School Board Bans All Clubs To Prevent Gay Group

SALT LAKE CITY - The Chess Club and the Ski Club are no more. The same with Students Against Drunk Driving and Bible clubs.

Rather than let gay high-school students form an organization, the city Board of Education voted to ban all non-academic clubs.

"Everyone suffers because of the gays," complained Brett Shields, 16, a student at East High School and a member of the Beef Club, a social club that met last week to eat steaks and burgers and attend a "monster-truck" rally.

The 4-3 vote by the Salt Lake City School Board Tuesday was part of a bitter statewide debate over a move by students to form a gay-straight student alliance at East High.

School-board members said federal law and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave them only two options: allow all extracurricular clubs or eliminate them all.

The issue has reverberated from the classroom to the Capitol as Utah's conservative, Republican-dominated Legislature scrambles for a way to ban gay clubs without closing down such student enterprises as the Beef Club and without being accused of discriminating against homosexuals.

About 85 percent of the 104 members of the Legislature are Mormon, as are more than 70 percent of their constituents. The church condemns homosexual acts and any sexual relationship outside marriage.

About 30 service, ethnic or sports clubs at East will be affected by the board's action beginning with the 1996-97 school year.

Board president Mary Jo Rasmussen, who opposed the ban, said it was unclear whether high-school varsity teams would be eliminated.

Doug Bates, attorney for the state Office of Education, said the new policy will cancel any club not directly tied to a classroom. During the hearing, Bates sought to assure opponents of the gay club that no student could "use the schools as a place to organize orgies."