Anti-GSA bill defeated in Senate

The misguided bill intended to prohibit “any student club..that encourages or promotes sexual activity by unmarried minor students” was defeated 9-6 in Senate Education and Health yesterday.

Of course the Some Families Foundation* is in a snit.

This is causing them to make unseemly confessions, such as:

The impetus for this bill was that many schools in Virginia have Gay, Straight Alliance Clubs (GSA).

Oops. We were told on numerous occasions that the patron, Matt Lohr, had confirmed the bill had nothing to do with Gay/Straight Alliances. Maybe he was for prohibiting GSAs before he was against it. Or something.

Update from the Washington Post: In the committee hearing, Matt Lohr still insisted that he didn’t intend to target GSAs – but “(w)hen pressed, Lohr told the committee he could not think of any other kind of school group that might run afoul of his proposal.”

The Some FF also says that the bill would have “informed local school boards of their authority to bar student groups that advocate sexual behavior” (school boards, if they are competent, are already informed of the authority they have) and would have “allowed the Office of the Attorney General to step in as legal defense if a school board was sued as a result” (the AG doesn’t need special legislation to authorize him to perform his job, and the reason that school boards would be sued for prohibiting Gay/Straight Alliances is that it is unconstitutional).

If the concern is, as these folks claim, that some student groups “may promote sexual activity,” then they might want to turn their attention to the culture of entitlement that has developed in some athletic programs. A football coach for the University of Colorado recently used the promise of sexual access to naive young women to lure prospects to recruitment parties. A recruit reported that sex was part of “what you get when you come to Colorado.” This sort of thing doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

We know of no Gay/Straight Alliances that encourage irresponsible or disrespectful behavior; in fact, the purpose of these clubs is to encourage exactly the opposite. Since some parents have failed to teach their children basic respect for others, these clubs are a necessary resource for young people who are bullied and abused because of who they are.

Anyone who tries to deny them this support and stop them from defending themselves is just..mean.

Send a free email at Equality Virginia’s action center to thank the Senators who voted against this misguided and mean-spirited bill.

*This group refers to themselves as the “Virginia Family Foundation,” as if their families are the only ones that matter.

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2 Responses to Anti-GSA bill defeated in Senate

  1. Equality Loudoun says:

    Yep. When Tully’s generation takes control it’s all over for the anti-gay right, and they know it. That explains the shrillness and hysteria of their focus on youth and schools.

    Seeing the coming future must be like watching a slow motion train wreck. It’s inevitable, it horrifies them, and they are powerless to do anything about it, because the youth are leading it. Even the youth who describe themselves as conservative are scratching their heads over the fanaticism of their parents, like this post at Too Conservative. It’s over.

    The weakness of the anti-gay, anti-intellectual freedom position is becoming more and more apparent as they become more aggressive – just like a bully becomes more aggressive to cover up his weakness. The Alliance Defense Fund is orchestrating a good deal of the bullying, and the overreaching is getting comical. The ADF stated in one case that to express a viewpoint in a school setting that contradicts the so-called “biblical” view of sexuality is an unconstitutional violation of their religious freedom. It’s not enough, apparently, that they have the right to express their anti-gay viewpoints to everyone else’s children – they also must demand that no opposing viewpoints can be expressed. The only conclusion one can reach is that the anti-gay position can’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny. If that isn’t pathetic, I don’t know what is.

    Hopefully our local bullies will come to the panel discussion of the drama policy on Wednesday night and say more such things. It only provides us with more evidence.

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