Proponents Of Gay-Straight Alliance Protest Outside Flour Bluff Independent High School In Texas; School Continues To Deny Request To Form LGBT Student Support Group

Protesters gathered in front of Flour Bluff High School on Friday calling on the district to approve an on-campus club supporting gay and lesbian students, reports the Corpus Christi Caller. Terrel S. Preston, a retired Air Force colonel and board member of Equality Texas, which lobbies lawmakers on gay rights, one of the protestors, said “This is about equal rights. This is about fair treatment under the law.” Gay activists, Flour Bluff High School students and some former students lined the sidewalk and chanted Friday to show solidarity for senior Bianca “Nikki” Peet, 17, who has petitioned unsuccessfully for a Gay-Straight Alliance. At its peak, protesters numbered 150, according to police estimates. The height of the protest occurred around 4 p.m. when some students, released from school for the day, joined demonstrators on the sidewalk. The crowd erupted in cheers when Peet emerged from school during a break in her class wearing a black dress shirt, black tie and a rainbow bracelet early in the day. “You’re a pioneer,” gay former Flour Bluff High School student Joseph Mitchell told Peet. “We’ve been waiting for this day to happen for a long time.” District officials did not comment. Most students and teachers remained quiet as they passed by the protesters throughout the day. Motorists driving by the school honked and waved, causing the crowd to cheer. Others flashed obscene gestures, prompting the crowd to cheer louder. A small contingent of counter protesters gathered across the street throughout the day holding signs scrawled with Bible verses or religious messages, including one that read “God made man and woman.” Among them, Anja Conrad, a mother of three students at Flour Bluff Independent School District, who said she decided to join the counter protesters because she believes that being gay is wrong, and that a club supporting gay and lesbian students is not appropriate for school. “It’s OK if you want to do it behind closed doors, but they’re trying to force us to accept it,” she said. “School is for education only.” Proponents of Peet’s proposed club said opponents of the group misunderstand the purpose of a Gay-Straight Alliance, stressing it is supposed to provide a support network for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students who often disproportionately face harassment and discrimination at schools. Disallowing such a club opens the door to bullying of gay students and labels Flour Bluff ISD’s administration as intolerant, said Andi Gentile, regional director of the Texas Gay-Straight Alliance Network, which supports gay youth. Among the counter protesters, talk radio host Bob Jones said he didn’t think the club had a place on campus, and believed that all school districts should restrict such a club from forming because he believes homosexuality is morally wrong, saying “It is an abomination in the eyes of God, and I am a Christian in every sense of the word.” Paul Rodriguez, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, called for the protest after Superintendent Julie Carbajal said the district had no plans to approve Peet’s club. Two local pastors, the Reverend Philip Douglas of the Unitarian Universalist Church and the Reverend Charles Brown of the St. Paul United Church of Christ, delivered to district spokeswoman Lynn Kaylor a petition containing more than 28,000 signatures in support of Peet’s proposed club, which Kaylor accepted without comment. The American Civil Liberties Union is backing Peet and has called on the district to approve the club by Wednesday or possibly face a lawsuit. The district has said allowing the club would violate its policy approved in 2005 disallowing student clubs not tied to curriculum to meet on campus. Since Rodriguez called for the approval of Peet’s club, the district has asked all student groups not tied to school-based curriculum to meet off campus. The ACLU argues that some extracurricular clubs are still meeting at Flour Bluff High School, and banning all clubs after Peet’s request would constitute prior restraint of her constitutional right to free speech.