New Kentucky Law Allows Student Groups to Discriminate Against LGBT Students
PoliticsKentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, who declared 2017 the “Year of the Bible,” has signed a religious freedom law that effectively allows public school student groups to discriminate against lesbian, gay, and transgender people, and other minority students. It also allows teachers to use the Bible as an educational text.
The law, SB17, allows students to express religious and political views in homework and class projects “free from discrimination or penalty,” distribute political and religious literature, and wear religious items and symbols. It also states that no “recognized or religious political student organization is hindered or discriminated against” in its “determination that only persons committed to its mission should conduct these activities.” That means that if student groups want to discriminate against other students, including LGBT classmates, and cite their own religion as justification, it’s allowed.