8. Anti-Gay Bias

Discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people is all too common at many colleges and universities. Some religious institutions actually prohibit gay students and faculty, or demand that they repudiate their sexual orientation. No college can discriminate against a group of people and still claim to be committed to academic freedom. Discussion of gay-related issues is certain to be restricted by official biases, as our student organizations at many religious institutions. Although AAUP guidelines suggest that religious institutions should have more flexibility in interpreting academic freedom, this small exception cannot be used as an excuse for bigotry.

8(a). Brigham Young University: Student Matthew Grierson was expelled because he held hands with a man in an Orem, Utah shopping mall in January, 2001. He was recognized, and reported to BYU’s honor code office. Because Grierson was on probation for kissing a man on campus (which Grierson denies), he was threatened with suspension and forced to withdraw from the school.

Although the Mormon Church has recently accepted gays and lesbians so long as they remain celibate, BYU bans “homosexual conduct.” Grierson told the Advocate, “I didn’t think you could be kicked out just for being gay. I thought [the prohibition] had to do with sexual acts.”

BYU student Ricky Escoto was also suspended in 2001 after his roommates accused him of kissing a man on their couch, receiving flowers from men, talking about dates with men, and spending time in gay internet chat rooms. Escoto denied the allegations, but he was expelled after BYU officials believed the accusations were “more probable than not.” After media attention to his story, Escoto was allowed to stay for final exams.

According to Escoto, 13 other BYU students who were kicked off campus in 2000 because they were caught watching Showtime’s “Queer as Folk.”

Grierson and Escoto were given letters detailing nine steps they must take to be readmitted to BYU. They must convince ecclesiastical leaders and counselors that they are abiding by the honor code and are no longer gay. And they must “totally refrain from inappropriate same-sex behavior, including but not limited to dating, holding hands, kissing, romantic touching, showering, clubbing, etc., as well as regular association with homosexual men.”

BYU not only wants to suppress student conduct, but also the right to speak and protest. The letter told Escoto it is "inappropriate for a BYU student to advocate for the [homosexual] lifestyle, speak or write papers for public consumption, demonstrate in a public forum, or advertise your same-sex preference in any other public way."

The letter to Grierson declares that "it is inappropriate to demonstrate intimate affection for a person of the same gender." Although the conduct of heterosexuals at BYU is regulated, it is nowhere near as stringent, since heterosexuals are allowed to kiss and hold hands.

In the late 1990s, BYU added "homosexual conduct" to a list of sexual conduct prohibitions in the BYU Honor Code, which must be signed by students to enter the university. About 2 to 3 percent of BYU’s 30,000 students are referred to the Honor Code Office each year, mostly for dress code violations.

(Salt Lake Tribune, March 30, 2001; Salt Lake City Weekly, July 12, 2001; Advocate, Sept. 25, 2001)

8(b). Penn State University: in spring 2000, a gay rights student group called ALLIES put on the Safer Sex Cabaret as part of Pride Week, to promote safe sex. The event drew about 150 people, and a huge controversy as conservatives attacked its sexual content.

State lawmakers, led by Rep. John Lawless, attacked the university for allowing the student-run event. During Pennsylvania house appropriations committee hearing on Penn State's proposed budget for 2001-02, Penn State President Graham Spanier was interrogated for almost four hours about the Safer Sex Cabaret, but he refused to denounce it, and the trustees praised Spanier for defending student free speech.

However, in March, 2001, Terrell Jones, vice provost of educational equity, told the group about plans for a second Safer Sex Cabaret, "It's not going to happen." Jones told them to move the event off-campus, or the university would shut it down.

In April 2001, the Undergraduate Student Government Senate refused to allocate $573.52 for Pride Week. One member said, "I don't want to tell John Lawless 'Hey I'm Jason Covener, I'm a USG senator and we're an organization that sponsored Safer Sex Cabaret part two.’ I hope this would adhere to the general standards of decency.” Although only the Safer Sex Cabaret event had raised controversy, Covener said, "By funding one, we're supporting everything. I'm concerned with the whole program."

(Penn State Daily Collegian, 3/21/01; 11/29/01; SPLC, 3/13/01)

8(c). Cypress College: Kay Andrews, dean of the social sciences, received death threats after coming out publicly. In May, 2001, VP Michael Kasler received a letter that declared, "Either you get rid of Kay Andrews, or I will.” A few days later, "The gay dean must die” was found written in a women's restroom near Andrews' office.

(Los Angeles Times, 12/29/01)

8(d). Tufts University: Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF), a student organization, denied a senior leadership position to lesbian student Julie Catalano because the group is opposed to homosexuality. After Catalano, a three-year member of the Christian organization, informed the group that she was a lesbian, she was told that she was unfit to become one of the group’s leaders. Catalano had asked Jesus to make her heterosexual and contemplated suicide, but she eventually decided that she could not change and her orientation was not sinful. Catalano filed a complaint with the Tufts Community Union Judiciary. On April 13, 2000, it de-recognized TCF, but the decision was overturned for failing to follow proper procedures.

TCF Senior Leader Jonathan Crowe declared: "The decision was made because of a significant difference in religious belief on homosexual practice. It's an issue of religious freedom." According to Crowe, a non-practicing homosexual would be permitted to hold a leadership position as long as they did not believe that such behavior is biblically acceptable. Curtis Chang, an area director for InterVarsity, claimed: "Julie Catalano was denied leadership because of her religious beliefs, not her orientation. Any heterosexual who rejects the view that sexual activity should take place in the context of a marriage covenant between husband and wife would also be ineligible for leadership."

Middlebury Christian Fellowship has faced controversy for banning gays and lesbians from being student leaders. The senior leaders of the group refused to put a gay student’s name on the ballot, claiming that all candidates must uphold InterVarsity's teachings, including a belief in biblical infallibility. The gay student said, "I do believe in the infallibility of the Bible. I also happen to believe that nowhere in the Bible does it condemn a committed monogamous relationship of two people of the same sex."

(Tufts Daily, March 27, 2001; Oct. 13, 2000; Sept. 14, 2000; May 19, 2000; Boston Herald, Nov. 29, 2000; Boston Globe, May 17, 2000; April 29, 2000; Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 2000, November 3, 2000)

ANALYSIS: To require students to take any kind of religious oath or ideological test in order to run for a leadership position is a violation of their academic freedom and religious freedom. The leadership of a student organization cannot be closed to sincere students who happen to have a different interpretation of the Bible.

Non-discrimination in student group membership is perfectly compatible with academic freedom. In fact, the failure to require non-discrimination infringes upon the academic freedom of students such as Julie Catalano. No distinction can be made between membership and leadership, because one aspect of membership in a group is the right to run for a leadership position. The problem at Tufts was an outside religious organization trying to impose its anti-gay ideology upon a campus affiliate, in violation of university anti-discrimination policies.

8(e) Censorship of “Corpus Christi.” One of the most controversial plays in America is Terrence McNally’s “Corpus Christi,” featuring a gay Christ character. In Linnemeir v. Purdue, 260 F.3d 757 (7^th Cir. 2001), the 7^th Circuit ruled that although the play was “blasphemous,” it did not constitute an establishment of anti-religion, and outsiders could not force the Fort Wayne campus of Indiana University-Purdue University to cancel an August, 2001 production of the play. At Florida Atlantic University, state legislators threatened to cut the university’s budget in 2001 because it allowed the theater department to stage “Corpus Christi.”

(Associated Press, 3/30/01)