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Jewish and Christian Students Sue College Over Religious Freedom to Oppose Homosexuality

By Gudrun Schultz

ATLANTA, Georgia, April 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two students are suing their college over tolerance policies that forbid any criticism of homosexuality. The students say their religious freedom is being trampled by the school’s administration.

Ruth Malhotra, a Christian, and Jewish student Orit Sklar brought their case against the Georgia Institute of Technology in an effort to force the college to be more accepting of religious viewpoints, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month.

Malhotra experienced repeated reprimands from college authorities for protesting a campus production of the feminist propaganda play “The Vagina Monologues” and for speaking out against homosexuality in a letter to campus gay activist group Pride Alliance.

Malhotra said her faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality, but she is afraid to speak freely on campus.

“Whenever I’ve spoken out against a certain lifestyle, the first thing I’m told is “You’re being intolerant, you’re being negative, you’re creating a hostile campus environment,” she told the Times.

The lawsuit against Georgia Tech is one of several cases that have been brought against U.S. educational institutions for policies that infringe on students’ freedom of religion and freedom of speech rights.

In January 2006 a high school student at New York’s Fillmore Central High School won a lawsuit against his school when school officials refused to allow him to wear a pro-life shirt.

The student took his case to the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm that represents pro-life interests. The Thomas More Law Center filed a lawsuit against the school for forcing him to remove his pro-life shirt and barring his free-speech rights. The federal district court judge ruled in the student’s favour, saying the student’s First Amendment rights had been violated.

In a similar case in 2004, a Virginia high school student won the right to wear pro-life messages on her clothing after the Thomas More Law Center warned officials at her school that the school’s opposition was violating her First Amendment rights.

Read full LA Times article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-christians10apr10,0,6596503.story

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Federal Judge Says School Can't Bar Student From Wearing A Pro-Life Shirt
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06011206.html

Virginia School Backs Down: Allows Student To Wear Pro-Life Slogans on Clothing
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04061111.html

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