The private religious school says it’s exempt from Title IX requirements. But students say it’s time for a change.
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The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into Brigham Young University and how it disciplines its LGBTQ students to determine whether the private religious school is violating their civil rights.
This type of federal scrutiny is surprising and rare, especially with church-owned schools like BYU — it typically happens only in places where there are believed to be potential systemic or serious issues.
“It’s really significant that investigators are stepping in now,” said Michael Austin, a BYU alumnus and vice president at the University of Evansville, a private Methodist school in Indiana. “It means there’s some reason to think the university has gone beyond the religious exemptions it has and is discriminating even beyond those.”
The Office of Civil Rights does not comment on pending investigations. However, OCR Assistant Secretary Catherine Lhamon reaffirmed in a letter to Worthen earlier this month that BYU is exempt in 15 areas of Title IX like housing and admissions “to the extent that application of these provisions conflict with the religious tenets of its controlling religious organization that pertain to sexual orientation and gender identity.”
BYU is allowed to discriminate in the provision of student accommodation based on sexual orientation and gender identity. BYU doesn’t pay tax. The rules date back to 1976 - the period when black people couldn’t go to the temple or hold the priesthood because of their skin colour. It’s now 2022. My flabber is gasted.
I don’t care if BYU as an institution exists, and practices their faith which includes telling LGBTQ+ types they’re awful. I don’t agree with them, and how they’re making the Queer community feel. What I have a massive problem with is federal tax dollars being sent its way. That, to me, is bananas.
- Doc
Trump is a fraud and is leading the white working class to disaster. - JD Vance
Did ROTC ever relocate to UVU after their commander couldn’t agree to not drink coffee I. His home? That was a few years back I think.
BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins wrote Wednesday in an email to The Tribune that Hogan has been working from UVU while the universities and the Air Force discuss the matter.
"If the Air Force decides as a matter of policy that it cannot allow those assigned to BYU to agree to abide by any provision of the honor code that is not independently required by Air Force regulations, we would be at an impasse and would support moving the detachment to UVU so our students would still have access to the program," Jenkins wrote. "Those who allow their lips to touch coffee, shall not be allowed to teach at our inverted pentagram anointed campus."
Did ROTC ever relocate to UVU after their commander couldn’t agree to not drink coffee I. His home? That was a few years back I think.
BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins wrote Wednesday in an email to The Tribune that Hogan has been working from UVU while the universities and the Air Force discuss the matter.
"If the Air Force decides as a matter of policy that it cannot allow those assigned to BYU to agree to abide by any provision of the honor code that is not independently required by Air Force regulations, we would be at an impasse and would support moving the detachment to UVU so our students would still have access to the program," Jenkins wrote. "Those who allow their lips to touch coffee, shall not be allowed to teach at our inverted pentagram anointed campus."
Having to pass a religious test in order to to gain a commission with the Department of Defense is deeply problematic. This is so asinine that it’s hard to put into words. Requiring a non-member military commander to pass your no sense religious test in his own home is a massive overreach by BYU and the Mormon church.
Tax churches now.
- Doc
Trump is a fraud and is leading the white working class to disaster. - JD Vance
Having to pass a religious test in order to to gain a commission with the Department of Defense is deeply problematic. This is so asinine that it’s hard to put into words. Requiring a non-member military commander to pass your no sense religious test in his own home is a massive overreach by BYU and the Mormon church.
Tax churches now.
- Doc
Can you imagine the righteous uproar from Oaks were the stipulations to work in reverse? Imagine what he’d say to the idea that Mormons needed to drink a coffee in their own home in order to gain a commission with the Department Of Defense? The Church wants BYU to operate as a completely separate sovereign state.
Having to pass a religious test in order to to gain a commission with the Department of Defense is deeply problematic. This is so asinine that it’s hard to put into words. Requiring a non-member military commander to pass your no sense religious test in his own home is a massive overreach by BYU and the Mormon church.
Tax churches now.
- Doc
Can you imagine the righteous uproar from Oaks were the stipulations to work in reverse? Imagine what he’d say to the idea that Mormons needed to drink a coffee in their own home in order to gain a commission with the Department Of Defense? The Church wants BYU to operate as a completely separate sovereign state.
Funnily enough it was a faithful Mormon who got me hooked on coffee. We were conducting night ops and we were at the ‘jump TOC (tactical operations center)’, and it had coffee and hot water for tea and cocoa. I was going to make a cocoa before moving out, and I watched him dump a cocoa packet in a coffee. I was like, “Whoa, dude, what are you doing?” I was amused, not judgmental, but he justified it that it’s better to be awake while driving over rough terrain and to repent later than be dead. I was like, “That’s pretty sound logic” so I tried it, and the rest is history - I have a coffee brewing right now, in fact.
- Doc
Trump is a fraud and is leading the white working class to disaster. - JD Vance