233 colleges and universities hold exemptions allowing them to discriminate against LGBT students

by Rob Howard

In December, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) called on the federal Department of Education (DOE) to bring more transparency and accountability to religious colleges and universities that request exemptions from existing civil rights law in order to discriminate against LGBT students.

They made the request based upon HRC’s report titled “Hidden Discrimination: Title IX Religious Exemptions Putting LGBT Students at Risk.” The report “spotlights 56 colleges and universities based in 26 states across every region of the country – which collectively have nearly 120,000 students - that have requested religious exemptions under Title IX since 2013,” according to an HRC press release on December 18.

Yesterday, HRC’s daily news blast announced that the DOE had responded, saying, “On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education helped increase transparency and accountability by publishing a list of educational institutions that have received an exemption from federal civil rights law in order to discriminate against LGBT students. HRC first called on the Department of Education in December to take action in light of this growing and disturbing trend by some religious colleges and universities. Released by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the list of educational institutions published today can be found here.”

The DOE page explains the option for a religious exemption: “Under the Title IX statute and its implementing regulation at 34 C.F.R. § 106.12, Title IX does not apply to an educational institution that is controlled by a religious organization to the extent that application of Title IX would be inconsistent with the religious tenets of the organization.

…

“An educational institution that wishes to claim the exemption may do so by submitting in writing to the Assistant Secretary a statement by the highest ranking official of the institution, identifying the religious organization that controls the educational institution and specifying the provisions of Title IX or its regulations that conflict with the tenets of the religious organization.”

In The Gayly’s region, there are 41 institutions that have been granted Title IX exemption. The states, and the number of exemptions, are: Arkansas – 5; Kansas – 1; Missouri – 13; Oklahoma – 9; and Texas – 13.

Baptist colleges seem to head up the list in the region, although other conservative denominations are also represented.

In Oklahoma, notable examples are Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma Christian College, Oral Roberts University, and Southern Nazarene University. Three of the Arkansas five are Baptist schools – Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, and Southern Baptist College.

In Missouri, the 13 institutions include Missouri Baptist University, Southwest Baptist University, and Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. There are four seminaries listed in the state, and in the case of seminaries, it is clear that they would be eligible for exemption based on the beliefs of the denomination they are training ministers for.

The 13 schools in Texas include Baylor University, a Baptist affiliated university that is a member of the Big 12 conference, and several other Baptist schools, as well as small religiously affiliated colleges.

Click here for a chart  listing the 233 institutions that currently hold a religious exemption and the 29 that have a religious exemption request pending with DOE’s Office of Civil Rights.

The Gayly – May 3, 2016  @ 9:25 a.m.