A Utah lawmaker sponsoring a bill that seeks to keep parents in the loop about what is going on in non-curricular school clubs — such as gay-straight alliances — is working on the measure with Jackie Biskupski, D-Salt Lake, who is openly gay.

Last year a similar bill came under fire by gay-straight alliance advocates, but HB236 sponsor Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, said that was because critics incorrectly felt he was trying to do away with gay-straight alliances.

"We're working on some things, and I hope we can come to a consensus on some issues," Tilton said. "This is the first time (Biskupski) has approached me on it — it doesn't mean we are all going to agree on everything, but we will be sharing ideas."

"I feel like something is going to pass, so I am going to work with the sponsor to come up with a reasonable bill that doesn't discourage the formation of any club," Biskupski said.

Biskupski took a lot of flak in her 1998 campaign from the Eagle Forum, whose leadership worked to inform the public of her sexual orientation; Biskupski said she wanted to keep to issues relevant to the district she hoped to represent.

The Eagle Forum last year was a chief supporter of Tilton's clubs bill, which targeted gay-straight alliances.

Currently, the bill would require parental permission for students to participate in any non-curricular club and would give parents the authority to view any content and material to be distributed in a club seven days prior to the meeting.

"I don't think that there should be any argument that parents have that right," Tilton said. "It's the right of every parent to know, be informed and actually have consent and control whether a student attends a school club."

He said it is just something that is not addressed adequately in state and local rules.

According to Tilton, the bill also aims to have the Utah Attorney General's Office defend districts sued over club application decisions.

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said last year's similar bill was constitutionally defensible.

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Contributing: Jennifer Toomer-Cook

E-mail: terickson@desnews.com