Dean over at
Deans World tipped me off to this
Washington Times article on a white, male student who was singled out for discrimination. During a discussion in an English class at the University of North Carolina, Timothy R. Mertes a white male Christian, expressed that he was "disgusted, not threatened" by homosexual behavior.
Elyse Crystall the Professor of the English class took offense to his statement and apparently decided to berate him by sending an email to everyone in the class afterwards describing his beliefs as "hate speech".
"The e-mail message not only subjected the student to intentional discrimination and harassment, but also discouraged the robust exchange of ideas that is intrinsic to higher education and is at the very heart of the Constitution's protection of free speech," Alice B. Wender, the Education Department's southern regional director of civil rights concluded in a letter to UNC Chancellor James Moeser on Wednesday.
The ruling was hailed by Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican
...
"This vindicates this young man's First Amendment rights to speak out, as he has acknowledged, as a Christian," Mr. Jones said. "So I'm going to look at this as a victory for students in this country who feel that they have a right to express themselves. If you don't have that right in a collegiate classroom, what rights do you have?"
The sad part of the story as that, other than a ruling, no disciplinary action was metted out. I wonder if this had been a black lesbian female expressing her displeasure with straight white men, or an arab straight man saying the same as Mr. Mertes and then being harangued in an email by the Professor if the outcome would have ben different. I believe it would have.
So in my opinion, Mr. Mertes was discriminated against again by the ruling with no consequences.
Another further disturbing thing in the article is the mention of the University attempting to shut down a Christian fraternity for not allowing homosexuals and non-Christians from joining.
The federal ruling comes as Mr. Moeser and UNC administrators at the Chapel Hill campus have moved this month to shut down a male Christian fraternity there, Alpha Iota Omega, on the grounds the student group is violating the university's anti-discrimination policy because it excludes non-Christians and self-professed homosexuals from membership. The fraternity has filed a federal lawsuit against UNC to protect its membership policy from university interference.
I'm all for civil rights, but I don't believe your civil rights should trump a group of peoples rights to congregate with others. There are black fraternities, Hispanic fraternities and probably illegal alien fraternities (don't chuckle they probably exist, but only in secret) and no one is breaking those up.
That reminds me of the recent woman who wanted to break into the male only Masters Tournament of golf in Atlanta. Sometimes people just want to congregate with others they can associate with. I'm pretty sick of people trying to break up any little group that forms to just have fun together without an outsider coming in and stirring things up "just because".
Next thing you know will be a woman breaking up fraternities all together because they won't let her join one. Or a guy wanting to get his kicks by joining a sorority. STOP already I say, get a life and stop trying to kill everyone's comfort zones.
