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[snowdarkred]

Justices Rule Against Group That Excludes Gay Students

Personally, I'm happy with the ruling. Schools have policies that say that in order be recognized and have the protections and benefits of that relationship, the club has to be inclusionary - which is to say, if a student is not unruly or disruptive/violent, they have to able to freely join.

In my opinion, religious clubs have no business receiving official recognition anyway. Religious clubs are, by definition, exclusionary. It's not a sport, where you have to qualify in some way in order to play, it's a group of people who share a religion (This also includes atheist clubs, since they are about religion as well - the lack of one.) This isn't to say that all religious groups should be banned; merely, they shouldn't receive federal money.

Those that argue that this ruling is somehow against the first amendment - free speech and religion and all that good stuff - well, it's not. It doesn't, anywhere in it, say that they are limiting the groups' right to reject certain members on a certain basis - merely that they can't use federal money and the university name while doing it.

Comments

[rengeek.livejournal.com]

Does this mean cultural and heritage groups shouldn't receive the same recognition either? By definition, they're exclusionary too. Should gay groups?

[snowdarkred.livejournal.com]

By cultural groups, I assume that you mean clubs like the (I can't remember the exact name at the moment) Young Black Men of America? I dunno. It is a slippery slope, but if it's a cultural appreciation - like, anyone can join and learn about X culture, even if they are not of that culture, than it's, IMO, okay to have them get federal money. But I think that if any club says 'you cannot join because of X, Y, or Z' they shouldn't be there. (And this doesn't apply to competition sports because you have to make the team based on your abilities....Which brings up the question of honors clubs. Huh.)

As for gay clubs, if they aren't allowing straight students to join, then no, they shouldn't. I'm not talking about, in any case, letting hecklers or whatever in. There should be rules about polite discourse, and if anyone breaks those, their out no matter who they are, but if you're going to be getting public funds, it ought to be open for everyone. If they want to exclude people, they could simply move off-campus or something.

I don't think that religious groups will ever be out here. It's too ingrained - and it's fine to be religious. I just don't support religion and government rubbing elbows any more than is very strictly necessary.