Tenn. School Wins Right to Ban Gays and Women Who’ve Had Sex: ‘This Is Who We Are’

[workinclasszero]

Tenn. School Wins Right to Ban Gays and Women Who’ve Had Sex: ‘This Is Who We Are’
The waiver allows the school to ban LGBT students and anyone else who does not fit their religious ideology.
By David Edwards / Raw Story December 10, 2015

A Tennessee university has been granted the right by the federal government to ban students who go against their interpretation of Christianity.

Carson-Newman University President Dr. Randall O’Brien told WVLT that he had filed for a Title IX exemption from the federal government because his attorney recommended it.

The waiver allows the school to ban pregnant students, women who have had an abortion, single mothers, LGBT students and anyone else who does not fit their religious ideology.

http://www.alternet.org/education/tenn-school-wins-right-ban-gays-and-women-whove-had-sex-who-we-are

[yeoman6987]

1. I don't like this but private schools may have own requirements

Not great at all though that they would do this.

[Person 2713]

15. Then let them use their own money . Title IV means they want to continue with taxpayer$$$

I don't want my hard earned fed tax $ going to this
That's my own requirement

[yeoman6987]

17. I agree

[CBGLuthier]

2. This is wrong. Tney can do this if they want to but they should not get one penny of federal money

No one should be able to go there with a student loan or a grant. You can't stop fucking bigots from being fucking bigots but not on MY god damn dime.

[Chan790]

5. Agreed.

We'd see very quickly whether these religious schools favor God or Mammon if that were a policy.

For example, my Alma Mater (The Catholic University of America) would choose the money and do so with Rome's blessing. It's too important to the Vatican to have a major US research and education institution with a top-flight baccalaureate and graduate Politics department for them to pass up federal funds. We're not Bob Jones or Ave Maria or C-NU and we're proud of that...the most important word in "The Catholic University of America" remains "University."

[Bluenorthwest]

16. And yet other Catholic universities are in fact asking for and getting these 'waivers'

Several Catholic schools are among those that have been granted waivers. Belmont Abbey College wrote in its request: “Our request for exemption is limited to the recent interpretation that “sex” under Title IX also includes gender identity.” Belmont was approved a waiver along with fellow Catholic colleges Franciscan University of Steubenville and St. Gregory’s University.


"In a January 2015 letter to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, Dr. William K. Thierfelder, the president of Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic school in North Carolina, cited the California case as one reason he was applying for a Title IX exemption “due to the religious beliefs of our institution.”

“The school district in that dispute was ordered to allow a female student presenting herself as male to use the restroom, locker room and living accommodations of her choice, and to participate in boys’ athletic programs,” Dr. Thierfelder wrote. “We would not be able to make similar accommodations consistent with our Catholic beliefs.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/us/religious-colleges-obtain-waivers-to-anti-discrimination-law.html?_r=0

The Catholic University of America Rejects Gay Student Organization

December 11, 2012, at 11:00 AM | By Matthew Archbold |

In the same week that the University of Notre Dame approved of a gay student organization, The Catholic University of America denied official recognition to a gay student organization on campus, reportedly citing a concern that it could become an “advocacy group.”
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/1814/The-Catholic-University-of-America-Rejects-Gay-Student-Organization.aspx

Sorry. But it has been a protracted battle with your school over the years.

[Chan790]

19. You kind of have to understand how the church views CUA...and BC and ND...

as compared to other Catholic colleges.

CUA is a pontifical university (meaning it is founded by a decree of the Pope and directly funded in part by the Church...as an aside, campus is technically an embassy of the Vatican), the only one in the US. While it may not have the most prestigious reputation outside of its politics programs, it is very much meant to be the crown jewel of the Catholic colleges in the US. We get all the best stuff the Church can buy us. It takes its policies and leadership directly from Rome as well...if the Pope declared he wanted the bathrooms painted orange on Christmas day and repainted the normal color by the open of business on the 27th, they'd be painted. This is the only college in America that the Vatican actually gives a damn how it's run. (...and they do. They fired one of my professors senior year mid-semester for being a heretic...by decree from Rome. The Pope literally signed his termination and refusal of tenure.)

Notre Dame, Boston College and a handful of others are one tier down...they're universities appointed by the US College of Catholic Bishops either directly or as existing universities founded by religious orders...they're meant to be elite. Ironically, this makes them more conservative as the USCCB is a raging nuthouse of RW fascists largely appointed and empowered by JP II. (Both Benedict XVI and Francis have been more liberal than JP II, Francis dramatically so.) The USCCB partially funds these schools and requires them to be in close communion with both themselves and Rome. they get more leeway in how they run themselves.

Everybody else (including Georgetown) is either founded by an order, in which case, their direction comes solely from the order and not Rome...or they're basically dog-chum as far as the Vatican is concerned. Rome has very little control over the policies of these schools or how they are run...outside of their Theology departments. They're required to abide by a document called Ex Corde Ecclesiae which dictates that they have to teach teachings in accordance with Catholic doctrine within their Theology programs...but other than that, they are on their own. They set their own policies and are fully-responsible for their own funding. If they want to request Title-IX exemptions and forebear themselves from receiving federal funds....that's their choice. Just don't come calling to Il Papa when the US Dept. of Education refuses to permit you federal education funds because you opted out of compliance with non-discrimination policies.

