A District of Columbia Superior Court judge ruled recently that Georgetown University violated the city’s Human Rights Act when it denied two homosexual student organizations the right to receive funds for campus activities.
The case was brought by the Gay People of Georgetown, representing about 50 undergraduates, and the Gay Rights Coalition of Georgetown University Law Center, representing about 20 law students. Their case was brought to court by the tax-paid lawyers of Washington, D.C., in the Corporation Counsel’s office.
The homosexuals demanded that Georgetown University recognize them as official student groups, allow them to use the name “Georgetown” in the name of their organizations, allow them to meet in campus meeting halls, and give them several thousand dollars in student activity funds. The homosexuals won on all counts.
– Georgetown University, which is run by the Jesuit Fathers, contended that it could not morally recognize or give money to an organization which opposes the teachings of the Catholic Church on issues of faith or morality. Georgetown University contended that “official subsidy and support of a gay student organization would be interpreted by many as endorsement of the position taken by the gay movement,” and that the “goals, philosophy and intended activities” conflict with fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church. Georgetown University lost, but is appealing the decision.
The homosexuals won in this test case under the D.C. Human Rights Act which prohibits discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex … [and] sexual orientation.” When the law was passed in 1977, it is unlikely that many people knew it would interfere in the policies of a private religious university.
The decision is a grievous violation of the First Amendment freedom of religion, as well as of the academic freedom of a religious university to set its own standards.
It is dramatic proof of what agitating groups really mean when they demand “human rights,” and how far into the private sector they will demand compliance.
The decision is also a grievous interference with the rights of all the thousands of students who are compelled to pay student activity fees which may then finance immoral causes. College student activity funds come from involuntary assessments on all students and often run into six figures. They are then often used by a handful of activist students to finance radical causes.
This case also shows that homosexual agitation is a great deal more concerned with privileges than with rights. The receipt of money from a treasury acquired by the involuntary assessment of all college students is not and should not be a “human right” of anyone or any group.
A recent fund-raising letter sent out by the “Fund for Human Dignity, Inc.” to raise money for homosexuals and lesbians boasts of the “progress” homosexuals have already made. For example, it boasts that “the Internal Revenue Service has reversed its policy against homosexual groups” and that IRS now gives “tax-exempt status and other privileges” to “nonprofit, public interest” homosexual groups.
The Tetter also boasts that “the U.S. Job Corps and U.S. Public Health Service have ended their policies of discrimination against gay people.” It boasts further that “the American Psychiatric Association has removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.”
Most interesting is the letter’s boast of its “progress” in the media. The letter tells about “our meetings with media representatives, television stations, newspapers and magazines” in order to improve their portrayal of homosexuals.
The letter solicits funds and describes its future goals. These goals include granting homosexuals the right to teach in the schools regardless of the wishes of the parents or school boards, and the right to rent from any landlord regardless of the landlord’s wishes.
And by the way, the letter’s postscript says, “your contribution is fully tax-deductible.” All this is a good lesson to many unsuspecting people in the double meanings of such innocent-sounding words as “human rights” and “human dignity.”
