Four Catholic Colleges Make LGBT ‘Shame List’

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DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - Four Catholic colleges are being called out for actively resisting LGBT culture on their campuses.

Campus Pride, the LGBT activist group, is compiling a "Shame List" to highlight "harmful and shameful acts of religion-based prejudice and bigotry" allegedly committed by religious colleges in the United States.

The group's website asserts, "Families and young people deserve to know that this list of schools are the worst for LGBTQ youth. They are not loving, welcoming, safe spaces to live, learn and grow — and nobody wants to go to a college that openly discriminates against anyone."

Campus Pride determines who is on the list based on whether a college files for an exemption to Title IX with the U.S. Department of Education (ED).

Title IX is a statute enforced by the ED establishing that any school receiving federal money cannot exclude students "on the basis of sex [nor can they] be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination."

According to the ED, religious colleges are considered religious and can apply for an exemption if it fulfills the following:

1. It if is a school that teaches theology to students in order to prepare them to be ministers, enter some religious vocation or to prepare them to teach theological subjects;

2. If it requires faculty, students, or employees to personally hold the religious belief of the organization controlling the school;

3. If the school explicitly states in its official publications that it is controlled by a religious organization committed to the teachings of a particular religion, and it receives significant financial support from the controlling religious organization.

Of the 100 colleges listed, the majority are Southern Baptist, but four Catholic colleges are noted. They are St. Gregory's University in Shawnee, Oklahoma; Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina; Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio; and John Paul the Great Catholic University in Escondido, California. The University of Dallas is also listed, but Campus Pride notes that it has applied for an exemption but has not yet received it.

In May the Obama administration issued a directive expanding the definition of "sex" in Title IX to include "gender identity." Several federal organizations like the ED, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Housing Administration (HUD) threatened to withhold federal money from states refusing to follow the directive.

After 23 states joined in a lawsuit against the government, federal attorneys maintained the mandate is not legally binding. Weeks later a federal judge ruled the term "sex" in the Title IX statute strictly refers to "the biological and anatomical differences between male and female," not gender identity.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in California are promoting legislation to take state funds away from Title IX exempt schools — even if the federal government grants the exemption.

Since pressure has been increasing for religious schools to promote LGBT politics, more and more colleges are opting to stay away from federal money. Christendom College and Wyoming Catholic College are among several others that have exemptions. David Whalen, Provost of Hillsdale College, notes, "As everyone knows, where there is money there is control."

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