In Utah, Prejudice Hurts All

In your article about the Utah school board that banned all non-academic clubs in an attempt to prevent a gay-straight student alliance (News Brief, Feb. 22, 1996), a student named Brett Shields is quoted as saying, "Everyone suffers because of the gays." Yet, it seems so clear that students are losing extracurricular activities not because of a group of students who want to start a club which people are free to join as they may, but because of the prejudice of the school board and community.

The situation blatantly mirrors that of an Afrikaner school board in South Africa that recently stated that they would rather close down than allow black students to enroll. In the end this hate gets everyone no where. Homosexual students will still live in Utah and maintain the expression which is guaranteed every communist, socialist, Hari Krishna and Christian Science practitioner. But in this case, everyone is deprived because of intolerance.

"Utah's conservative Republican-dominated legislature scrambles for a way to ban gay clubs...without being accused of discriminating against homosexuals." Yet, homosexuals are being discriminated against. And what has this community lost because of the ban?

The 30 service and ethnic and sports clubs that will be closed provided students with outlets other than drugs and alcohol, encouraged values like sportsmanship, teamwork, charity and pursuing something they care about. Students at East High School have been deprived of a valuable aspect of their lives, and not because of 'the gays' but because of the blindness that prejudice, intolerance and hate can cause. --Jessica Taylor '99