[Bluenorthwest]

22. I kind of don't have to. You have the need to parse that out. I do not.

I tire of the fact that on DU some denominations are given a free pass for homophobic and anti choice views while others are correctly criticized for those exact same views. You did not merely present your own old school as being righteous when it has not been you also claimed the Vatican supports inclusion when it does not. LGBT students were mistreated by your school. That is a fact.

The campus you claim is so aggressively inclusive was in fact totally repressive to LGBT students for years and years, it had to be sued.

I'm sorry but facts are facts.

[Bluenorthwest]

23. This is from June of this year, 2015

SCOTUS ruling makes Catholic college LGBT group hopeful for future

The Catholic University of America (CUA), most notably, has wrestled with its support of the LGBT community for decades. The university has recognized an LGBT group dating as far back as the 1980s but later disbanded the organization, according to student Stephen Morris.

Morris serves as the co-director of CUAllies, an unofficial organization supporting the campus’s LGBT community. CUAllies has been making waves since its inception in 2009 when the university denied the group’s application to be an official student club. Catholic’s official spokesman Victor Nakas told the Washington Post that officially recognizing the group would be supporting advocacy work against the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church remains officially opposed to same-sex marriage. In a statement immediately following the SCOTUS decision, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, who is president of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB), called the decision “a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children.” The USCCB is headquartered in Washington, D.C., just steps away from CUA’s campus.
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/06/30/catholic-university-of-america-lgbt-group-conflict/

[daleanime]

6. +1

[Shrike47]

3. If you wanted, for some reason, to go there, why would you tell them the truth?

[treestar]

8. That struck me too

How would they decide?

[randome]

9. A large nursing staff to do hymen inspections? (Ugh, sorry that occurred to me now.)

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]

[treestar]

20. Female applicants have to submit a medical report maybe

from a certified gynecologist.

The sexism is interesting - where does the Bible allow men to have sex before marriage? One thing the Bible does appear, in the New Testament at least, to be somewhat equal on.

[roamer65]

4. Fundy Christian equivalent of a Wahhabi'ist Islam madras. N/t

[workinclasszero]

7. But..but..

our sharia laws are all american apple pie mom stuff! SMH

[Stargazer99]

10. How are they going to keep the father's of the born or unborn children out?

Oh forgot, according to the fundies men are gods.

[workinclasszero]

11. No only the wh*** women

But you know, boys will be boys..wink..wink...nudge..nudge..say no more

They get a pass...always.

[Chan790]

13. Considering the number of my college peers that were already married, I wonder that too.

Not a lot but I know at-least 20 people that were married by the time they graduated (4 that were already married as incoming Freshmen) and three couples that were already parents or were pregnant by graduation...I'm wondering if the pregnant clause only refers to unwed pregnancies. It would be weird to expel married people for having children when their faith calls for them to multiply.

I'd assume it's enforced equally. I know someone from HS that went to one of those colleges and was expelled for getting his fiancee pregnant because they were unwed.

[BlueJazz]

14. That was the first thing I noticed. I can see it now. A male student sees a woman he's had sex with>

[yeoman6987]

18. You won't

The naval academy has.no pregnancyolicy. However quite a few guys bring their babu to graduation. Ok not quite a few but occasionally that we know of.

[3catwoman3]

24. My husband attended and later taught at the Air Force Academy.

One year, one of his students kept talking about how he missed his baby. At first, everyone thought he meant his girlfriend. It turned out he really did mean his child. He was gone forthwith.

[yeoman6987]

25. As he should. I am in the same boat

Although some do get away with it.

[Thinkingabout]

12. Interesting they want to ban the women who are pregnant, does this promote

Abortion in some way if the woman wants to stay in the school? Also they failed to kick out the men who have has sex. Sharia type laws alive and well in the US.

[treestar]

21. Exactly, good point

That's part of why abortion is down - society has at the same time liberalized the having-a-child-out-of-wedlock standard that likely brought on a lot of abortions.

[3catwoman3]

26. OK - once more with feeling.

WHAT ABOUT THE MEN, DAMN IT ALL?! The female students aren't having sex by themselves!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

27. Notice there's no restriction on the father of the pregnant girl

With DNA paternity tests available at Walmart, you'd think these schools would jump on the chance to find the other party who's engaged in "immoral" (i.e., non-procreative) sex.

But if they did that, the boy could be held responsible for child support, and we can't saddle one of our male students with that responsibility, can we?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

28. Anyone with half a fucking brain shouldn't go there anyway

[Initech]

29. People like this are exactly why Jesus isn't coming back.

[mountain grammy]

30. It's all bullshit if they are tax exempt..

An religious exemption from the law of the land should be the end of any tax exempt status for the organization. I feel like I'm subsidizing the organization and it's followers who claim exemptions to federal, state and local taxes that I pay for them.
This is how I feel about all religions. Tax the churches.