Two Alabama institutions of higher education have been put on a “shame list” by LGBT advocacy group The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) for seeking and receiving religious exemption from Title IX. The University of Mobile and Judson College both petitioned the Federal Government for relief due in part to the Obama administration’s new interpretation that includes transgender individuals.
Passed in 1972, Title IX was a culmination of the women’s rights movement of the mid Twentieth Century. The law’s expressed intent was to provide equal opportunity for women in educational environments.
Title IX states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” In 2014, President Obama determined that the above text includes transgender individuals.
However, the law includes a built-in religious exemption as required by the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. “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,” the law states.
In responses to both University of Mobile and Judson College, the Department of Education said:
The University is exempt from these provisions to the extent that they prohibit discrimination on the basis of marital status, sex outside of marriage, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or abortion and compliance would conflict with the controlling organization’s religious tenets.
The LGBT Community, led by the HRC, is not happy with these institutions receiving an exemption. They insist that the freedom for private individuals to freely practice their religion is a form of sanctioned discrimination.
“Many LGBT students may find themselves enrolled at schools that are granted the legal right to discriminate against them partway through their degree program,” HRC stated in a press release late last year. “Students should have the opportunity to make determinations about school attendance based on full information regarding a university’s ability to legally discriminate against the student.”
Although the HRC published their “shame list” of schools, the entire list could already be found on Federal Government websites and more information is available by law to everyone via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The entire list of exempted institutions can be found on the Department of Education’s website here.
