School clubs: debate boils up

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School clubs: Debate boils up

Gay senator tangles with morals enforcer

By Matt Canham, The Salt Lake Tribune, February 23, 2006

A Senate debate over a bill restricting school clubs spiraled into an argument over the morality of homosexuals and if such people were born gay or choose that orientation.

West Jordan Republican Rep. Chris Buttars is clear about the intent behind SB97. He wants to give school districts the ability to ban Gay-Straight Alliances without fearing a lawsuit. His bill would require the state to fight any such court challenge.

Buttars considers such alliances "conditioning clubs" that attempt to recruit students to a gay lifestyle in violation of America's traditional moral code.

Scott McCoy, the Senate's lone openly gay member, took offense and angrily said so.

"I have never recruited a single person into the homosexual lifestyle because it is not a chosen lifestyle," said the Salt Lake City Democrat. "I didn't wake up one day and choose to be gay, and I don't believe anyone wakes up one day and chooses to be gay. I don't think any of you woke up one day and chose to be heterosexual. It is who you are."

The bill preliminarily passed on an 18-11 vote with only three Republicans voting against the bill: Senate Majority Leader Pete Knudson and Sens. Bill Hickman and Beverly Evans. Senators will take their final vote on SB97 today, but they are expected to pass it.

After the debate, Senate President John Valentine said he has some concerns about the bill. He worries it intrudes on local control. Valentine also believes the bill could be costly if groups sue because school districts feel empowered to block unpopular clubs. Still, Valentine expects SB97 to pass today.

Gay-Straight Alliance members said their clubs are social clubs to discuss issues and protect members from bullies.

Buttars asked Scott Soulier, a resident in his Senate district, to combat that view.

Soulier told the Senate that his niece was "recruited" to join a gay support club recently. He discovered this after she challenged her family's stand that homosexuality is not an acceptable life choice during a family gathering, going against her Mormon teachings, Soulier said. He said she wouldn't have done so without the attempt to "indoctrinate her."

McCoy said Buttars' bill would not stop a girl from questioning her faith and that Soulier could not link the episode to a Gay-Straight Alliance.

He said the clubs don't recruit and are not trying to shatter religious ideals. The clubs support diversity and protect what he calls the "most targeted group out there."

"The most common epithets thrown about in our high schools are words like 'faggot' and 'dike,' " McCoy said. "What these clubs exist to do is not to recruit people to change the way they live their lives or change their sexual orientation, it is to recognize that those kind of words and that kind of treatment hurts."

Buttars said the "gay agenda" is targeting schools, saying "this is the place where young people learn their values." And he is worried that such an agenda would harm the country - another point that McCoy challenged.

"This debate is not about a grand homosexual agenda," McCoy said. "We are not trying to take over the world. We are not trying to tear down the pillars of morality." McCoy called the gay community the "whipping boy" of Utah government.

"Whether or not this passes, gay and lesbian people are going to be in the state of Utah. We are going to be in the high schools, and we are going to raise our families. All that we ask is that you allow us the chance to do that and leave us alone."

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