Regent University Sued for Anti-LGBT Discrimination

In what will hopefully turn out to be a major financial blow to Regent University and other discriminatory colleges and university in terms of loss of federal funding, Regent and the U.S. Department of Education are being sued as part of a class action for violating Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting sex-based discrimination against students at schools that receive federal funds. If the plaintiffs are successful, Regent and similar schools where anti-LGBT bigotry are official policy, could lose millions of dollars in federal funds (Liberty University should likewise lose all federal funds).  If the court follows last years Supreme Court ruling that Title VII ban on se based discrimination in the employment realm applies to LGBT individuals, the case should be a slam dunk for the plaintiffs.  No doubt Regent will shed crocodile tears and claim its religious beliefs are under attack, but there is an easy solution if Regent wants to continue its anti-LGBT bigotry: stop accepting federal taxpayer derived funds.  A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at this long overdue lawsuit.  Here are article highlights (note how Regent apparently pushes totally discredited "conversion therapy'):

Jamie Lord was told she was going to hell. She was told gay people were pedophiles and child molesters.

And she was told if she brought her girlfriend on campus at Regent University, where Lord is a law student, she could be kicked out of school.

Lord is one of 40 current and former students at Christian colleges and universities named as plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education.

At issue is the religious exemption to Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex-based discrimination against students at schools that receive federal funds. The Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP), the nonprofit that filed the suit, claims that the religious exemption has allowed schools to continue with discriminatory practices.

The suit aims to “put an end to the U.S. Department of Education’s complicity in the abuses and unsafe conditions thousands of LGBTQ+ students endure at hundreds of taxpayer-funded, religious colleges and universities.”

A spokesperson for Regent declined to comment on Lord’s claims, citing federal privacy laws.

“Regent University upholds Biblical values and teaches traditional Christian principles,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “... as followers of Christ, Regent staff and faculty are committed to treating every student with love, dignity, and respect.”

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon in March with 33 initial plaintiffs. In June, seven more — including Lord — joined.

In court documents, students and alums described being forced into conversion therapy, facing expulsion, sexual and physical abuse, “as well as the less visible, but no less damaging, consequences of institutionalized shame, fear, anxiety and loneliness.”

Lord, 23, grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, with dreams of becoming a detective. She graduated from University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in criminology and decided law school would be a good fit. Her family wasn’t particularly religious but she said she was excited to attend Regent University, lured by its high bar exam pass rate and the sizable scholarship offered.

At an event for accepted students in the spring of 2019, Lord said she pulled a professor aside, informed him she was a lesbian and asked if that would hinder her ability to fit in at Regent.

“He said that they loved diversity, that they have great conversations in the classroom and that the love all sorts of different people,” Lord said in a recent interview near her home in Virginia Beach. “Of course, I took his word on it.”

Instead, Lord said she has endured years of discrimination at the hands of Regent staff because of her sexuality. She said she was routinely berated in and outside of class, and her mental health suffered.

She said she informed a dean that a professor was harassing her because of her sexual orientation, but nothing changed. And the dean told Lord that, per the school’s policy, she could be kicked out of the school for having “premarital sex,” even though they could not give her an answer as to what they defined premarital sex as in a lesbian relationship, according to the complaint.

“If he had just told me the truth right then and there I wouldn’t have come,” Lord says now, remembering the reassurance she received at the event for accepted students.

According to REAP, there are about 600 four-year, degree-granting nonprofit Christian colleges in the United States, about one-third of which have policies against LGBTQ+ students in their student code of conduct policies.

The Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, of which Regent is a member, contends the lawsuit is “frivolous” and a threat to religious freedom. The organization asserts that if the suit succeeds, low-income students who wish to attend Christian colleges will lose access to federal aid.

According to a U.S. Treasury Department website that calculates federal aid, Regent received $116 million in 2018, the last year for which data is available.

Lord will soon enter her third and final year of law school, taking all her classes online — a mutual agreement with the school, she said. She and her girlfriend are now engaged.

Her experiences at the school, however, have cast doubts on her desire to practice law. And she said she’s never felt further from God.

If bigoted institutions like Regent (and Liberty University) cannot survive without federal funds, they need to either end the bigotryor go out of business.