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Defense of Cleveland, Georgia Gay-Straight Alliance

The ÌÒ×ÓÊÓƵof Hawai'i and the ÌÒ×ÓÊÓƵLesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Rights Project represented three young people — a 17-year-old male-to-female transgender girl, an 18-year-old lesbian, and an 18-year-old boy perceived to be gay — in a federal civil rights lawsuit against Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF), the state's juvenile correctional facility. The plaintiffs said they were abused and harassed because of their sexual orientation and gender identity while at HYCF. The ÌÒ×ÓÊÓƵasked for a preliminary injunction to force HYCF to establish policies, procedures, and training to prevent further abuse of LGBT wards.

The ÌÒ×ÓÊÓƵfiled a lawsuit in federal court against a high school that twice punished a student for wearing t-shirts expressing her support for gay rights. LaStaysha Myers, a heterosexual 15-year-old student at Webb City High School in Missouri, was twice sent home from school last November for wearing homemade t-shirts; first, one bearing several handwritten slogans such as I support the gay rights! and Who are we to judge? and the next day one that bore a rainbow and the Webster's dictionary definition of gay: M[e]rry, happy. Before censoring Myers, administrators routinely allowed students to wear shirts expressing other messages, including endorsements of the Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns, students' views on abortion, and religious messages.

The ÌÒ×ÓÊÓƵsettled a lawsuit brought on behalf of several students who wanted to form a gay-straight alliance (GSA) club at Boyd County High School in Ashland, Kentucky. The settlement requires that the district treat all student clubs equally and conduct anti-harassment trainings for all students and staff. Several students had first petitioned the school to form the gay-straight alliance in March 2002. The school initially refused to approve the club, and then later took the extraordinary step of suspending all student clubs rather than recognize the GSA.