Above: Eli Bundy (C), the South Carolina 10th grader at the center of the lawsuit.

A judge in South Carolina has nixed a law from the 1980s banning queer-inclusive sex education in public schools.

Last week, David C. Norton, a U.S. district judge in Charleston, ruled to overturn a discriminatory 1988 law prohibiting any mention of LGBTQ sex or relationships, except in the contexts of STDs/STIs and HIV/AIDS, at public schools in South Carolina.

Under the law, teachers who taught about "alternate sexual lifestyles from heterosexual relationships"—even by fielding questions about queer sexual health directly from students—could be fired.

The ruling on the decades-old law was prompted by a lawsuit from the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at Charleston County's School of the Arts, NBC News reported Wednesday.

Attorneys representing the students from a number of LGBTQ advocacy groups (including the National Center for Lesbian Rights, South Carolina Equality, and more) urged judges to "declare this law unconstitutional," citing "irreparable harm" caused by a policy that doesn't actually serve any legitimate purpose.

In a press statement from the Campaign for Southern Equality, Eli Bundy, a 10th grader at the School of the Arts and the president of the school's GSA, expressed excitement that "this discriminatory law can longer be enforced in South Carolina."

"I hope we can continue to work toward a more accepting and equal statewide community," Bundy added. "I know how frustrating it can feel to be told by a teacher that they can’t talk about who you are. I’m so grateful that no other South Carolina student will have to go through school feeling like they have been erased."