TN Christian Academy Passes Schoolwide Gay Ban to Punish One Gay Student

At least one Rossville, TN, parent is questioning school policy after her child’s school sent an updated note defining its position on homosexuality.

“My initial reaction is that it was specifically aimed at one person, and I felt very sad about that,” said the parent, who did not want to be identified

Rossville Christian Academy is a private 4K-12 school with about 300 students.  The parent believes the school’s “ban” on homosexuality is illegally aimed at one gay student.  The new policy reads:
“Homosexuality is forbidden in scripture (Romans 1:27, Leviticus 18:22).  A staff member or student who promotes, engages in, or identifies himself/herself with such activity through any word or action shall be in violation of this policy.  Should the administration determine a violation of this policy, the person involved will be subject to disciplinary action with the possibility of permanent dismissal.  Any applicant who is not in compliance with this policy will not be admitted.”

We contacted several Rossville Christian Academy board members for interviews, but they either did not return our calls or denied our requests.  The parent we spoke with says she will not go as far as to remove her child from the school at this point, but will continue to question policies.
“If you’re going to single out one thing that you say is a sin, then maybe we have to address every single thing,” she said.

MIlton Hersey School Defends Recting 13-Year-Old With HIV

Administrators at the Milton Hershey School, a Pennsylvania boarding school for underprivileged and at-risk youth, are standing by their decision to reject a 13-year-old student with HIV. In statement on its website, the School defends its actions:

“The School decided that it could not admit the student who uses the pseudonym Abraham Smith due to factors relating to his HIV-positive status. This decision was not made based on bias or ignorance. We considered a number of factors relating to the risks posed to the health and safety of others, and our ability to reduce those risks and maintain confidentiality in our unique residential environment.”

We know that HIV is not transmitted through casual contact and, thankfully, that universal precautions can address the concerns of transmission in a typical school environment. Our unique environment, however, also poses unique concerns. A significant concern is that HIV can be transmitted through sexual contact. We systematically encourage abstinence, and we educate our children on sexual health issues. But, as special as they are, our teenagers are the same as teens all across the country. Despite our best efforts, some of our students will engage in sexual activity with one another. Given our residential setting, when they do, they will be doing so on our watch.”

That’s got to be the first time we’ve heard a school admit its students have sex.

With help from the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, the unnamed boy—who is currently on the honor roll—and his family are suing the 102-year-old academy.
In a recent conversation with Anderson Cooper on CNN, AIDS LAW PA director Ronda Goldfein and CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin makes the case that the Americans with Disabilities Act, Congress and the Justice Department have made it clear that one’s HIV status cannot deny them access to public accommodations.


 
If the name “Milton Hershey” rings a bell, that’s because the school is indeed named after the founder of Hershey’s Chocolate and is located in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Milton and his wife had no children, and the wealthy entrepreneur sunk much of his estate into a trust fund for the school. (Ironically, the Hershey Company landed in hot water this summer for enticing foreign students to come to the U.S. and then forcing them to work in grueling factory jobs.)

So if you’re bothered by the school’s decision consider boycotting Kisses, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Rolos, Milk Duds, et al. They’re pretty much wax and sugar anyway

Cuyahoga County gives $100,000 to former worker, settling sexual-orientation bias case

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A former Cuyahoga County employee won a $100,000 in the settlement of a sexual-orientation bias case.

Shari Hutchinson, a lesbian who worked for nearly eight years at the county's child support enforcement agency, sued the county in 2008 and claimed she was denied promotions because she was openly gay. She also claimed administrators retaliated against her when she complained.

Hutchinson and her lawyers announced the settlement Wednesday at a news conference at the City Club of Cleveland.

She said she was content with the settlement because it means she stood up for her rights. "I've seen a lot of discrimination and I'm afraid that other people could lose their jobs," said Hutchinson, 52.

Cuyahoga County Law Director Majeed Makhlouf declined to comment on the case.
"The settlement speaks for itself," Makhlouf said.

Hutchinson said she applied for more than 25 job promotions during her tenure at the county agency, but all were denied. She said county administrators passed her over for higher-paying positions and instead promoted or hired less qualified, straight workers.

In an effort to prevent a promotion, a supervisor told his boss that Hutchinson "writes for a 'lesbian porn magazine' and her license plate, PACK8, has her lesbian 'pen name,' " according to the lawsuit.

The county had fought Hutchinson, arguing that gays and lesbians do not fall under the Equal Protection Law of the U.S. Constitution.

But U.S. District Judge James Gwin of the Northern District of Ohio rejected the county's argument in late April.

In his decision to allow the case to move forward, Gwin criticized the county for arguing that "all of Hutchinson's claims must fail because sexual orientation is not a protected class, and thus does not merit the constitutional protection, under the Equal Protection Clause, that Hutchinson seeks."

After an effort by the county to have evidence dismissed, Gwin ruled in late September that the case should be heard by a jury. Days after this ruling, county attorneys began negotiating the settlement.

Hutchinson, who continued to work during the litigation, is currently unemployed. As part of the settlement, Hutchinson said, she is not allowed to work at any county department except for judicial offices.

Hershey School Turns Away Boy With HIV

NBC Philadelphia, Tim Furlong

The Delaware County boy and his mother say it's discrimination and now the Milton Hersey School is facing a lawsuit.

