- M. O. Stevens
With a growing contingent of religious colleges and universities requesting federal permission to discriminate against transgender people, US Sens Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley say the public should have better access when those requests are made.
Oregon’s two US senators are joining six other Democratic lawmakers to ask the US Dept of Education to publish all requests from higher education institutions for exemptions under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
“At a very minimum, we believe students, parents, and taxpayers have a right to know when institutions of higher education—as recipients of tax dollars—seek and receive exemptions under Title IX as well as the justifications for those exemptions,” the senators wrote in a letter today to Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “Accordingly, we ask that you publish, on a publicly available website and in a searchable format, the Title IX waiver request letter sent by institutions of higher education as well as the Department of Education’s response.”
As the Mercury reported recently, Multnomah University, a tiny Christian school in Northeast Portland, applied for Title IX exemptions in February, seeking an official pass to refuse admission to transgender students. The school’s president explained to the Mercury that he believed the school already has that authority, under a similar exemption obtained in 1989, but that Multnomah wants clarity.
Local advocates were surprised to hear about the application, first noted by Minnesota-based website The Column, which reported on a sudden increase in requests for exemptions, apparently tied to Newberg-based George Fox University receiving a Title IX exemption based on gender identity last year.
Passed in 1972, Title IX offers strong protections against discrimination, but also allows private schools exemptions if not discriminating would violate their religious tenets. Schools with such exemptions are free to accept the federal aid many of their students rely on to pay tuition.
Besides Wyden and Merkley, the letter was signed by Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, along with senators Al Franken (D-Minnesota), Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), Patty Murray (D-Washington), and Barbara Boxer (D-California).
Here’s the entire letter [pdf].