Student Says She Was Punished After Refusing to Support Gay Adoption

Via ifeminists,

A Missouri State University graduate has sued the school, claiming she was retaliated against because she refused to support gay adoption as part of a class project.

According to this article, Emily Brooker was required to participate in a project promoting gay foster homes and adoption. According to the article:

The students were required to write and individually sign a letter to the Missouri legislature in support of gay adoption. Brooker says she refused to sign the letter because of her religious convictions, and alleges she was punished for taking that stand.

Brooker says she was accused of "violating the school's Standards of Essential Functioning in Social Work Education." She is suing the university's board of governors, the school president, and four faculty or administrators of the School of Social Work.

I suspect this is a pretty hot topic on campuses these days. When I was in law school, I had a professor who was gay. It was no big deal when he was assigned to teach my estates and trusts class, and I enjoyed his style so much that I signed up for his family law class. I liked his classes because he was very knowledgeable and approachable, and, as opposed to some of my other profs, he stayed current on issues within the subject matter. Plus he was very challenging but never condescending, a rarity in law school.

A friend of mine decided to do a research project under his direction. She was interested in non-traditional adoptions in Texas, and he ok'd the project. The problem was, my friend's definition of "non-traditional" and the professor's were two different things. My friend was interested in adoptions by grandparents, older adults, singles, etc. The professor was interested in gay adoption. He gave my friend tons of literature on the subject and information from gay groups which were pushing various gay rights issues.

Needless to say, this difference in definitions lead to a real moral dilemma for my friend, who is a devout Christian. Eventually, she dropped the project because of her discomfort with the professor's intended direction.

But that experience, coupled with this story, makes me wonder how many people are being lead in the direction of promoting various gay initiatives because of a professor's directive. For those who think the student should have done the project and kept her mouth closed, would you have felt the same way if the professor had required students to write letters in support of partial-birth abortion bans? What about cloning or embryonic stem cell research? At what point does a student's moral objections allow them to refuse to participate in a school project?