Campus Pride, an LGBT activist group, is pressuring the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to cut ties with Christian colleges over their views on transgenderism and homosexuality.
Ever since the Obama administration extended Title IX rights to LGBT
students, Christian schools across the country have been requesting
waivers to maintain their rules on lifestyle choices or campus housing.
Following demands from another gay rights group, the Department of
Education agreed in January to create a public database listing the
Christian colleges that apply for waivers.
On March 9, Campus Pride requested the NCAA “divest from all religious
based campuses who have requested discriminatory Title IX waivers.”
Eighty other LGBT rights groups joined Campus Pride in signing the
letter.
The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) fired off
its own letter to the NCAA on March 11, spokeswoman Shapri LoMaglio,
told me. The letter “sought to clarify our campus life policies,”
rejected Campus Pride’s calls for exclusion of religious schools, and
highlighted religious schools’ contributions to NCAA championships. The
CCCU declined to provide a copy of the letter, although someone already
leaked it to the Christian Post.
“The NCAA is known for bringing together a diverse group of
institutions of all types, and that’s the strength of higher education,”
LoMaglio said. “We have institutions with a wide variety of
backgrounds, with a wide variety of missions, so that every student can
find an institution that is a good fit for them.”
LoMaglio said she thinks the NCAA is “very unlikely” to buckle to the activists’ pressure.
But Campus Pride timed its campaign to coincide with one of the NCAA’s
most-watched events—March Madness. The NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball
Championship generates 90 percent of the organization’s yearly revenue,
and Campus Pride has leveraged the publicity to increase pressure on the
organization.
“The NCAA through its member institutions sends a message about their
core values of integrity, inclusive culture and sportsmanship,” the
Campus Pride letter states. “Over half of the campuses with the
discriminatory waivers are participating NCAA member institutions.”
Campus Pride and another group called Soulforce placed the waiver
recipients on a “shame list” and has encouraged students to protest
their own school’s waiver.
A small group of students at Biola University were happy to comply. On
Feb. 9, about 40 students and faculty at the Los Angeles college walked
around campus with signs reading “#BiolaGiveBackIX.” Administrators
finally asked the group to leave because it had not filed the correct
protest paperwork.
“Biola says that they want to be a more inclusive and diverse campus,
yet they are asking for this waiver, which is doing the exact opposite,”
Biola senior Adeline Saldana told the school.
In its Sexuality and Relationships Policy, Biola University prohibits
any sexual behavior outside marriage between one man and one woman:
“This view of sexuality and marriage is rooted in the Genesis account of
creation,” the policy states. Biola University requested an exemption
from Title IX in November 2014.
In the letter to the NCAA, CCCU president Shirley Hoogstra, maintains
the policies held by Christian colleges “in no way target LGBTQ members
of the community but instead apply to all within the community.” In
requesting Title IX waivers, Christian colleges have done nothing wrong,
Hoogstra insisted.
Courtesy: WORLD News Service
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