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 Judge: Money For Anti-Gay Baptist School Wrong
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: March 6, 2008 - 3:00 pm ET
(Frankfort, Kentucky) A judge ruled Thursday that
Kentucky GOP lawmakers and former Gov. Ernie Fletcher violated the state
constitution by appropriating $11 million in state funding to a Baptist
university.
The state had argued that the money, to be used
to create a pharmacy school at the University of the Cumberlands, was for the
betterment of the state's health and welfare and therefore constitutional.
The LGBT rights group Kentucky Fairness Alliance
filed a lawsuit along with advocates for the separation of church and state and
the Jefferson County Teachers Association.
Named as defendants were the university, Fletcher
and a dozen Republican lawmakers.
Kentucky Fairness Alliance
executive director Christina Gilgor called the ruling a victory against
state-subsidized discrimination.
The $11 million grant was
approved by the GOP controlled legislature and despite pressure to veto the
measure Fletcher signed the appropriation but said the funds would be held until
after the legal question was resolved.
The legality of the grant grew out of a 2006
incident in which the university expelled a student it found out is gay.
Jason Johnson, 20, was expelled after posting his
sexual orientation on a Web site.
The dean's list student received all Fs on his
transcript when he was expelled. (story)
Following public outrage the university agreed to
allow Johnson to send in work to finish his courses and receive final grades but
he was barred from the campus.'
Although the suit was filed by the Kentucky
Fairness Alliance there was scant mention of the Johnson situation in legal
arguments.
Attorney David Tachau instead argued that the
grant did not fall under the heading of "health and welfare" and was
instead in support of education at a private, sectarian institution. That, said
Tachau, makes it unconstitutional.
In his argument he cited a 1983 ruling that said
public money could not be used to buy textbooks for private schools.
The university, represented by Timothy J. Tracey,
of the Virginia-based Center for Law & Religious Freedom, argued that the
legislature acted responsibly and legally by seeking to address the state's
shortage of pharmacists.
©365Gay.com 2008
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