MINNEAPOLIS—The Osseo, Minnesota school district must give a student-run gay rights group at Maple Grove Senior High the same privileges it offers other extracurricular clubs, such as the use of school rooms for meetings, a federal judge ruled Sept. 25.

U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen issued a permanent injunction that puts the group Straights and Gays for Equality, also known as SAGE, on equal footing as other groups.

SAGE contended that other groups were allowed to publicize meetings over the suburban Minneapolis school’s public address system and have access to school facilities for meetings, but members of SAGE were consistently denied such requests.

“The District’s argument is circular—the District deems certain student groups curricular because it sanctions them, but the District decides which groups to sanction,” the judge wrote in a footnote. “This type of decision making is exactly what the Equal Access Act is meant to prohibit.”

Ericksen ordered the school to treat SAGE like any other student group.