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Premier Jim Prentice has promised to deal with the issue of gay-straight alliances when the legislature reconvenes this month. When that happens, he should look no farther than the common-sense recommendations put forward by the Rocky Mountain Civil Liberties Association this week.

Those recommendations are based on a good sampling of public opinion throughout the province, both through public hearings in Alberta’s two largest cities and via an online survey. No surprises there — a majority of Albertans strongly support GSAs in schools. Online, the survey of 1,355 people revealed that 82.5 per cent of Albertans approve of GSAs in public schools, and 77.1 per cent feel the same about the Catholic school system. Only 40 per cent would permit them in private schools.

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The civil liberties association’s proposal is simple: There should be no need of legislation dictating when, where and how the clubs can meet — like the bill the Tories eventually backed down on. It originally would have required students to go to court if a school board turned down their request for a GSA, or hold their meetings off school property. The latter is painfully evocative of the Jim Crow era in the U.S. southern states, when black people were forced to use separate drinking fountains from whites, for example. Gay students being forced to meet off campus is no different.