Gay-Support Group Formed at 2nd School : Education: Huntington Beach High club meets no organized opposition.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  Following the lead of students at a nearby high school, a group of about 20 Huntington Beach High School teen-agers have formed their own support group for gay and lesbian students.

Members of the Huntington Beach Student Alliance said they decided to start a campus group after watching the struggles of a handful of Fountain Valley High School students who recently found themselves in the midst of a politically charged debate over their support group.

“This alliance gives gay students the opportunity to meet with people who are going through many of the same problems,” said Erich Phinizy, 17, one of the Huntington Beach High students who founded the new group.

“Since high school is so much about being accepted, we wanted to start a club where that would be possible.”

A spokeswoman with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Orange County said the Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach student alliances are the only such high school support groups she knows of in the county.

After months of heated exchange, the Huntington Beach Union High School District Board of Trustees voted in January to retain a district policy that allows student groups not related to the curriculum--such as the gay and lesbian alliances and Bible study groups--to hold meetings on campus. Both Huntington Beach High and Fountain Valley High are in the district.

“After that board meeting, we just said to ourselves that if they could do it, we could,” Phinizy said. “They paved the way for us. So far we haven’t had to go through the kind of protests they had to put up with.”

Phinizy said the Huntington Beach group includes students who are not gay or lesbian.

The support group has met twice so far and members are organizing activities with the Fountain Valley Alliance.

“The aim of the group is to promote an open-minded environment for gay and lesbian students,” said Phinizy, who was a guest Tuesday on the “Subversity” program on the student-run radio station at UC Irvine.

Erich’s mother, Margret Phinizy, said she is proud of her son.

“He’s always had a lot of school spirit,” she said. “I’ve always supported gay and lesbian issues, so it’s no surprise to me.”

So far, the Huntington Beach Student Alliance has not faced the campus and community protest that came in October when the Fountain Valley Student Alliance gained club status.

At one school board meeting in December, more than 200 students, parents and protesters crammed into a district auditorium to debate the Fountain Valley group’s future. Some club members said they were pelted with apples during lunch breaks. English teacher and alliance supervisor Michael Poff characterized the atmosphere on campus as “hostile.”

Several groups--including the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition headed by the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, the student-run Future Good Boys Group and various parent groups--have opposed such organizations, saying that homosexual lifestyles should not be advocated or promoted under the guise of tolerance.

So far, none of those groups have protested the Huntington Beach Student Alliance, Phinizy said.

“We’ve received a lot of support from the Fountain Valley Student Alliance; they told us basically what they went through and we learned from their mistakes. We just want to keep the alliance in tune with its purpose and skip all the protest and controversy,” he said.

But Huntington Beach High senior Craig Reade, who has been involved in the alliance from the beginning, described campus sentiment toward gays as very negative.

“Overall, most really don’t approve. I’ve been harassed a lot, people scream anti-gay remarks at me across campus,” said Reade, 18, who is editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper. He said he is not gay.

“This is really no different than stereotyping blacks and women. Gays have a constitutional right just like anyone else, they’re people too,” Reade said.

One alliance member, a 17-year-old senior who is a lesbian, said she was eager to join the group.

“It’s been really hard the last couple of years dealing with this, trying to tell my parents and deal with it myself,” she said. “This group gives me the opportunity to discuss those problems with people who may be in the same situation.

Huntington Beach High Principal Jim Staunton said there have been no reported anti-gay incidents on campus since the alliance was created earlier this month.

All but four of Orange County’s 27 school districts have adopted equal-access policies allowing student groups to meet on campus before or after school or at lunchtime.