
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 12, 1990                   TAG: 9003122857
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                 LENGTH: Short

SOME SCHOOLS BAN GAY AD

Some principals at Fairfax County schools have banned student newspapers from publishing an advertisement for a gay and lesbian youth group.

The ad, which invites readers to attend a weekly discussion group, is sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League.

The youth group, which hosts about 50 gay and lesbian teen-agers each Saturday, sent the ad to 78 Washington area high schools last month, hoping to reach troubled students who want to talk with someone about their sexuality.

With the exception of Yorktown High in Arlington and Lake Braddock High in Fairfax, all the schools that have accepted the ad have been in Maryland or the District, said Julie Morrissey, the youth group's general coordinator.

Mark Goodman, director of the Student Press Law Center, said the only student newspapers reporting restrictions against running the ad have been in Fairfax.

Morrissey said her group and other homosexual organizations have historically encountered more resistance in the Virginia suburbs. "We all find that Virginia is just a harder place to crack," she said.

by CNB