Secretary of Education: Gay-Straight Alliance Groups Protected

The minions of the Christian Taliban and self-enriching professional Christians like Maggie Gallagher and Tony Perkins to name just two will go to any lengths to bar public schools from hosting gay straight alliances ("GSA") based on disingenuous claims of threats to "religious freedom" or parental rights. As is typically the case with Christianists, the rights of others - including LGBT students who deserve a safe and non-threatening learning environment - mean nothing. Instead, it's all about allowing self-congratulatory Christianist to run rough shod over the rights of everyone else. They want special rights, plain and simple. A letter released by the U. S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, will surely have the anti-gay Christianists in convulsions and the spittle will be flying by the bucket full. Duncan (pictured at has taken the position that GSA's are protected under the 1984 Equal Access Act, which requires that public secondary schools receiving federal funds ensure equal access for student extracurricular groups. In other words, if schools refuse to allow GSA's, they risk the loss of all federal funds. Talk about hitting them where it hurts. Here are highlights from The Advocate:
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“Gay-straight alliances (GSAs) and similar student-initiated groups addressing LGBT issues can play an important role in promoting safer schools and creating more welcoming learning environments,” Duncan wrote in the "Dear Colleague" letter.

“But in spite of the positive effect these groups can have in schools,” he continued, “some such groups have been unlawfully excluded from school grounds, prevented from forming, or denied access to school resources.”

Duncan wrote that GSAs are protected under the 1984 Equal Access Act, which requires that public secondary schools receiving federal funds ensure equal access for student extracurricular groups.
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The law, Duncan wrote, applies “to groups that address issues relating to LGBT students and matters involving sexual orientation and gender identity, just as they apply to religious and other student groups."
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Department of Education general counsel Charles P. Rose issued guidelines in conjunction with the letter that "[affirm] the principles that prevent unlawful discrimination against any student-initiated groups,” Duncan wrote.
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Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, called Secy Duncan’s letter “a clear signal to schools and school districts that they may not discriminate against students who seek to form Gay-Straight Alliances.”