St. George, Utah is a primarily Mormon community, in a Mormon state. It seems like the least likely venue in the world for pro-gay activism. And yet, one of these city’s high schools is home to a gay-straight alliance club. These clubs, predominantly organized by young people, were organized by a gay boy and a straight girl in Massachusetts in the 1980s, to resist anti-gay discrimination in schools.
Utah can now boast nine such clubs, but six of them are in the relatively more liberal northern part of the state and located in the capital of Salt Lake City.
Though the clubs are founded by pro-gay activists, the struggle over the existence of these clubs centers around two laws, one federal, one state, passed with the help of conservative religious activists.
A Tale of Two Laws
The Utah Eagle Forum, an off shoot of an organization started by conservative activist, Phyllis Schlafly, was designed specifically to stifle the development of such organizations. The Student Clubs Act, specifically requires parental, or guardian consent to allow students to belong to student organizations. The thinking being, in Mormon Utah, no parent would give such consent, or could be talked into withholding such consent by pressure from the Mormon community, to forbid their children from such clubs.
But, a federal law designed by conservative Christian activists in the 1980s, is now being used by pro-gay activists to allow the clubs to exist. The Equal Access Law was designed to allow the formation of student bible studies that could meet on campuses. The law clearly states:
“It shall be unlawful for any public secondary school which receives Federal financial assistance and which has a limited open forum to deny equal access or a fair opportunity to, or discriminate against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting within that limited open forum on the basis of the religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.”
Schools still have some control over what kind of clubs can meet on school grounds, but this law restricts that ability. As the law does not and cannot specify what kind of clubs can use schools to conduct some of their activities, a large number of different types of clubs have to be allowed in.
Where Things Currently Stand
Both the American Civil Liberties Union and pro-gay groups in Utah say they’re ready to use the federal law to trump the state law in court.
Things are at an impasse right now in Utah. Maybe some of the more conservative residents of St. George don’t like the clubs, but the clubs are meeting on school grounds.
Jon Pike - Pike is a Ph.D. in communication and writes about activism and popular culture topics for Suite101.
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