Virginia school
board stands by gay student clubs

A school board in central Virginia is standing by students' right to organize gay-straight alliances, even though a public meeting this week was packed with speakers who wanted the groups banned. The controversy started when the GSA at Manchester High, south of Richmond, invited a gay novelist to speak. When parents discovered that Greg Herren also wrote erotica as a sideline, Herren was disinvited, and enraged parents demanded that gay-straight groups be banned at all Chesterfield County schools.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that nearly 30 speakers addressed the board at Tuesday night's meeting. Some advocated for the GSAs as a needed support system for students. Others opposed them, such as Baptist pastor Randall Hahn, who said, "This is not about hate or silencing voices. It's about sex." In the end, the board took no action to suspend the GSAs but addressed some concerns by tightening requirements for supervision of all clubs by school principals and prohibiting sexually explicit materials. (Sirius/OutQ)