House Republicans Want LGBTQI+ Students to Fund Their Own Discrimination On Campus
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WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02), Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, released the following statement after Republican Members of the House Committee on Education & the Workforce passed the Equal Campus Access Act of 2023 out of committee as part of a broader bill (H.R. 7683):
“Forcing LGBTQI+ students to fund on-campus groups that are actively discriminating against them is insulting,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. “Student organizations are an important part of every student’s college experience; everyone should be free to participate without fear of discrimination. Making public universities choose between their federal funding and protecting LGBTQI+ and other minority students from discrimination is cruel.”
BACKGROUND
Across the country, many schools and universities have nondiscrimination policies, known as “all-comers” policies, that require student groups recognized by the school to allow any student to join and seek a leadership position in the group. All-comers policies prevent student groups—most of which are funded by student activity fees—from discriminating against students, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Equal Campus Access Act would prohibit Higher Education Act (HEA) funding to public colleges and universities that refuse to recognize or provide benefits, such as funding, to student religious groups because of the group’s religious beliefs, practices, speech, leadership standards, or standards of conduct. This would create an exemption to schools’ all-comers policies by requiring schools to recognize student religious groups that discriminate against LGBTQI+ and other minority students if the school wants to receive HEA funds.
A version of the Equal Campus Access Act was included in H.R. 7683, the “Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act,” which was reported favorably out of the House Committee on Education & the Workforce today.
In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010), the Supreme Court heard a challenge to a public university’s all-comers policy by a religious student group that wished to discriminate against LGBTQI+ students (in violation of the all-comers policy) and still be officially recognized by the university. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the university and held that public universities could require student groups, including religious groups, seeking official recognition by the university to follow an all-comers nondiscrimination policy.
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