HIV-Positive Boy Denied Admittance to...

 

The Milton Hershey School was founded by the chocolate tycoon as a school that "nurtures and educates children in social and financial need to lead fulfilling and productive lives."

But it seems that fulfillment won’t be coming for a 13-year-old honor student from Delaware County who is infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

"I feel no other teenager should go through this, being denied just because they have HIV," the boy said in an exclusive interview with NBC Philadelphia’s Denise Nakano.

His lawyer has filed a discrimination suit in U.S. District Court that alleges that the Hershey School "violated multiple anti-discrimination laws" by not admitting the boy based on him being HIV Positive.

The lawsuit was filed under a pseudonym and the boy and his mother's identities weren't revealed per their request.

Multimedia

Admission Denied for Student With HIV

• Read the entire discrimination complaint

The private boarding school doesn’t deny that they rejected the boy’s admission because of concerns for the health and safety of fellow students. They even petitioned to have the court review the case, they said.

Milton Hershey School released a statement Wednesday saying in part that “in order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others.”

(The entire statement from the Hershey School is listed below.)

Ronda Goldfein from the AIDS Law Project is representing the boy and his mother in the federal discrimination lawsuit.

"If you have a school that’s open to the public, then it’s open to the public," Goldfein said. "If you have a student that has a particular need and requests assistance, then you accommodate. You don’t simply say we don’t like you, we don’t like your diagnosis, you can’t come here."

"It makes me angry, like really, really angry because they don't understand how great he is," the boy's mother said. 

The 13-year-old has lived with HIV all of his life but doesn’t feel it defines him.

He excels in school, is active in sports and is learning to speak two foreign languages. He was hoping to go to Hershey -- a cost-free, private boarding school for children from low-income families -- to advance his education.

"They didn’t look at whether my client presented any threat, they just said 13-year old boy with HIV, oh no, that’s too dangerous," Goldfein said.

The lawsuit calls for Hershey to admit the boy and give unspecified monetary damages.

"I think that it was wrong to put me through emotional distress," the boy said.

Here is the entire statement from the Hershey School:

Today, Milton Hershey School had planned to file a request in federal court asking the court to review our decision to deny enrollment to a child who is HIV positive because of concerns for the health and safety of our current students.

We had been in discussions with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, which is representing this 13-year-old boy. Recognizing the complex legal issues, the School was preparing to ask the court to weigh in on this matter. Unfortunately, attorneys for the young man took the adversarial action of filing a lawsuit against the School.

The decision to deny enrollment was a challenging one for us to make. Like all our enrollment decisions, we need to balance our desire to serve the needs of an individual child seeking admission with our obligation to protect the health and safety of all 1,850 children already in our care.

Attorneys for this young man and his mother have suggested that this case is comparable to the Ryan White case. But this case is actually nothing like the Ryan White case. Milton Hershey School is not a day school, where students go home to their family at the end of the day. Instead, this is a unique home-like environment, a pre-K to 12 residential school where children live in homes with 10 to 12 other students on our campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others.The reason is simple. We are serving children, and no child can be assumed to always make responsible decisions which protect the well-being of others.

That is why, after careful review and analysis, we determined we could not put our children at risk.

Vandal Spray paints graffitti on NC University LGBT Center

The GLBT Center in Harrelson Hall at North Carolina State University in Raleigh was vandalized Monday night with graffiti painted over its doors and showcase reading "fags burn" and "die", the Technician Online reports:

Sergeant Jeff Sutton of Campus Police said the vandalism occurred in a span of about 25 minutes, some time between 8:30 and 9 p.m. "We do not have any suspects at this time. We're going to try to look at some camera footage going into Harrelson Hall during that time frame," Sutton said.

Adam Ward, a graduate student in comparative biomedical sciences, is a graduate adviser for the GLBT Center. "No one was able to see who sprayed-painted this, but believe me, there will be a University response. We will continue working with University Police, and I thank all of our community members and allies for standing up for equality and what's right," Ward said in a Facebook post.

The graffiti is being investigated as a "hate incident".


Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz1bA3fp1VS

Straight Man Banned from Donating Blood for "Appearing Homosexual"

 Aaron Pace is admittedly and noticeably effeminate, but he says he is not homosexual.

 

Still, his looks, character and behavior prompted a blood donation center to reject him when he tried to donate blood recently and he’s miffed, to say the least.

“I was humiliated and embarrassed,” said Pace, 22. of Gary. “It’s not right that homeless people can give blood but homosexuals can’t. And I’m not even a homosexual.”

Pace visited Bio-Blood Components Inc. in Gary, which pays for blood and plasma donations, up to $40 a visit. But during the interview screening process, Pace said he was told he could not be a blood donor there because he “appears to be a homosexual.”

A few things:

• The blood ban on gay men is insane. All blood in the United States is screened for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and a legion of other diseases. A flat ban on gay men (or men who have had even a single gay experience) is bad business and medically unsound. (In the UK, gay men may donate blood after ten years of celibacy.)

• While male-to-male sexual contact infection rates are quite high, so are high-risk heterosexual contact infection rates.

• Does anyone else think it’s weird that the Chicago Sun-Times calls Mr. Pace “noticeable effeminate”? Talk about fueling the flames of ignorance here…