Idaho’s conservatives and gay rights supporters have been at odds for years.

In 1994, North Idaho College student conservatives and Kootenai County Republicans objected when gay men, lesbians and bisexuals were allowed to form a club on campus. In the same year, the Idaho Citizens Alliance put an initiative on the ballot that said in part that public or secondary schools couldn’t “promote, sanction, or endorse homosexuality as a healthy, approved or acceptable behavior.”

Initiative supporters claimed that gay activists were shoving their lifestyle on Idaho’s public school children and university students. Opponents countered by saying the Idaho Citizens Alliance was trying to force its religious views on the state. After a gargantuan struggle, the measure won 54 percent of the vote in Kootenai County but lost statewide by 3,098 votes. Since then, state Republican leaders have steered away from the issue.

Now, some Kootenai County Republicans are upset by the formation of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Lake City High School in Coeur d’Alene. At a recent meeting of the Republicans’ Pachyderm Club, one member of the audience hinted darkly that an important school construction levy could be in jeopardy unless the high school disbands the club. However, Republican opponents are wrong in trying to prevent a group of students, who meet the school criteria, from forming a club. Individuals who would hold the spring levy election hostage in protest are doubly wrong.

School policy is solidly on the side of the newly formed Gay-Straight Alliance.

Not only does the alliance provide a safe, tolerant atmosphere for gay students, but it met all the guidelines for forming a club, Rasha Madkour of The Spokesman-Review reported. Additionally, the alliance doesn’t pose a substantial disruption to the educational process – the only legal basis, according to Principal John Brumley, that would allow him to prevent the club’s formation or disband it now. Importantly, Brumley didn’t hide behind policy in defending the club. He sent an important message to the Republicans and others who agree with them when he said:

“No one, regardless of their lifestyle, should be mistreated, harassed, abused.”

Rather than focus on a group with which they fundamentally disagree, county Republicans and conservative Christians should be thrilled that several Bible clubs, involving hundreds of students, meet at Lake City High and that local ministers have easy access to the campus. Some taxpayers, who have no tolerance for the Christian message, would outlaw such clubs if they could, claiming they violate the separation of church and state.

Both sides in the Gay-Straight Alliance controversy should agree that the right to free speech and assembly trumps disagreement over the message.