Homophobia Allegations Continue to Cause Firestorm at UVA Law School

As a graduate of UVA Law, I am following the aftermath of former UVA Law professor, William Eskridge Jr., before Congress with interest. During the years I was a student at the law school, I cannot think of a single openly gay student or professor. Not a one out of over 1000+ students. Sadly, I tend to believe Eskridge's allegations since even now homophobia is alive and well in the Commonwelth of Virginia. One only need look at GOP statewide candidates Taliban Bob McDonnell and the gay-hating Ken Cuccinelli to imagine the atmosphere across the state some 24 years ago. Indeed, even today it is perfectly legal for LGBT employees to be fired because of their sexual orientation. Things have improved at UVA greatly (there is now even a gay fraternity), but the state of Virginia as a whole is an anti-gay backwater in terms of LGBT Virginians having any legal protections whatsoever. Here are highlights from a new story in the ABA Journal:

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An almost 25-year-old law school tenure decision is suddenly controversial, following testimony by a now-high-profile professor before a Congressional committee last month that he was denied fair consideration due to his sexual orientation. In response, the law school's dean says it does not discriminate and strives to maintain a welcoming environment to all members of the academic community.

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William Eskridge Jr., who is gay, cited his own experience in 1985 at the University of Virginia School of Law as an example of why the proposed Employment and Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 is needed to ban both states and private employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the UVA Law Blog and Above the Law.

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Eskridge says he himself first found about an adverse appointments committee report that unfairly discounted his scholarship when the chairman "stormed into my office and screamed at me for 10 minutes or so," apparently under the mistaken belief that Eskridge already knew about the report and complained. "With clenched fists and a beet-red face, the chair of the committee threw a tantrum that included a string of accusations, such as 'stabbing me in the back' and behaving in the treacherous manner that he and his colleagues ought to have expected of a 'faggot,' " says Eskridge in his testimony to the House Committee on Education and Labor.

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Hunter of Justice provides a link to Eskridge's testimony. Eskridge's accusations have created a firestorm in law school circles and sparked a response from the current dean of Virginia's law school. His written statement is detailed in Brian Leiter's Law School Reports:

Dean Paul Mahoney, who came to the law school after Eskridge left, says those with whom he has spoken deny that Eskridge was targeted due to his sexual orientation. Eskridge, writes Mahoney, was deferred for a subsequent tenure decision, rather than being either granted or denied tenure, because "the faculty wished to see the fruits of his promising, but nascent, scholarly interest in legislation before granting tenure.

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As I have stated before, to interview at any of Virginia's top law schools - that, of course excludes Regent University and Liberty University's Christo-fascists law schools - law firms must agree to a non-discrimination policy that includes non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. Yet NONE of the major law firms in the Hampton Roads area has an openly gay partner. That's right NONE of them. And I was forced from a firm because I was gay. Virginia has a long, long way to go until it enters the 21st century and bans religious based discrimination against its LGBT citizens.