D.C. High School Ordered to Recognize Anti-Gay Group
A federal judge ruled that a D.C. high school must recognize the anti-LGBTQ Fellowship of Christian Athletes as an official student group.
A federal judge ruled that a D.C. public high school must allow a Christian sports organization that denounces homosexuality to form a chapter at the school.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, of the District of Columbia, ruled earlier this month that D.C. Public Schools violated the constitutional rights of members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) when it suspended — and later barred — the group from Jackson-Reed High School in Northwest Washington.
As recently as 2022, the club had previously been allowed to exist, to meet on campus, and to enjoy the benefits of being an officially recognized student club or group.
But that fall, an assistant coach formally complained to the school system about FCA’s requirement that leaders affirm that homosexuality is immoral and oppose any sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage.
Officials at Jackson-Reed High School argued that the requirement conflicted with its nondiscrimination policies, which, like D.C.’s human rights law, prohibits disparate treatment or harassment of LGBTQ individuals.
The school said it would allow the chapter to remain active if it dissociated from the national FCA or changed its policy regarding the limiting of leaders.
A student sought to reactivate the chapter, with school and district officials saying the FCA could remain on campus if it simply elected its leaders, arguing that it was protecting the safety and well-being of students by “promoting an equitable environment free of discrimination.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a right-wing conservative legal group, argued that the school district and school officials had discriminated against FCA members by not permitting them to be recognized as an official club, claiming they were being treated differently from other school-recognized groups.
In court, Jackson-Reed Principal Sah Brown said that only four of 60 school-recognized clubs have been authorized to exclude members or leaders based on gender identity, race, ethnicity, national origin, or other protected characteristics.
But he also noted that none of those clubs had actually enforced those exclusions and that each club had dropped language restricting membership from the school’s official website.
The office of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb also defended the ban, arguing that FCA’s lawsuit was based on a misreading of other student groups as exclusionary when they did not in fact limit their membership to any student that did not meet certain criteria.
The Attorney General’s office contended that FCA had sought “preferential treatment” by allowing religiously-affiliated organizations to discriminate.
But Friedrich, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, disagreed with those arguments.
In a 31-page opinion, Friedrich found that officials at Jackson-Reed had treated FCA differently from other student groups at the high school that appeared to base membership on characteristics such as sex, race, ethnicity, and gender identity.
She also cited examples of chapters of groups like Girls Who Code, ethnic and racial heritage associations, and the school’s pro-LGBTQ Gender Sexuality Alliance as examples of secular clubs or groups that were allowed to admit or exclude members based on certain criteria or “ideological alignment,” arguing that the same courtesy was not extended to religious groups.
Friedrich wrote that nondiscrimination laws “have done much to secure the civil rights of all Americans,” but “like all other laws, must be applied evenhandedly and not in violation of the Constitution,” ordering Jackson-Reed High school to reinstate the group’s chapter.
However, she denied a request from FCA that her ruling be applied to all schools in the District.
It remains to be seen whether other organization chapters will emerge at the District’s other high schools following the ruling. The D.C. Attorney General’s office has not announced whether it intends to appeal the decision.
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