lewis. But Donna Sigalas, another member of the parents group Unified Citizens for Safe Schools, said she wasn’t sure who had invited them and she worried about outsiders being involved in the fight. “I’m opposed to outside groups of all sorts,” she said. “It’s our community. It’s our kids.”

The group surfaced in Utah last year, when it protested proposed hate crime legislation because the bill would protect those targeted because of sexual orientation. The bill was defeated in committee.

For their first act in Orange County, the 12 protesters from Utah picketed across the street from campus Wednesday, leading to a brief skirmish with students.

In a telephone interview Thursday, spokeswoman Sandra Rodrigues, one of those who came to Orange County from Utah, said her group is not a hate group and is trying to protect children. An America Forever booklet says, “The simple suggestion of homosexuality and lesbianism (gay) should be criminal when exposed to children. . . . The propaganda of the anti-species concept even by holding hands in front of minors, strongly victimizes the children and youth.”

Group Calls Gays ‘Anti-Species’

Her group advocates the term “anti-species” instead of homosexual, lesbian and gay, on the grounds that homosexuality does not continue the human species. Its literature says that the mention of homosexuality to anyone younger than 18 should be a crime, and sexual practices that do not lead to children should be banned.

Homosexuality, Rodrigues said, shouldn’t be discussed until people are 18. One of the problems with a group like the one at El Modena, she said, is that members would talk to their younger siblings about homosexuality.

“When you go into a high school club, you’re going into families,” said Rodrigues, 44. “Sexual matters should be kept private.”

The group’s literature focuses strongly on Christianity, with one booklet showing a picture of Jesus on the cover. But Rodrigues downplayed that aspect. “Because we have Christ on the cover doesn’t mean we’re religious,” she said.

She also criticized the stances of several religions on homosexuality. “I’ve talked to people in hate crime conferences--Unitarian, Methodist. They are continually promoting everything on the homosexual agenda and forgetting the children.”

The Utah group claims 1,000 members, 42 in California. Rodrigues, who immigrated to the United States from Brazil 25 years ago, said she and the other 11 now in Orange County will stay “as long as we need to.” Rodrigues’ brother, Jonas Rodrigues, who was manning the Salt Lake office, said the group is planning an event in Orange County soon, but he would not divulge details.

The group, he said, was formed by his family about a year ago, and the masthead of a booklet is filled with family members. His and Sandra’s father, Dr. J.M.R. Filho, is a senior editor for the group, Sandra Rodrigues said. A 19-year-old relative, Jonas Filho, is chairman of the foundation.

The group supports itself through sales of books and tapes, she said. It does not have federal tax-exempt status, which would make donations tax exempt.

Though the group is not well-known, it nonetheless came to the attention of authorities last year after complaints from the Mexican consulate. The complaints said a group named America First was selling identification cards for $200 to illegal residents that ask the Immigration and Naturalization Service not to deport them. The money also allows them to place their pictures in a book that is supposed to be given to politicians in Washington, D.C., to explain the plight of illegal immigrants whose children are citizens.

The consulate, and state residents, complained to the Idaho and Utah state commissions on Hispanic Affairs.

Leticia Medina, director of the Utah Office of Hispanic Affairs, said the INS told her the card was worthless, but her agency ultimately decided the cards were not illegal. The Idaho Commission for Hispanic Affairs forwarded complaints to the state attorney general’s office, said Don Pena, interim director for the agency. The attorney general’s office could not be reached for comment.

Sandra Rodrigues said the card was issued by a separate group called America Forever, not the America Forever Foundation, and that she is a spokeswoman for both. She declined to comment further about the cards.

Rodrigues and her group were the only anti-club demonstrators at El Modena on Wednesday, shouting, “Stop gay clubs!” and “Stop the propaganda!” As school let out, about 30 students rushed across the street, leading to a brief scuffle with the demonstrators. The school called police, who dispersed the crowd.

Orange trustees banned the Gay-Straight Alliance from campus in December, saying outsiders were influencing it and the subject matter was handled within classes. A federal judge last week ordered the district to allow the club to meet until its lawsuit against the district is heard this summer.

Lewis said parents invited America Forever to Orange County to learn what they can do to combat the club peacefully. “As parents, we don’t understand what our rights are, what we can or can’t do. They’ve been helping us.”

She said a parent came across the group while doing research. It is not being paid for its work in Orange, she said.

But Sigalas said she wasn’t sure the group’s initial effort at picketing had helped. “We want to see the campus settle down,” she said. Sigalas said she had not read the group’s literature. Asked her opinion after it was read to her, she replied, “I don’t want to go there.”

*

Times staff writer Kate Folmar contributed to this story.