Christian Fraternity Sues To Keep Out Gays
 

Fraternity Sues To Keep Out Gays
fraternalnews@yahoogroups.com
March 1, 2005

Chapel Hill, North Carolina) A conservative Christian fraternity is
suing University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill over the school's gay inclusion policy.

Alpha Iota Omega's status as an official campus group was revoked after it refused to sign the university's nondiscrimination policy.

The policy specifies that groups cannot deny membership to students based on personal characteristics such as age, race, color, national origin, religion, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation and gender.

The fraternity says it shouldn't be forced to admit nonbelievers or
gay students. It claims the university has infringed on its members' rights to free speech, free association and free exercise of religion.

Alpha Iota Omega has only three members. But, they hired a lawyer and launched their lawsuit. The three members will not say who is paying the legal fees.

An attempt at mediation between the university and the students
failed on Monday - setting the course for the case to go to trial.

The suit comes as students at the university demonstrated Tuesday evening to show support for a gay student who was taunted and beaten. The student was attacked by a gang of six or seven men last Friday as he walked along a street. Police have labeled the beating a hate crime. The victim suffered broken bones but wasn't hospitalized.

The suit is the latest in a series of legal actions by conservative
students against universities which have gay civil rights protections.

In California a Christian group is suing the University of
California's Hastings College of the Law in federal court for not
recognizing it as an official campus organization.

The Christian Legal Society says it should get campus funding and other benefits, but does not have to open its membership to gays, lesbians and nonbelievers - all requirements of the San Francisco law school.

Ohio State University is also facing a suit by the CLS after the
college refused to recognize the groups when it barred gays from
joining.

The University could not force the group to take certain members. Unless this is a private school. Needless to say, the easiest analogy to use is this:

Would any fraternity accept women? Would they be forced to accept women because of the non-discriminatory policy? All public schools I know have such a policy and I have yet to hear of any woman joining a fraternity. Also, I have yet to see a fraternity forced to accept any person they didn't want into the organization.

All organizations have certain criteria for membership. For fraternities, you must be male. In some others you must be Christian or at least have a belief in a Creator. All organizations have beliefs. If a potential member does not comply with those beliefs, they are not invited into the organization.

The easiest solution is for the Christian fraternity to sign the policy. Then select members who fit their beliefs and criteria.

This is exactly what I was thinking.

While I don't agree with them wanting to bar gays out of their fraternity, it is up to their own organization to select members on how they see fit.

I would think that in a world this big, there are probably some people out there who are Christian, but are also gay. I mean, I'm Catholic, but I'm also pro-choice. So.. I guess it depends on the person.

That's was I was going to say!! I mean seriously, just sign the thing, and then choose who does or does not fit your group. Isn't that pretty much what ALL of us do anyway? I mean no one (at the university) asks us why we cut women do they? Can you imagine what would happen if they passed a rule saying sororities could not discriminate based on dress or bank account size? (I'm not saying that is a good reason to cut someone, but you all know dang good and well it happens every recruitment) And what if then they went around and asked why some girls were cut by certain sororities? DISCRIMINATION, in some form, happens within every group's selection process. They don't fit the mold somehhow, so they get cut. Anyway, I know that's kinda out there, but COME ON!
It's ridiculous to insist that a Christian fraternity take members that do not follow the same beliefs that they do. Some Christians don't believe homosexuality is wrong, join one of those groups.

i would have to agree to that.

They may have an "open" membership policy. I don't know anything about this group in particular, but I do know that some Christian-based GLOs have a "anyone who wants to join can" policy because they feel it's un-Christian to exclude people.

Which is kind of ironic, if you think about it. :rolleyes:

Actually at our school, if you receive funding from the school you have to have completely open membership. Sororities and fraternities here cannot receive school funding aside from awards because they're selective organizations. Sounds like the same situation there..

That is a possiblilty.. so why don't they just not sign it, not receive school funding, and pick whoever they want to be in their fraternity?

I agree. It sounds like these people want school recognition (like access to university facilities) and school money (like from student activity fees). A lot of schools will not give money or access to school facilities to groups which are not open (the thinking is that a student's money shouldn't go to a group they can't be a member of). That's how it was at both of the universities I went to. Even groups which seemed like they would be exclusionary (like the women's organization) couldn't refuse membership to someone not a member of their group without agreeing to give up school funding.
At a lot of schools greek organizations don't get university funds specifically for this reason.

Was this the same one who sued the school to be allowed on campus?

WOW, how things change when they become recognized!

Religious Zealots at work.:(

heh. chapel hill just had a gay bashing over this past weekend as well. Sounds like a nice place to go to school. :rolleyes:

GLO get funding? We couldn't get funding because we restrict membership.

They're not recognized yet. That's part of their gripe.

We don't get school funding to hold socials, philanthropy events, etc., but we do get funding to hold "study breaks," which basically means we get $200 / semester (if we request it) to have a table of pizza and other really good food during midterm or finals week. We're the only sorority who does it... great PR! ;)

We didn't get funding until about my senior year. We finally were able to make enough of a case that, as a student organization run through the student activities office, there was no reason we should have funding withheld. I know there were restrictions to that, but I can't remember exactly what those restrictions were.