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Texas A&M student body president vetoes "GLBT Funding Opt-Out Bill"
Found this story via the Give a Damn Campaign. Houston Chronicle reports:
After backlash from constituents and advocacy groups, the push by state Rep. Bill Zedler and conservative members of the Texas A&M student government to defund campus resource centers for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students has fizzled.
John Claybrook, Texas A&M student president
John Claybrook, Texas A&’s student body president, vetoed the “Religious Funding Exemption Bill”, which began as the “GLBT Funding Opt-Out Bill”, less than two days after its passage by the school’s Student Senate on a 35-28 vote.
“The sentiment towards the bill has not changed and has caused great harm to our reputation as a student body and to the students feeling disenfranchised by the bill,” Claybrook explained in an open letter. “The damage must stop today.”
The bill was designed to allow students who objected to funding the GLBT Center on campus for “religious or moral reasons” to apply for a reimbursement from the school for the $2 activity fee. Tuesday, a day before the final vote was to be taken, the bill’s author worked with others to expand the language of the bill to “not target a specific group.”
In the Texas House, Zedler’s pre-filed amendment that would have prohibited state money from being spent on “Gender and Sexuality centers” was withdrawn without drama Thursday during the daylong budget debate. The amendment alleges these campus resource centers “support, promote, or encourage any behavior that would lead to high risk behavior for AIDS, Hepatitis B or any other sexually transmitted disease.”
John Claybrook, Texas A&M student president
John Claybrook, Texas A&’s student body president, vetoed the “Religious Funding Exemption Bill”, which began as the “GLBT Funding Opt-Out Bill”, less than two days after its passage by the school’s Student Senate on a 35-28 vote.
“The sentiment towards the bill has not changed and has caused great harm to our reputation as a student body and to the students feeling disenfranchised by the bill,” Claybrook explained in an open letter. “The damage must stop today.”
The bill was designed to allow students who objected to funding the GLBT Center on campus for “religious or moral reasons” to apply for a reimbursement from the school for the $2 activity fee. Tuesday, a day before the final vote was to be taken, the bill’s author worked with others to expand the language of the bill to “not target a specific group.”
In the Texas House, Zedler’s pre-filed amendment that would have prohibited state money from being spent on “Gender and Sexuality centers” was withdrawn without drama Thursday during the daylong budget debate. The amendment alleges these campus resource centers “support, promote, or encourage any behavior that would lead to high risk behavior for AIDS, Hepatitis B or any other sexually transmitted disease.”
Claybrook's letter http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/theeagle.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/8f/98fbbc48-9e07-11e2-a8f0-001a4bcf887a/515ef173cd4d4.pdf.pdf
Even without the wording that specified particular groups that would be affected in the final version of this bill, the sentiment towards the bill has not changed and has caused great harm to our reputation as a student body and to the students feeling disenfranchised by this bill.
One of the major arguments used in the passage of this bill has been brought into question. To make matters clear, there is currently no option for students to opt‐out of paying fees. Rather, in actuality, there is a Student Fiscal Appeal Process, which “will consider appeals involving issues related to the application of University Student Fiscal Policy.”
The main premise of S.B. 65‐70 is to “support the current standing process of allowing students who object, for religious and moral purposes, to the use of their student fees and tuition… (and) to opt‐out of paying an amount equal to their share of the service funding from their fee and tuition money.” Since no such “current standing process” exists as is described in the bill, S.B. 65‐70 serves no purpose. However, what this bill represents still remains and must be done away with.
Conservatives complain about how colleges are liberal indoctrination centers. Astounding how a majority of the Texas A&M student senate could side with a crazy homophobic right wing state legislator.
