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.

Former UVA Law Professor Describes Anti-Gay Bias at Law School

A reader sent me a link about this story a little while back and in the chaos of earlier this week I never got to talking about it. Now a new post on UVA Law Blog goes into great detail about the 1985 denial of tenure to a professor at the University of Virginia Law School because he is gay. I graduated from the Law School in 1977 and I hate to say it, but I can well believe Professor Eskridge's allegations. During my time at UVA gays remained pretty much invisible both at the student level and definitely at the professor level. Yes, there were suspicions about some faculty members, but everything remained under the radar. Fortunately, things at UVA have changed markedly and the University has at times led in the push for domestic partnership benefits and the Law School requires would be employers recruiting on campus to agree to a non-discrimination policy vis-a-vis students' sexual orientation. Personally, I believe most law firms lie about applying the policy in reality, but at least the Law School endeavors to stop discrimination. Here are some story highlights:

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Maybe the history of homophobia at the Law School - gone now, of course! - didn't start and end with the students. William (Bill) Eskridge is a law professor at Yale who teaches Constitutional Law, Legislation, and Sexuality, Gender, and the Law, but he used to teach at Virginia back in the 1980s. Mr. Eskridge is gay. And last week, he gave testimony (opens a .doc file) to the House Committee on Education and Labor on the pending Employment and Non-Discrimination Act of 2009, which would "bar sexual orientation and sexual orientation and gender identiy discrimination in the workplace by states as well as by private employers."

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According to Mr. Eskrdige, the ENDA is a proper exercise of Congress's authority 14th Amendment . . .Why is this law needed? Well for one thing, Mr. Eskridge alleges that the Law School denied him tenure because he is gay: For an example explained in my statement, I was denied tenure at the University of Virginia School of Law in 1985 based in part on my sexual orientation. The hysterical behavior and deployment of anti-gay epithets by key state officials indicates that the decision was influenced by anti-gay prejudice. The inability of state officials to explain their decision without engaging in libel underlines the irrationality of the state discrimination and its vulnerability to equal protection attack.

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After the committee’s report was ratified by the faculty, blood was in the water. For the remainder of my tenure at the University of Virginia School of Law, I was harassed on a regular basis by faculty colleagues and parts of the law school’s administration. Several faculty friends and at least one member of the committee explicitly urged me to get out of Charlottesville as quickly as possible, partly because there was so much hatred toward me on the faculty and partly just for my own mental sanity and physical safety (during the tirade by the chair of the committee, I believed that he was going to assault me). So I visited at the Georgetown University Law Center in academic year 1987-88 and accepted a permanent position there in 1988. . . .

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[S]hame on the Law School if his allegations are true. From reviewing Mr. Eskridge's accomplishments, its seems like the Law School lost a great scholar.Thanks to Hunter of Justice and an anonymous tipster for bringing this to our attention.

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LGBT employees in Virginia continue to have no protections whatsoever from employment discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Out attorneys in large law firms in Virginia continue to be few and far between and closeted gay attorneys in large local law firms live in daily fear of being fired. That's right ZERO protections. The passage of ENDA is desperately needed to protect citizens in backwards states like Virginia where we will have to wait possibly decades before the state moves out of the Dark Ages.