Students Testify on Gay Club

Two high school students testified in federal court in Santa Ana on Monday that renaming a support group for gay teens a “tolerance club” would belittle its mission and that prohibiting club members from discussing sex or sexuality implies that homosexuals are more promiscuous than others.

Anthony Colin, 15, and Heather Zetin, 16, were addressing concerns about the club’s name and format that Orange Unified School District trustees raised last month before unanimously rejecting their request for the club to meet at El Modena High School in Orange. The two teens filed a federal civil rights lawsuit and are seeking a preliminary injunction allowing the club to meet until the case can be settled.

In an unusual move, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter suggested to lawyers on both sides of the matter that he would be better informed to rule on the request for the injunction if he first heard the students’ opinions. Typically such testimony does not happen until trial.

So, for three hours after school Monday, Zetin and Colin postponed studying for finals so they could testify before half a dozen attorneys, three school district officials, parent activists on both sides of the issue and a gaggle of reporters.

The teens said they believe in abstinence and have no intention of discussing sex acts.

“All clubs have the potential for members to talk about sex,” Zetin responded evenly to questioning from her lawyer, Laura W. Brill. “I don’t think it’s fair for our club to be singled out.”

Looking small in the large, cherry-paneled witness box, Zetin spoke firmly about the controversy that has swirled around the club, first proposed in September.

She testified that prohibiting the group from discussing sexuality would send the message that “gay people are inherently more sexual or sexually promiscuous than just people.”

It would be discriminatory, she said, to subject their club to rules that other El Modena groups, such as the Christian Club or Black Student Union, don’t face. Her group now meets informally across the street from school.

In court papers, the students’ lawyers contend that the federal Equal Access Act mandates that, if El Modena allows one extracurricular club on campus, as it does, then other student groups cannot be denied because of the political, philosophical, religious or other viewpoints that may be expressed at group meetings. The students are represented by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the People for the American Way Foundation and the law firm of Irell & Manella.

School trustees unanimously barred the club from campus on the grounds that the students could be pawns of outside groups and that the students might discuss matters of sex education that are highly regulated by the state Education Code. They suggested that the students rename their group a “tolerance club” and pen a mission statement that specifically excluded discussions of sex, sexuality or sex education.

The school district has argued that it has an interest in regulating the activities of a club that might touch on curriculum topics. In his questioning of the teens, school district lawyer James Bowles established the age of high schoolers--as young as 14--and suggested that the name Gay-Straight Alliance might exclude students who are bisexual or abstinent.

He also questioned the students repeatedly on why they insisted on the name Gay-Straight Alliance, a moniker endorsed by the nationwide Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. Colin testified that he came up with the name independently and that he never met or spoke to members of the network until after he proposed the club in September. The students testified that they were not controlled in any way by the network and that the group merely offers them moral support.

A slight young man with indigo-tinted hair, Colin alternately looked fragile and confident as he spoke. He bristled visibly when lawyers raised the topic of calling the group a tolerance club.

“Tolerance means ‘to put up with,’ ” he said. “Like Jews were ‘put up with’ and blacks were ‘put up with.’ . . . I don’t respect that word at all. I don’t believe in it.” A better word, he said, would be acceptance.

Testimony is to resume today. Carter is not expected to rule on the request for injunction until later this week.