Augusta State U. Is Accused of Requiring a Counseling Student to Accept Homosexuality

[Jefferson23]

* She insists that her rights are being violated, as her religious views she claims will not interfere with counseling gays...right.


July 22, 2010



By Peter Schmidt

A graduate student in school counseling is accusing Augusta State University in federal court of violating her constitutional rights by demanding that she work to change her views opposing homosexuality.

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Augusta, Ga., the student, Jennifer Keeton, argues that faculty members and administrators at the university have violated her First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion by threatening with her expulsion if she does not fufill requirements contained in a remediation plan intended to get her to change her beliefs.

Ms. Keeton's accuses the university of being "ideologically heavy-handed" in imposing the requirements on her "simply because she has communicated both inside and outside the classroom that she holds to Christian ethical convictions on matters of human sexuality and gender identity." It argues that her views, which hold that homosexual behavior is immoral and that homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle, would not interfere with her ability to provide competent counseling to gay men and lesbians.

snip* Ms. Keeton is being represented by lawyers affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of Christian lawyers. The group has brought a similar lawsuit on behalf of an Eastern Michigan University graduate student who alleges she was dismissed from a counseling program for her beliefs about homosexuality. In 2006 the group extracted major concessions from Missouri State University in settling a lawsuit filed by a former social-work student who refused to respect a class project's requirement that she sign a letter to the state legislature in support of homosexual adoption.


in full: http://chronicle.com/article/Augusta-State-U-Is-Accused-of/123650/

[NC_Nurse]

1. Augusta State? Of course it's in GA...sigh.

I need to move.

[Jefferson23]

2. Maybe stay and help conquer. This will be a case to watch, the religious

right thinks they can prove their beliefs will not interfere with counseling gays, I want to hear this.

Augusta State did the right thing to insist she deal with prejudices, which she claims are all about her religion.

[baldguy]

3. .

[Jefferson23]

4. LOL, thanks for posting that, very good. n/t

[Dr.Phool]

6. That should be it's own post!

[Political_Junkie]

7. Love it.

:thumbsup:

[izquierdista]

5. A federal case out of it

That's good. When she goes down in flames it will be precedent for a much wider area.

[SocialistLez]

8. Hmmm.....this shall be interesting

:popcorn:

[niyad]

9. okay, I clearly haven't had enough to drink--HOW in the HELL does she think THIS

is possible:

It argues that her views, which hold that homosexual behavior is immoral and that homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle, would not interfere with her ability to provide competent counseling to gay men and lesbians.


on second thought, there isn't enough alcohol in the world to make that statement sane.

[Downwinder]

12. Is she saying that she could be homosexual if she chose to do so?

[era veteran]

10. I left segregated Augusta in 1967 for progressive Kentucky

I never knew a black person my age 'till H.S. This, even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Glad to get away.
It's not that I'm not interested, you see; Augusta Georgia is just no place to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g-rUedKu4M ... Dirt Band sung by trucks ... edited for stupid spelling

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. I wonder how this would be handled if she belonged to one of

those racist sects that teaches white supremacy. Would she be able to plead "religious freedom" or would they tell her, "Honey, you're not fit to be a counselor until you have some serious counseling yourself."

[jody]

13. Has ACLU joined in her defense? n/t

[jody]

14. At the same time Israel is imprisoning a Palestinian man for having sex with a Jewish woman.

A prohibition supposedly based on a Jewish interpretation of the Bible.