I'm not exactly sure what goes on at a meeting of a Gay-Straight Alliance club, but I'm pretty sure they're not donning pretty frocks and rushing in to back rooms to have sex. More likely, students discuss issues such as how "to make their school community safe and welcoming to all students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity." As for the whole sex thing, I can tell you that high school students don't need to join a club for that. It just comes naturally.

Unfortunately, the Okeechobee County School Board in Florida doesn't quite get that. In a move designed to prevent the Gay-Straight Alliance of Okeechobee High School from meeting on school grounds, the board voted to ban any club that is "sex-based or based upon any sexual grouping, orientation or activity of any kind."

The stated intent, of course, is to exclude groups that challenge the district's policy of abstinence-only education, but given that the board is in the middle of a lawsuit over whether or not the GSA should be allowed to meet on campus, I don't think there is any doubt as to what prompted the ban. The school district is claiming that the GSA is a "sex-based" club and therefore should not be allowed to meet at the school. Students, the ACLU, and, so far, one judge disagree.

The point of the club is to combat homophobia, discrimination, and intolerance, not to promote or encourage sexual activity. There are those that will say that there are no clubs whose purpose is to promote tolerance of heterosexuality, so there shouldn't have to allow the GSA. The difference, however, is that rarely does anyone ever get beaten or killed for being straight. There are also clubs whose purpose is to promote abstinence -- they are certainly more "sex-based" than the GSA. Hopefully, the courts will make the right decision and force the school district to do the right thing.