Anti-gay students seeking counseling degrees lose in both Georgia and Michigan courts
”All three professors testified that they never told (Keeton) that she was required to change her religious beliefs in order to stay in the counseling program… It was not (Keeton’s) personal beliefs that were their concern, but rather only her inability to separate her personal beliefs in the judgment-free zone of a professional counseling situation.”
From a US District Court’s ruling regarding the case of Jennifer Keeton. The Augusta State University grad student had been enrolled in the school’s counseling program, but she was openly espousing anti-gay beliefs. Keeton filed a lawsuit because directors of ASU’s counseling program had requested her to become more familiar with gay populations. They allegedly felt her religious declarations were contrary to the current, non-judgemental practices of counseling professionals. The judge has decided that ASU’s requirements for Keeton to become more educated on gay issues were both consitutional and “academically legitimate,”according to this report. (Augusta Chronicle)
Recently, there was another case involving similar circumstances — a counseling student in Michigan, Julea Ward, did not want to counsel a gay client because, according the her, she “refused to affirm their lifestyle” and that she “could not affirm homosexuality” because of her “relationship with Christ.” She was expelled from the counseling program.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal group, represented both women and lost both cases. ADF is also currently trying to have a ruling by California Judge Vaugh Walker overturned. Walker recently decided that Proposition 8 (a voter referendum that banned gay marriages in that state) was unconstitutional.
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