US: Human rights group to take on case of bisexual girl barred from starting gay-straight alliance

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said it will take on the case of a 14-year-old student in the US, who was banned from starting a Gay-Straight Alliance club at her middle school.

Bayli Silberstein, who is openly bisexual, and attends school in the US state of Florida, said she had tried since November to start the club.

Despite attempts, the principal at Carver Middle School had not acknowledged her club application, and school board members had reportedly attempted to create new rules to bar her from being able to form the club.

“I’m really frustrated that we’ve reached this point, but we can’t wait any longer. The bullying at my school is really bad, and I don’t want to have another school year go by without kids feeling like there’s a safe place where they can be themselves. But the school board keeps trying to stop us,” said Ms Silberstein, in a statement released through the ACLU.

The ACLU recently threatened to sue a Pennsylvania school board which banned students from forming a gay-straight alliance.

Meanwhile, the Lake County School Board narrowly voted to allow extracurricular clubs, including a gay-straight alliance, after the ACLU put pressure on it to either allow the GSA or ban all clubs. 

In March a high school student from Georgia filed a federal lawsuit against his school, alleging that the administrators removed him as student body president, after he proposed to make the prom more inclusive to LGBT students.

• Nov 29 2023

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