Gay Insults Allowed At GeorgiaTech

It might not be encouraged, but it is now officially OK to malign someone in a Georgia Tech dorm. And verbal assaults and derogatory signs? They're allowed, too.
In response to an ongoing lawsuit filed by two conservative student leaders earlier this year, Georgia Tech agreed this week to change portions of a speech policy for students living in on-campus housing that lawyers have alleged is vague and unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester ordered Tech on Monday to abide by an agreement to change the code. Tech took out wording that prohibits students from any attempt to "injure, harm" or "malign" a person because of "race, religious belief, color, sexual/affectational orientation, national origin, disability, age or gender."
David French, a lawyer for the Christian-based Alliance Defense Fund representing the students who brought the suit, called the court order a "win for free speech."
"Tech students now won't have to enter a zone of censorship when they walk on campus," he said. "They now have the same rights as every Georgian."
The order puts the speech code under judicial supervision, meaning Tech would have to go to Forrester if it wants to change it in the next five years.
The speech code issue was just one of a list of complaints brought by Tech students Ruth Malhotra and Orit Sklar, who have said Tech's policies aimed at protecting students from intolerance end up, instead, discriminating against conservative students who speak out against homosexuality and feminism and other issues.
National Christian groups have taken up the cause of challenging "politically correct" tolerance policies at several schools.
And suits, like the one at Georgia Tech, have been filed across the country by nonprofit defense funds like the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents the Tech students.
Penn State University recently agreed to revoke its speech code after a similar lawsuit.
The codes, which are aimed at promoting and protecting diversity and tolerance, were added at many college campuses in the 1980s and '90s.
Malhotra, a self-described conservative Christian attending graduate school at Tech this fall, and Sklar, an engineering major from New York who is president of Hillel, a Jewish student organization, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit this spring against President Wayne Clough and other top officials at Tech saying they feared they would face sanctions for expressing their views on campus and violating Tech's student conduct guidelines.
In addition to calling for the repeal of the housing speech code, the suit challenges the fact that Tech, like many public institutions, won't fund political or religious activities through student activities fees.
The suit also says Tech has wrongfully allowed a gay group on campus, "Safe Space," to talk about different religions' views on homosexuality.
The voluntary program trains college staff and students on issues relating to gay and lesbian students and provides a manual for counseling students, which describes different religions' take on the morality of homosexuality.
The lawsuit has sparked everything from eye-rolling to angry letters to the editor in the campus newspaper.
Tech officials said they could not comment on the rest of the ongoing lawsuit.
However, Tech spokesman David Terraso said the changes in policy do not affect the overall student code of conduct. "This is not a campuswide speech code," he said. "This is a very narrow set of guidelines by the Department of Housing."
from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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