How many of you remember this from a few years ago...
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - A gay rights group asked Gov. Ernie Fletcher Wednesday to veto state funding for a private Baptist university after a student claimed he was expelled for being gay.
The organization asked Fletcher to veto $11 million that Kentucky lawmakers approved earlier this week for building a pharmacy school and providing scholarships at the private University of the Cumberlands in southeastern Kentucky. Advocates hand-delivered a binder to Fletcher's office containing hundreds of letters and e-mails supporting their request.
"Discrimination is on its face wrong. Funding it with state tax dollars is unacceptable," said Christina Gilgor, executive director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance. "Our tax dollars should not fund a religious institution that teaches by example how to discriminate."...(MORE)
Well, it didn't really phase the accreditation, I guess the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education don't mind discriminating against us scary gay folk. But this didn't turn into a "win" all around...
From today's Lexington Herald Leader...
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Baptist university can't keep $11 million awarded by state lawmakers some four years ago to open a pharmacy school.
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Franklin County Special Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden had held in the initial ruling that the state appropriation violated a constitutional prohibition against public education money being spent on any "church, sectarian or denominational school."
The gay-rights group Kentucky Fairness Alliance filed the lawsuit in 2006 after the University of the Cumberlands expelled a gay student for posting comments about his sexual orientation and dating life on the Internet. Attorneys for the organization tried using the expulsion to bolster their arguments in the lawsuit that the school shouldn't receive funding from Kentucky taxpayers.
University of the Cumberlands argued that the state funding would help students and area residents alike by providing...
....STRAIGHT!!!.....
....pharmacists and other professionals needed in the Appalachian region, and that it was therefore a legitimate appropriation.
However, American Civil Liberties Union attorney Bill Sharp said Kentucky's constitution contains broader protections against public funding for private, church-affiliated schools than does the U.S. Constitution. Sharp said it appears some state lawmakers want to overlook those protections, which, he said, made the outcome of the lawsuit "extremely important."
I must say, I am pleasantly surprised by our Kentucky Supreme court on this. Even if their motivation wasn't the G/L/T/B community at heart, It still was a ruling that echos the separation of church and state in my opinion. What do you think?