Ruth Institute Blog

An interesting, but not surprising twist.

A school district in Michigan doesn’t plan to reverse a teacher’s one-day unpaid suspension for kicking a student out of class because the boy said he didn’t “accept gays.”

It all started on October 20 at Howell High School, about 60 miles northwest of Detroit, when teacher Jay McDowell told a student in his classroom to remove a belt buckle with the Confederate Flag. She complied, but it prompted a question from the boy about how the flag differs from the “gay pride” symbol of the rainbow flag. Read more…

By Caroline May – The Daily Caller

At the end of last week Facebook announced that it had allied with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to remove what it considers anti-gay references from the social networking site.

“This violent, hateful speech has no place in our media – whether it is in print, on the airwaves or online,” GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said in a press release. “Facebook has taken an important first step in making social media a place where anti-gay violence is not allowed. Our community needs to continue to be vigilant and report instances of hateful comments and images across the site to Facebook moderators as well as post messages of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.” Read more…

By JESSE J. HOLLAND (AP)

WASHINGTON — An ideologically split Supreme Court ruled Monday that a law school can legally deny recognition to a Christian student group that won’t let gays join, with one justice saying that the First Amendment does not require a public university to validate or support the group’s “discriminatory practices.” Read more…

by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse. Originally pubished at National Catholic Register, March 22,2010.

“Domestic partnerships make us second-class citizens. We want marriage, just like everyone else.”

This is the constant refrain of the marriage-redefinition advocates. Drawing a legal distinction, any legal distinction, between same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples is unfair and amounts to ill treatment of the same-sex couples. But does this argument really hold up? Read more…

Associated Press

WASHINGTON, DC - Attacks on people based on their sexual orientation will join the list of federal hate crimes in an expansion of the law Congress approved Thursday and sent to President Barack Obama.

At the urging of Republicans, the bill was changed to assure that a religious leader or any other person cannot be prosecuted on the basis of his or her speech, beliefs, or association. But South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint worried that it would still “serve as a warning to people not to speak out too loudly about their religious views.” Read more…