Court to Rule on Gay Group Status In Georgetown Discrimination Case

Six years ago a group of gay students at Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown University field suit to force the Catholic-affiliated school to recognize their campus organization.

Now, long after all the principals have been graduated, the case has finally wound its way through lower courts to the District of Columbia's Court of Appeals.

While the present members of the group, Gay People of Georgetown University, have little involvement in the case, the Washington gay community, with the backing of D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, has taken up the plaintiff's side. Experts say the U.S. Supreme Court may ultimately decide the matter, which sets in opposition concepts of freedom of religion and sexual freedom.

In the 1979 suit, Gay People contended that the school violated a District of Columbia law forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation when it refused the group benefits offered to recognized student organizations.

In arguments presented to the court October 16, the university countered that the measure violates its Constitutional right to advance Catholic teaching. Georgetown policy is to grant recognition only to student groups whose positions are compatible with Catholic doctrine.

Recognition of gays would be construed as an endorsement of a homosexual lifestyle and would violate the Georgetown policy, according to university attorney Charles Wilson.

Georgetown, however, already officially recognizes at least two student groups whose principles conflict with Catholic beliefs, said Ann Schlafly, senior editor of the student daily, The Georgetown Hoya.

Both the Jewish Student Union, "which advocates the non-divinity of Christ," and the Women's Caucus, which supports birth control and abortion rights, have university sanction, Schlafly said.

The case has implications for Georgetown beyond allocating poster space on campus kiosks. Barry, a staunch supporter of gay rights, has denied the university over $200 million in municipal development bonds floated to build Georgetown's student center.

The mayor has refused to release the money until the suit is settled or Georgetown complies with the law, and that could be years after the bonds expire, Schlafly said.

The court will also determine whether the university actually discriminated in its actions toward Gay People. Georgetown argues that homosexuals are not among the classes of persons against whom discrimination is unconstitutional, and therefore that the D.C. rights act--one of the most sweeping anti-discrimination statutes in the country--is unconstitutional.

"The discrimination outlawed in the constitution are based on sex and race, classifications which are far more deep-seated than anything based on sexual orientation," said Wilson.

Wilson added, "These classifications are based on immutable characteristics: you can't change your race and, most of the time, you sex. No one will ever convince me that homosexuality is an immutable characteristic."