Gay-straight alliance rejected at Oklahoma high school

When several girls decided to form a gay-straight alliance at Eisenhower High School in Lawton, Okla., several months ago, they wrote a proposal and submitted it to the student congress for approval. They were rejected this week. School Activities director Nancy Lavender said the congress would have likely given the go-ahead were it not for a vocal group of parents, local churches, and a Christian radio station. Opponents sent hundreds of e-mails and made phone calls to the school, targeting members of the student congress with religious literature about "ex-gays" who claimed to have changed their sexual orientations. In the end, the measure failed by a small margin in both the school's house and senate. Lavender says the school feared possible legal repercussions but chose to leave the decision up to the congress. Students in the Oklahoma cities of Jenks and Mustang have in the past experienced similar problems in their attempts to form gay-straight alliances at their schools.