SALT LAKE CITY — Plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against the Utah State Board of Education have called for an injunction as their case proceeds on school policies that they say target LGBT students and prohibit positive talk about homosexuality.

The lawsuit filed in October in Utah's U.S. District Court cited the experiences of three unnamed Utah students in elementary, middle and high school, which illustrate the situation faced daily by other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals around the state, according to the complaint.

Equality Utah claims in the lawsuit that Utah school policies violate constitutional rights of free speech and equal protection, as well as Title IX protections.

Utah's school policies prohibit any positive discussion of homosexuality in classroom discussions or student clubs, prevent teachers or school officials from supporting LGBT students to protect them from harassment, and restricts formation of LGBT student clubs, according to the lawsuit. The policies also continue to reference the state's now overturned Amendment 3, a voter-approved state definition of marriage as being the union between one man and one woman, the suit states.

Consequently, would-be supportive teachers are chilled against reaching out to students, an unaccepting climate spreads for LGBT teachers, and LGBT students are left isolated and vulnerable to bullying and unable to fully participate in school activities, according to the lawsuit.

The three student plaintiffs include a gender nonconforming 5-year-old boy in Weber County who the lawsuit claims found himself beaten and bullied by his classmates when school officials failed to intervene; a gay high school student in Cache County who says he was barred from sharing an English paper about his uncle, who is married to a man; and a lesbian girl in Salt Lake County who claims she was "selectively disciplined" for holding another girl's hand while in middle school in the Jordan School District, though heterosexual student couples have not faced the same consequences.

Emilie Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Utah State Board of Education, declined comment Thursday saying that the board will be speaking to its legal counsel about the motion.

In court filings responding to the lawsuit, the Utah Attorney General's office asserted that the state's policies do not violate any laws, nor do they contain the phrase "Anti-Gay Laws." According to the response, the school board and school districts named in the lawsuit are protected by immunity laws.

The state also claims that, because the three student plaintiffs and their guardians have not been identified, it can't respond to their claims.

A response to the motion for an injunction has not been filed. Utah Attorney General's Office spokesman Dan Burton said Thursday that the agency was aware of Equality Utah's new filing.

"We have received their ... notice for the filing for a preliminary injunction and we are reviewing it," Burton said. "We will respond appropriately."

Contributing: Ben Lockhart