Fighting to fit in: gay–straight alliances in schools under United States jurisprudence

Abstract

Schools in the United States have long sought to limit what students can and cannot say in the school setting. As students across the country have sought to foster safer environments for gay and lesbian students through the creation of gay–straight alliances, many have encountered resistance from their schools' administrations or local school boards. They, however, have not been helpless. American courts have been overwhelmingly supportive of gay and lesbian students and their allies as they have invoked the Equal Access Act and the First Amendment in their fight for equality and inclusion in schools. In examining the status of students' rights to form gay–straight alliances in United States schools under the Equal Access Act and the First Amendment, I explore seminal American cases regarding the formation of gay–straight alliances in schools as the vehicle for exploring the legality, methods, and motivations of school boards' and school districts' attempts to prevent their formation.