Where is separation of church and state when you really need it? A crosstown rival accused Catholic University President John Garvey of “sex discrimination” for reinstating same-sex dorms at his own religiously affiliated institution. Instead of throwing out the frivolous complaint filed by George Washington University legal gadfly John Banzhaf, the D.C. Office of Human Rights is seriously considering this outrageous and unwarranted interference with the internal affairs of a private religious university — even though director Gustavo Velasquez himself questions whether “co-ed dormitories are a right under this law.” Lacking any legal foundation, further action represents a direct attack on academic and religious freedom by the District of Columbia. When Garvey announced that his new dorm policy would go into effect for this year’s incoming freshman class, he specifically stated that his intent was to uphold CU’s religious mission to promote virtue and decrease the high levels of binge drinking and casual sex that plague most college campuses today. He cited a study by the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project that found such behavior decreases academic achievement and increases the risk of depression for students who engage in it. He pointed to another study by a Loyola Marymount researcher who came to the unsurprising conclusion that “hooking up” and binge drinking are greatly reduced when the sexes have separate living quarters.
The District’s anti-discrimination law is one of the toughest in the nation, but even it makes provision for separating the sexes for educational purposes. And there is simply no evidence that CU intended to discriminate in any way. On the contrary, the same-sex dorm policy is by definition nondiscriminatory because it treats male and female students exactly the same.
After Garvey’s announcement, CU reported that the number of freshman applications remained steady, indicating willing acceptance of the new dorm policy by the very people who would be directly affected by it — which doesn’t include the grandstanding Banzhaf. Since the GW law professor lacks legal standing to force his politically correct ideas on a private university he neither works for nor attends, he’s trying to use the D.C. government to do his dirty work for him. This is the same D.C. government that is battling an HIV/AIDS epidemic and the highest rate of sexually transmitted disease in the nation. The city obviously has enough to do without sticking its nose into CU’s dormitory decisions.
