Trump-appointed judge orders public high school to recognize anti-gay student group

A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump has ordered an anti-LGBTQ+ student club in D.C. to be reinstated at a high school, ruling it violated members’ constitutional rights by barring the group from campus.

The student club, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), asserts homosexuality is immoral and opposes sexual activity outside of marriage.

Related:

New York appeals court says Yeshiva University must recognize LGBTQ+ group

A four-judge panel agreed with a lower court ruling that the university is not exempt from New York’s anti-discrimination law.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich of the District of Columbia issued the ruling earlier this month to reinstate the group at Jackson-Reed High School in Northwest Washington.

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The case followed complaints to school administrators in 2022 by an assistant coach at the school, who objected to FCA’s requirement that student members affirm the national club’s discriminatory policies. In response, school officials told student members they could remain active on campus if they disassociated from the national organization or changed policy around the affirmation that student leaders are required to make.

When the club declined, school officials suspended the group from meeting on campus. The club had previously enjoyed the same benefits afforded other officially recognized student groups at the school. 

When a student sought to reactivate the chapter, school and district officials said that the FCA could remain on campus if it elected its leaders without the anti-LGBTQ+ pledge, arguing they were “promoting an equitable environment free of discrimination” in the district.

That’s when the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a far-right conservative legal group, took up the case and argued in court that the district had discriminated against the club by treating it differently from other school-recognized groups. 

The Becket Fund has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ causes and currently represents Yeshiva University in New York in its fight against recognizing an LGBTQ+ club at that school.

The D.C. Attorney General’s office defended the school ban, contending FCA had sought “preferential treatment” by asking the school to allow religiously affiliated organizations to discriminate.

The judge disagreed.

Nondiscrimination laws “have done much to secure the civil rights of all Americans,” Friedrich wrote in her 31-page opinion, but “like all other laws, must be applied evenhandedly and not in violation of the Constitution.”

The judge found that high school officials treated FCA differently from other student groups at Jackson-Reed based on membership on characteristics such as sex, race, ethnicity, and gender identity, citing examples like the group Girls Who Code and the school’s Gender Sexuality Alliance. These are secular clubs or groups that are allowed to admit or exclude members based on “ideological alignment” and specific characteristics, she claimed in the ruling.

The same courtesy was not extended to religious groups, she wrote.

The judge denied a request from FCA that the decision be applied to all schools in the district.

The D.C. Attorney General’s office hasn’t said if it will appeal the ruling.

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