Gay Club Backers Cite Bias in District Advisor

Advocates for a gay student club are criticizing the Orange Unified School District trustees for consulting a lawyer known for defending conservative Christian causes before they voted to bar the club from a high school.

On Nov. 18, the school board met in closed session with both its usual lawyer and with Sacramento lawyer David L. Llewellyn Jr., who has previously represented antiabortion activists, students seeking to advertise Bible clubs on campus and a school board in San Diego County that picked a sexual education curriculum that some believed mixed a strong abstinence message with religious undertones.

Llewellyn is well-versed in matters of school access, and a district official said he was hired in an effort to get “a variety” of opinions on the issue of whether to allow students to hold their Gay-Straight Alliance meetings at El Modena High School. The students have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit to gain access to the campus.

While the board consulted Llewellyn, it did not seek the advice of a gay rights or civil liberties attorney before reaching a unanimous decision to exclude the club Dec. 7.

That leads lawyers for the student plaintiffs to contend that the trustees had reached a decision based on religious beliefs, not the law, and were seeking a partisan to back their conclusion.

“If they’re reaching out to an attorney who has the background of being antiabortion . . . that tells you something about the school district’s views,” said Myron Dean Quon, a staff attorney for the pro-gay rights Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, one of the groups representing student plaintiffs Anthony Colin and Heather Zetin. “ . . . They’re reaching out to someone with a strong religious background. It’s highly inappropriate to go to an advocate rather than a neutral person.”

District officials denied that.

“I think that our board was looking to get input from a variety of people,” said Orange Supt. Barbara Van Otterloo, adding that regular district lawyer James Bowles is the only lawyer representing the district in the matter.

“If an outside observer has some sort of notion [about the decision to consult Llewellyn], that’s their business,” she added.

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Board member Martin Jacobson suggested that the board consult Llewellyn, Van Otterloo said. A spokeswoman for the district said the trustees would not comment on the matter because of the pending lawsuit. Jacobson campaigned for the school board in 1993 wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet after being arrested at an antiabortion demonstration. He once complained that gays and liberals were trying to take over the Orange district.

For his part, Llewellyn won’t say what he recommended to the board, because the discussion occurred in closed session. However, he has “no objection” to the board’s decision.

The board barred the club, which some believe should be allowed under the federal Equal Access Act, after describing it as a group that dealt with the curricular topic of sexual education, which is heavily regulated by the state education code. Club proponents argue that the Gay-Straight Alliance has nothing more to do with the curriculum than the school’s Bible club, which is permitted under the federal law.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Jan. 24 in U.S. District Court.

Llewellyn said his religious beliefs do not diminish his interpretation of the law.

“I certainly have not been timid about expressing my religious convictions in public, but neither do I permit my religious views to taint my legal analysis.”

Llewellyn founded the Western Center for Law and Religious Freedom, which represented the antiabortion group Operation Rescue.

“I like the cutting edges of the law,” he said. “I suppose that’s why the district sought my opinion.”