Gay Ban Appears Headed For Defeat

BREMERTON - A measure to boot Bremerton High School student leaders from office if they're openly gay appears headed toward defeat.

Two-thirds of the school's homerooms voted against it yesterday. If it fails to win a simple majority in direct balloting today, the amendment will die.

For the past week, the debate has raged over the right of gay and lesbian students to serve in student government.

Student leaders drew national attention after they approved a constitutional amendment last week that would allow impeachment of student-government officers for homosexuality and other "immoral activities."

Since then, the 1,350 students at Bremerton High have argued the merits of the amendment in their homerooms, in classrooms, in the hallways and in their homes.

Principal Marilee Hansen has been deluged by calls from reporters and concerned citizens from around the United States and Canada.

Students have been invited to appear on TV talk shows, from KOMO's "Town Meeting" to ABC's "Good Morning America" and CBS' "Donahue."

There was never a chance that the measure would be implemented. Hansen had vowed to veto the measure as unacceptable discrimination.

But at a time when the battle over gay rights has jumped from the armed forces into the public schools, the plebiscite at Bremerton High has become a test of student attitudes.

Two points of view were expressed by a number of the students interviewed as they left the school yesterday afternoon: They may not approve of homosexuality, but they don't think a person's sexual orientation is any of the student government's business.

Even among the three Junior ROTC members who lowered the American flag, not one spoke in support of the gay-impeachment proposal.

Freshman Jeremy Watson called the amendment "plain stupid." Junior Eric Heistand said, "I don't approve of homosexuality. I think that's wrong, but I don't think we should discriminate against them. . . . I'm not God. I don't have the authority to punish them."

Students liberally invoked Scripture to support their positions: supporters of the gay-impeachment measure focusing on the Old Testament, opponents on the New Testament.

"The Bible states it clearly: If it was Adam and Steve, it would have stopped right there," said junior Roger Hennigan, a Young Republican and son of a pastor. He voted for the amendment but said it should be reworded.

Sophomore Heather Rehmus views homosexuality as a sin but doesn't think it should limit participation in student government. "The Bible strictly says in Romans that you should love the person and hate their sin," she said. "And Colossians tells us in Chapter 3 that we're all created equal."

"It's like saying blacks should be banned," said sophomore Anna Kersting. "It's their business, it shouldn't be anybody else's business."

Susana Aguado, senior, an exchange student from Spain, was surprised the student government would consider impeaching gays. "I would have believed that in other countries. Not here. Here you guys have freedom of speech."

Student Council President-elect Andrew Ledbetter, a junior who wore an anti-abortion T-shirt yesterday, said he favored the constitutional amendment because he feared gays might run for office without first disclosing their sexual orientation.

If a student leader disclosed homosexuality after being elected, Ledbetter said, "I'm going to feel he stole my vote and I'm going to have a moral problem."

Hansen has watched the student debate with more than academic interest. Her brother, Pete Hansen, a homosexual, died of AIDS in 1991.

She would have opposed the gay-impeachment measure even if her brother had not been gay, she said. But seeing his reluctant acceptance of his homosexuality convinced her that gays are born, not made.

Hansen is disturbed by the number of students supporting the constitutional amendment. But she's glad the student body debated it openly and extensively.

"I'm encouraged," she said, "that we have young people strongly opposed to this amendment who do not have this personal experience, who have come to it through their own principles. I'm encouraged by the kind of thinking I see going on."