LGBT coalition files class action to end discrimination in federal-funded religious institutions

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Thirty-three current and former LGBT students of federal-funded religious colleges have filed a class action suit asking an Oregon District Court to rule that the religious exemption to Title IX as applied to ‘sexual and gender minority students is unconstitutional. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that protects students in federal-funded education programs from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Filed as Hunter v US Department of Education, the class-action suit was launched by the Religious Exemption Accountability Project on March 29 in the US District Court for Oregon Eugene Division. According to a report by Christian Headlines, the case could “dramatically impact how faith-based schools operate by declaring a government religious exemption received by such schools unconstitutional.”

In its introduction, the lawsuit explains the purpose of the class action is to “put an end to the U.S. Department of Education’s complicity in the abuses and unsafe conditions thousands of LGBTQ+ students endure at hundreds of taxpayer-funded, religious colleges and universities.” Asserting that over 100,000 LGBT students attend religious institutions in the US, the suit states the Department has left these students “unprotected from the harms of conversion therapy, expulsion, denial of housing and healthcare, sexual and physical abuse and harassment.”

According to the plaintiffs, the Education Department is bound by Title IX and the US Constitution to “protect sexual and gender minority students at taxpayer-funded colleges and universities, including private and religious educational institutions that receive federal funding.”

The suit asks the Court to require the Education Department to ensure “all federally-funded educational institutions respect the sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression of their students.”

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