Students protest gay rights

RANCHO COTATE HIGH
Students protest gay rights
2 counterprotesters arrested during lunchtime rally outside Rohnert Park high school

Thursday, April 7, 2005

By ROBERT DIGITALE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT


CHRISTOPHER CHUNG /PD
Mike Mason, left a gay-rights proponent, and Tim Bueler, president of Rancho Cotate's Conservative Club, which led the gay-rights protest, discuss the issues during Wednesday's demonstration.
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Under the watchful eye of police officers and media cameras, the student leader of Rancho Cotate High School's controversial Conservative Club led an off-campus protest Wednesday against gay rights.

Tim Bueler, 18, president of the club and the related High School Conservative Clubs of America, joined about a dozen protesters in a lunchtime demonstration across the street from the Rohnert Park school.

Bueler, who last year drew nationwide attention after starting the Conservative Club and claiming liberal bias in the classroom, called the demonstration "a day to stand up for God's truth." He said it was organized to protest a planned event Friday by the school's Gay-Straight Alliance Club.

Senior Christina Morey, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance, said Wednesday's anti-gay demonstration is proof that efforts to promote tolerance of alternative lifestyles are needed.

She said during the past year the Conservative Club's existence has caused students to become less willing to consider other points of view.

"You have to push that much harder to defend what you believe," Morey said.

Some demonstrators carried signs and wore sweat shirts that said "Homosexuality is sin," and had the universal symbol for "no" - a circle and slash - around and through the word "gay." School administrators confiscated similar sweat shirts from students who wore the messages on campus Wednesday morning.

That brought an angry reply from Bueler, who said it was a violation of free speech for the school to take the shirts, which he said were provided by GayMarriageNo.org, a Placer- ville-based group.

School Principal Mitchell Carter said the sweat shirts violated a school policy about messages on clothing "that represent bigotry and target particular protected classes" of students.

While the demonstration remained peaceful, police arrested two counterprotesters. One was detained after tearing down a demonstrator's sign and another after throwing eggs at a truck containing signs condemning homosexuality. Each student was cited on a vandalism charge and released, Police Sgt. Art Sweeney said.

The vandalized truck was one of four that repeatedly passed the high school along Snyder Lane and were driven by members of GayMarriageNo.org. One of the trucks was cited twice for impeding traffic, Sweeney said.

A few hundred students observed the demonstration either from campus or from the nearby sidewalk. Many cheered when the student tore down the sign.

"This gives Christianity a bad name," junior Corinne Corbett said of the demonstrators' use of Bible scriptures.

The demonstration was in response to the "Day of Silence," sponsored by the school's Gay-Straight Alliance club. That observance, planned for Friday and fashioned after a similar nationwide event, involves students who remain silent during school to protest discrimination against gays and bisexuals.

Bueler last year garnered national attention for challenging the alleged liberal bias of public school teachers and for causing a stir on the campus over his comments objecting to illegal immigration. Police officers were called in to quell one student disturbance.

On Wednesday, nine police officers were on hand, Sweeney said. Three TV news crews also arrived to film the protest after Bueler distributed press releases announcing the action.

Mike Watenpaugh, superintendent of the Cotati-Rohnert Park school district, said school officials could count only a handful of Rancho Cotate students among the demonstrators. But Bueler insisted that as many as 35 students may have assisted in various aspects of the protest.

Amanda Clarke, vice president of the campus Conservative Club and the national group, considered the demonstration a success because "it raised a lot of questions and that's what we're looking for."