Gay marriage support gets student yanked

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FULLERTON, Calif., April 5 (UPI) -- School district officials in Fullerton, Calif., say the disqualification of a student from a pageant for his comment in favor of gay marriage was inappropriate.

KNBC-TV, Los Angeles, reported Thursday Fullerton Union High School senior Kearian Giertz was cut from the school's annual Mr. Fullerton competition for his response when asked where he saw himself in 10 years. Giertz answered he hoped gay marriage would be legal.

That prompted the school's vice principal, Joe Abell, to step in and remove Giertz from the contest.

"Everybody started cheering him and then Mr. Abell came out and said, 'Cut him, cut him,'" student Isaac Fanti said. "But he was just speaking his mind."

Within a day, district officials sent parents a memo stating no school rules were violated and Abell had given a personal apology, KNBC-TV said.

"No one should have been offended. Nobody was," Giertz told the TV station. "You don't check your First Amendment rights at the gates of the school."