Todd told The Birmingham News that the same legislation had failed to make its way onto a committee calendar during last year's legislative session.

Patricia Todd

According to a survey, commissioned by Equality Alabama and conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, and released this week, a majority of Alabamians -- nearly 70 percent -- support such an measure.

Todd said she is hopeful that the measure will be more successful in the 2012 session of the Alabama Legislature.

"It has been slow, but people's opinions are evolving," said Equality Alabama vice chairman Ralph Young. "We think (the survey results) show we'll be able to make some progress in Montgomery."

Todd said she hopes she can persuade her colleagues to support changing the state's anti-bullying law. National news stories of suicides following bullying based on sexual orientation -- or even the perception that someone is gay -- are helping her make her case, Todd said.

"The studies all show that the majority of kids who are bullied are bullied because they're perceived to be gay," Todd said. "People are becoming more sensitive to that, but it's terribly slow."

In 2009, the state passed an anti-bullying law that makes it illegal for students to harass, bully, intimidate, harm or threaten to harm fellow students. The law required public school districts to pass anti-bullying and harassment policies.

The state Department of Education developed a model anti-harassment policy for school districts saying that violence, threats of violence, harassment and intimidation are prohibited based on race, sex, religion, national origin or disability. It did not address bullying of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

The Birmingham News

Todd said it's important that school system policies explicitly list sexual orientation.

Sara Couvillon

Principal Don Hulin of Hoover High School issued a statement, saying the T-shirt in question "has not caused a substantial disruption and the student will be allowed to wear it."

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on Wednesday sent a warning letter to the school and the city’s board of education demanding that it stop censoring students or face a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of 15-year-old Sara Couvillon, who was told she could not wear the shirt.

The SPLC told the school it had violated Couvillon's constitutional rights guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

"Our dress code at Hoover High School is designed to facilitate the learning environment that is so important to our school. The T-shirt at issue has not caused a substantial disruption and the student will be allowed to wear it," the school's statement said. "Our focus has been and will be on the learning environment at Hoover High School."

“We are incredibly happy that the officials at Hoover High School acted so quickly to restore the rights of this brave student,” said Sam Wolfe, staff attorney for the SPLC. “However, while the outcome is a good one, it is unfortunate that this fundamental right was denied in the first place.”

Couvillon said, “I’m very relieved and I feel like this is a major victory for the LGBT community in Alabama. This was not just about me – it was about encouraging people to be brave in standing up for themselves and standing up for their rights.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on Wednesday sent a warning letter to Hoover High School and the city’s board of education demanding that school officials stop censoring students or face a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of 15-year-old Sara Couvillon, for violating the student's First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The letter was prompted after Couvillon, a sophomore at Hoover High School, was told by school officials in August that she could not wear a T-shirt that displayed the slogan “Gay? Fine by me.”

School officials claimed they were concerned for Couvillon's safety, but Couvillon said she has not experienced any threats of violence, nor did school officials confirm there had been threats. In fact, Couvillon had routinely worn the T-shirt during the previous school year without incident.

"There are kids at my school who really want to be themselves, but they don't have the strength they need," said Couvillon.

"It isn't easy being singled out, but if I can give someone else the courage to be who they are then it’s worth it to me."

The letter warns that if school officials don’t take meaningful action to remedy the violations, the SPLC will file a federal lawsuit on behalf of Couvillon.

"Students’ constitutional rights don’t stop when they walk through the schoolhouse gates," said Sam Wolfe, staff attorney for SPLC. "We will do whatever it takes to protect those rights."

School officials have been asked to confirm in writing by Sept. 12 that they have rescinded their practice of unlawfully censoring students.

Hoover, Ala., is located in suburban Birmingham.

VIA SPLC

Tom Parker (center)

A state supreme court justice in Alabama has compared U. S. District Court Judge Virgina Phillips to the Islamic extremist terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

Justice Tom Parker, a Republican who has spent nearly $1.5 million dollars on his campaign for reelection for the state's high court, recently released an advert in which he said:

"Recently, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ordered a worldwide injunction to overturn the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy on homosexuals serving in the military.

With a stroke of a pen, this Clinton appointed judge -- who got her law degree at Berkeley -- unilaterally made the biggest single change in military policy in American history ... Most people believe that Al-Qaeda is one of America’s biggest security threats, I think it’s time to add liberal activist judges like Judge Phillips to that list."

Full audio clip here:

An Alabama newspaper's editorial opined:

"Of all the filthy campaign ads we’ve seen and heard over the last few weeks of the 2010 campaign, this one is the worst.

"Parker’s foul comparison of a federal judge to terrorists is outside the bounds of fair campaigning, good taste and thoughtful judicial behavior. This ad reinforces this page’s recommendation of Parker’s opponent in Tuesday’s election, Mac Parsons, a Democratic circuit judge from Birmingham."

Parker has angered some judicial watchers by running as a self described protege of Roy Moore, the Alabama chief justice ejected from his job after defying a federal court order to remove his two-ton Ten Commandments monument from the Supreme Court rotunda.

The Southern Poverty Law Center reported Parker made his way to the Selma home of Pat and Butch Godwin in July of 2004, who were holding a birthday party to honor Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a wealthy slave trader who became the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. (Forrest also presided over the massacre of some 250 black prisoners of war at Ft. Pillow, Tenn.)

The Godwins run Friends of Forrest Inc., which owns a Forrest statue the Godwins spent two years unsuccessfully trying to place on public property.

Standing on his friends' Confederate battle flag-bedecked front porch, Parker rallied the crowd. Later, one listener lauded him as "a man not afraid of the flag."

The Godwins are tried and true neo-Confederates. Pat Godwin's latest crusade is to block any acknowledgment on the Capitol grounds of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march — a goal of the Alabama Historical Commission.

In a July E-mail, Godwin railed at "the trash that came here in 1965," complaining that those who honor the civil rights movement are aiding and abetting the ultimate goal of the ONE WORLD ORDER — to BROWN AmeriKa and annihilate Anglo-Celtic-European culture!"

The picture accompanying this article depicts Parker [center, holding Confederate Battle Flags] next to Leonard Wilson, a segregationist and national board member of a group called the Council of Conservative Citizens, on his right, whom once described African-Americans as “a retrograde species of humanity," and on his left, Mike Whorton, Alabama state leader of the neo-Confederate League of the South.

Parker has also vigorously denounced actions by his own court as toadying to the special interests of the United States Supreme Court in which he described as that court's activist judges in a 2005 editorial.

But if she shows up to the prom, it may be canceled for everyone. The reason: Cynthia is an out lesbian.

When Cynthia approached her principal to ask if she could bring her girlfriend with her to the prom, he said no, according to the ACLU.

Rather than let her, the school announced that it would cancel prom for everyone.

The principal also made Cynthia remove a sticker she was wearing that said, “I am a lesbian,” telling her, “You don't have that much freedom of speech at school.”

Cynthia’s aunt and guardian, Kathy Baker, then appealed the principal’s decision to the school board. But the board let the decision to bar Cynthia from bringing her girlfriend to the prom stand.

The ACLU has intervened, demanding that school officials allow Cynthia bring her girlfriend to the prom and refrain from further violating her First Amendment rights.