At least, we hope it is.

Back then, when a group of gay and lesbian students at East High wanted to form a school club, it caused an uproar that spread beyond the Salt Lake City School District to the state attorney general's office and the Legislature.

Now some Provo High students want to form a school-sanctioned gay-straight alliance. In response, the Provo District, to its credit, is proposing a clubs policy setting the same rules for academic and non-academic clubs that would not discriminate against a club with the word "gay" in its name.

That was not the case in '95, when derogatory epithets were cast back and forth between those who supported the students' right to meet together at the school and those who were horrified that the club would promote homosexuality and talk about sex, a topic that Utah law and culture put out of bounds in public schools.

Over time, just about everybody weighed in. East High banned all clubs, from the ski club to the chess club to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance. But the federal Equal Access Act - the 1980s brainchild of conservatives who wanted students to be able to form religion clubs - allowed groups of all kinds to rent school space, and the East High club regrouped as the Gay-Straight Alliance and continued to meet. Then, four years later, after taking hits from parents on all sides and fending off lawsuits, the district voted to bring the clubs back.

In 1996 a new state law was passed that allows districts to deny access to clubs that "materially or substantially encourage criminal or delinquent conduct, promote bigotry or involve human sexuality," and the State School Board approved a policy that lets local school districts set regulations for clubs, including requiring parental permission for a student to join.

We hope the Provo District learned lessons from the Salt Lake District brouhaha 10 years ago, not just about how to legally accommodate student clubs, but about the needs and rights of homosexual students for whom bigotry and isolation are a daily part of their high school experience.

Some things have changed in 10 years, but those needs are the same. We agree with the father of a gay Provo student that a gay-straight alliance club could promote tolerance and respect and we urge the Provo District to adopt a policy that welcomes it.