So many of us take our openness for granted. Hartzler’s story is hard to reckon with, which is why I had to speak to him myself, not so much about the lawsuit but how he survived - and almost didn’t - in an environment like Oral Roberts University. It came in December 2017, shortly after Hartzler entered the university. After Donald Trump became president, the Department of Education granted the exemption. After President Obama's administration announced that discrimination based on gender identity would also violate Title IX, ORU requested a further exemption, allowing it to enforce anti-LGBTQ+ policies. Since the 1980s, ORU had had an exemption from the law - Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 - regarding provisions governing marital status and pregnancy. The lawsuit contends it is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and of the students’ equal protection rights. civil rights law that allows ORU and other schools to receive federal funds despite such discriminatory policies. Department of Education, seeking to strike down a religious exemption provision in U.S. I will not be united in marriage other than the marriage between one man and one woman.”įurther, Politico reported, within three months of graduation, Hartzler joined a class-action lawsuit against the U.S.
Hartzler had signed a pledge: “I will not engage in or attempt to engage in any illicit, unscriptural sexual acts, which include any homosexual activity and sexual intercourse with one who is not my spouse.
#WOMEN FORCED GAY SEX STORIES CODE#
“I remember thinking then, Oh, my gosh, is this a setup?” former student Andrew Hartzler told Politico, which also explained that Hartzler was gay and that he did not raise his hand because being gay violated the ORU honor code and he could be expelled for it. And then after his obnoxious tirade, the president would ask anyone who was having difficulty with this to raise their hand and bow their heads and pray. It was part of his “Holy Sex” sermon that pushed hard for straight sex. Well, imagine having this preached to you: “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable, they are put to death.” At least Catholics didn’t want to put me, as a man who has relations with another man, to death.Īccording to a fascinating and well-written and researched article on Politico, that statement was uttered by the president of Oral Roberts University, William Wilson, probably on many, many occasions.
And there was the priest abuse scandal that touched me directly, and how Catholic bishops just turned a blind eye. Cardinal John O’Connor showed no compassion, and I couldn’t understand that for the life of me.įrom a religion that always preached compassion, there wasn’t any. The religion treated you like a pariah, and I have vivid memories of watching the news during the AIDS crisis and being dumbfounded by the sit-in by ACT UP at St. It always seemed that there was nothing worse than growing up a closeted gay Catholic. Views expressed in The Advocate ’s Commentary articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, Pride Media.