My Right or Yours?

By Naama Levy

The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment secures the Declaration of Independence’s notion that “all men are created equal”. Throughout history, this phrase held many different meanings. In the beginning “all men” indicated white male property owners. After years of struggle, “all men” became people of both genders and later of all races and national backgrounds. The most recent struggle to bring these two words to their full and pure meaning has concerned gays and lesbians, the victims of much discrimination today. One of many examples of this is a Christian student group in California refusing to admit gays and lesbians.
After being denied from several federal courts, the Christian Legal Society recently appealed to the Supreme Court, trying to force the University of California’s Hastings College of Law to provide them with funding and other benefits. The school has been reluctant to fund the group because it excludes membership to gays, lesbians, and nonbelievers.
The CLS claims that allowing membership to gays and lesbians to their group would be against their beliefs and thus violate their speech and religion freedoms. However, the federal courts have so far disagreed.
People tend to use the First Amendment as an excuse to discriminate. The attitude is “I’m entitled to express my religious opinion” meaning “I can hurt and exclude people if that’s what my religion tells me to do”. But our nation’s laws prohibit discrimination of any sort unless it’s for the interest of the government. The state didn’t forbid CLS to exclude gays and lesbians (that’s a whole other issue); they simply denied them funding because of their selectiveness in members, which is completely fair. If the group chooses not to accept specific minorities, they should be ready to bear the consequences and realize they won’t be treated like any other group.
However, the matter is controversial for a reason. One could ask why gay students would even be interested in joining a group such as the CLS, which is known for its conservatism. Considering the obviously different views involved about the definition of Christianity, wouldn’t a gay student just be asking for conflict by trying to join such a group? Couldn’t they found their own gay Christian group?
But the first amendment gives us the right to choose, the right to be treated equally. Although the law has done many good things for our country, we must sometimes separate ideals from reality and not go by the book. At the same time, we must remember to keep fighting for the minorities who still have to battle for their equality.