Gay Students' Request Spurs Board To Cut Clubs

By Mark Walsh

The Salt Lake City school board voted last week to eliminate all extracurricular clubs rather than allow the formation of a gay students' support group at one of its high schools.

The decision was the latest effort by a school board to limit the discussion of homosexuality in public schools. Earlier this month, parents and educators in Merrimack, N.H., filed a federal lawsuit against a school board policy that bars the promotion of homosexuality as "a positive lifestyle alternative."

The Salt Lake City board voted 4-3 on Feb. 20 to eliminate extracurricular clubs beginning in the fall. Board members said they were constrained by a 1984 federal law, the Equal Access Act, to either recognize the proposed Gay-Straight Alliance at the city's East High School or eliminate all clubs...