MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- An Alabama law regarding sex education is neither legal nor accurate, but that hasn't kept the law from opening the door for bullying and institutional intimidation of gay students, two Alabama high school students say.

Sarah Noone, a junior at Indian Springs, and Adam Pratt, a junior at Homewood High School, want the law changed and have started an online petition for the Alabama Legislature to strike anti-gay language from the code.

"For so many young queer people, they lack support from families, churches and communities," Noone said. "They struggle with it every day. By removing laws like this, it shows that their government cares about them and that it's not right for their teachers to oppress them."

Alabama law mandates that sex education in public schools teach that homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle and that homosexual conduct is illegal. While Alabama law does have a sodomy law still on its books, it has been invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 2003 decision, Lawrence v. Texas, the court said that anti-sodomy laws were an invasion of privacy and unconstitutional.

But that's not what's being taught in the classroom, at least under the existing Alabama law.

The current law, passed in 1992, requires "an emphasis, in a factual manner and from a public health perspective, that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense under the laws of this state."

Noone said that she first thought that the law was an urban legend, but when she volunteered with Birmingham AIDS Outreach, she learned that it was still on the books.

"Not only is the law inaccurate, but it is sending a message to bullies and teachers, that their behavior is OK," she said.

Earlier this year, Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, introduced a bill to remove that language, as well as abstinence-only requirements, from the law.

Noone, who is gay, and Pratt, who is straight, had both been involved in school Gay-Straight Alliance clubs. Noone said that when she learned about Todd's bill, she reached out to Pratt to help push an online petition through Change.org.

The petition quickly gained support and today has more than 78,000 signatures.

Todd said this week that she is dropping that bill but will file another after spring break that will address only the anti-homosexuality language in the law. Cutting the abstinence-only mandate was a non-starter with Republicans, whose support she will need to get the bill passed, she said.

"I'm getting pretty good support from everybody, because even the conservatives would rather not mention homosexuality in the classroom if they don't have to talk about it," Todd said.

Once Todd introduces the new bill, it would go before the Alabama House Education Policy Committee. Todd said this week that she expects the committee to consider the bill.

"My goal is to get it to the floor, but it's going to be hard this year," she said. "We've already lost four or five days with the Democrats' filibuster, and I'm not sure we can get it through."

In the meantime, Noone said she is still trying to gather more signatures for the petition.

"Hopefully, that the chair of the committee (Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, R-Indian Springs) will schedule a hearing for this bill," Noone said. "We're hoping that with all of this support, the legislators will see that this is something that we really care about and that is really detrimental to Alabama youth."