Kenneth Cuccinelli II, Virginia Attorney General, has demanded – via personal letter – that VA public schools reevaluate, and ultimately rescind their current anti-discrimination policies that enumerate special protections to homosexuals. Sound familiar? Well, sorta. The difference of course being that we don’t have an anti-discrimination clause (yet). Cuccinelli’s motivation for such a controversial ruling, he says, is that the public school systems have no authority to distinguish themselves from state laws. Since there is no specific protection given to homosexuals over other groups of people under state law, there cannot be such a law within a public institution.
The gay community has responded to this by claiming that removing such anti-discrimination clauses will hinder top student applicants and professors from coming to the schools. Board members have asserted that the policy is in place to attract top students and faculty, and the VTech Student Government President was quoted saying it’s “going to make us lose top students. It’s going to make us lose top faculty.” Now if that isn’t completely ridiculous, it is at very least heavily exaggerated. How many top physics professors have declined tenure because of the lack of gay protections? And how many exceptional students turned down Cornell pre-nondiscriminatory days?
Of course, Cornell would presumably be excluded form the wrath of Cuccinelli, as it is a private institution. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how far he will be willing to push this agenda. If he does in fact take legal action, there were surely be quite a ruckus that will undoubtedly have aftershocks reaching Ithaca.
