Students lobby anyway
A cadre of 25 Hunter High students packed one side of a Senate committee room Wednesday morning, geared up to battle legislation that would kill their gay support clubs.
But Sen. Chris Buttars' continued illness meant they skipped class in vain. (Don't worry, they had parental permission slips.)
The students didn't just bail though. They lobbied and lobbied aggressively. They cornered any lawmaker they could find and peppered them with their views on Gay-Straight Aliances. At one point, West Valley City Republican Rep. Ron Bigelow was surrounded by students.
Sam Verde said she feels the bill "restricts our freedom of speech" since it would ban any club where students identified their sexual orientation.
"We are a support group, not a sex group," she said.
The students plan to keep at it, returning whenever Buttars is healthy enough to present his proposal.
--Matt Canham
But Sen. Chris Buttars' continued illness meant they skipped class in vain. (Don't worry, they had parental permission slips.)
The students didn't just bail though. They lobbied and lobbied aggressively. They cornered any lawmaker they could find and peppered them with their views on Gay-Straight Aliances. At one point, West Valley City Republican Rep. Ron Bigelow was surrounded by students.
Sam Verde said she feels the bill "restricts our freedom of speech" since it would ban any club where students identified their sexual orientation.
"We are a support group, not a sex group," she said.
The students plan to keep at it, returning whenever Buttars is healthy enough to present his proposal.
--Matt Canham
1 Comments:
Last week, U of U students marched and protested the legislature; though all were on their best behaviors, there was considerable scandal over how this was not a good tactic, counterproductive and wrong. Effort was made to disuade them from protesting, but in the end, they were just critized by some Republicans.
A few days later, High School students came with signs chants, and they came to protest date rape and youth access to alcohol. Comments from Republican legislators was how good it was to see a group of kids getting involved in the political process and making their voices heard. A good thing.
Now it was youth from GLBT, and again, it seemed like the comments were negative.
Seems to me it doesn't matter who protests, marches or even their conduct. If they march for "good" reasons, they're "admirable"; yet, if they march and protest, irrespective of how well behaved, it's "counterproductive".
Odd that a legislature who likes to send "messages" can't seem to realize the message they're sending out to all. This is hypocritacal and so foolish.
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