Yale University, which was established by clergy to educate Congregational ministers, has turned “hideous,” contends talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh.
It’s because of a program the university has launched that discriminates against Christian students.
Limbaugh said on his show Tuesday, “The next story is hideous.
“Yale Law School has decided to suspend stipends for students who work for Christian law firms. The LGBTQ organization at Yale Law is called the Outlaws, and the Outlaws are livid that Yale is giving stipends to students who are Christians who might take intern and other temporary work at Christian law firms. They think that’s discriminatory and bigoted, and they think Yale should have nothing to do with anything Christian,” he said.
“After the Yale Federalist Society invited an attorney from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a prominent Christian legal group, to speak about the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, conservative students faced backlash. Outlaws, the law school’s LGBTQ group, demanded that Yale Law School ‘clarify’ its admissions policies for students who support ADF’s positions.”
He said that in addition, Outlaws “insisted that students who work for religious or conservative public interest organizations such as ADF during their summers should not receive financial support from the law school.”
“Only LGBTQ and leftist students should. And Yale has already caved to one of those demands by restricting financial support for conservative students,” he said.
Aaron Haviland reported at the Federalist that Yale “has found a roundabout way to blacklist legal and nonprofit organizations that don’t adhere to Yale’s understanding of gender identity.”
He explained the university announced by email it was “extending its nondiscrimination policy to summer public interest fellowships, postgraduate public interest fellowships, and loan forgiveness for public interest careers. The school will no longer provide financial support for students and graduates who work at organizations that discriminate on the basis of ‘sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.'”
He continued: “Yale based its decision on a unanimous recommendation from the school’s Public Interest Committee. The committee explained: ‘The logic of our broader recommendation is that Yale Law School does not and should not support discrimination against its own students, financially or otherwise. Obviously, the Law School cannot prohibit a student from working for an employer who discriminates, but that is not a reason why Yale Law School should bear any obligation to fund that work, particularly if that organization does not give equal employment opportunity to all of our students.'”
He said conservative students were outraged, but Yale has been telling them a different story – that the restrictions only target groups with discriminatory hiring practices.
“Yale currently says it envisions a self-certification process for employers. For a Yale student to receive a summer public interest fellowship, the employer must certify that it is in compliance with Yale’s nondiscrimination policy. If an organization does not self-certify, then the student will receive no financial support from the law school.
“There are several reasons to be concerned,” he said.
“First, Yale’s only assurances that the policy will be limited to hiring practices, and not applied to policy positions, are private emails sent to individual students. This is not enough. What ultimately matters is the text of the policy. Behind-the-scenes promises about how the policy will be interpreted and applied are not binding. The law school’s public position is too vague.
“Second, even if this new policy is limited to hiring practices, it’s still deeply troubling. The policy was obviously a response to ADF. Yale made this clear when it thanked Outlaws for raising this issue, which was in the context of a protest against ADF. And in announcing the new policy, Yale said, ‘while the law governing nondiscrimination against LGBTQ people is subject to contestation, the Law School’s commitment to LGBTQ equality is not.'”
And, Haviland wrote, once Yale has caved in to the pressure of an activist group, “who is to say that the school will not cave again and start denying admission to conservative applicants?”
