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Obscene associations: Gay-straight alliances, the equal access act, and abstinence-only policy

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Abstract

This article examines the recent growth of policy regulating the formation of gay-straight alliances (GSAs) and shows how conservatives are using abstinence-only policies and antiobscenity laws to prohibit GSAs from meeting in public schools. The author traces the evolution of this strategy, pointing to the overlaps of religion and sexuality in the development of legislation and school policies. Starting with a 1982 church-state case in Lubbock, Texas, that stimulated national interest in student-led extracurricular activities and eventually led to the passage of the Equal Access Act in 1984, school-based issues have continued to demonstrate the conflict between religion, local values, freedom of speech and association, and minority rights. The access of sexual-minority students and their allies to school space increasingly is being challenged as obscene by this tangential use of abstinence-only curricular policy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Policy Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 911 South Sixth Street, 61820, Champaign, IL

    Cris Mayo

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  1. Cris Mayo
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Correspondence to Cris Mayo.

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Mayo, C. Obscene associations: Gay-straight alliances, the equal access act, and abstinence-only policy. Sex Res Soc Policy 5, 45–55 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1525/srsp.2008.5.2.45

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