The First Amendment guarantees you the right to speak freely and to associate for expressive purposes, so long as doing so does not “materially and substantially” interfere with your educational environment.

Under a federal law called the Equal Access Act, secondary schools that receive federal funding and allow meetings of other noncurricular student clubs (clubs that don’t directly relate to classes at your school) are prohibited from discriminating against any student group based on its viewpoint.

Public secondary schools are covered by the Equal Access Act if they allow even one noncurricular club to meet at the school. If your school is covered (most public secondary schools are), then you have a legal right to form a GSA and to have it be treated just like other student clubs at your school.

Generally, schools may NOT:

• Single out GSAs for parental permission requirements, requiring students to get their guardians’ consent before they can join. Even if parental consent rules are supported by the local school board or by state law, the Equal Access Act requires that such rules be applied equally to all student groups.

• Deny GSAs permission to form because they would create “controversy.” This is a legally insufficient excuse, and it cannot be used to deny a GSA access to privileges that are granted other clubs. If other people complain or protest the existence of a GSA, that does not mean that the GSA itself has caused the disruption. In other words, the law says there is no “heckler’s veto” over someone else’s speech. GSA members should be cautioned, though, about engaging in heated confrontations—they could be construed as disrupting your educational environment.

• Require a GSA to “tone down” its name (e.g., change it to the “Diversity Club” or “Tolerance Club,” rather than incorporating words or phrases like “gay” or “LGBTQ”) because doing so impacts students’ right to be treated equally and their right to free expression.

• Deny a GSA access to bulletin boards, the public address system and other privileges, if it extends these privileges to any other non-curriculum related club. Failure to grant a GSA the same privileges, or treating the GSA in any way that discriminates against it, may violate the EAA, the Equal Protection Clause of the federal or state constitutions, the First Amendment and/or state statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Lambda Legal and other organizations have successfully gone to court on behalf of students against a number of school districts—in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota and Utah —that have broken the law by refusing to allow GSAs to meet on the same terms as other groups.

Contact Lambda Legal (866-542-8336 or visit www.lambdalegal.org/help) if you:

• Have questions about your legal rights to form a GSA, or otherwise have questions about your rights as a LGBTQ person.

• Encounter any resistance to forming a GSA.

• Experience frustration because the administration is not responding to your request to start a GSA.

• Are told that the school will not provide access to the school website, public address system, bulletin boards or poster space when other noncurricular clubs have access.

• Are told that the school forbids the use of the school name in association with the GSA, or the use of words or expressions like “gay” or “LGBTQ” in your GSA’s name.

• Discover that the school bans or blocks websites with LGBTQ information.

• Are told your faculty advisor may not participate in your meetings, even though faculty advisors participate in other clubs.

• Are told that you cannot have outside speakers.

• Have your GSA meetings monitored by administrators or staff.

• Are told you need parental permission to participate.