Written by Don Byrd
Following weeks of controversy and criticism, California State Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) has dropped a key provision from proposed legislation that would have removed exemptions from anti-discrimination laws for religious colleges and universities in the state.
SB 1146 was designed to address what Lara considers “unacceptable discrimination” against LGBT and transgender students in California’s private religious institutions. Instead of ending the exemption for religious schools, the amended bill requires schools to disclose their religious exemption to prospective students as well as report expulsions for violating morality codes to the state.
The LATimes reports:
“I don’t want to just rush a bill that’s going to have unintended consequences so I want to take a break to really study this issue further,” the senator said. He said the requirement for schools to report expulsions based on morality codes to the state Commission on Student Aid will give him information on how common such cases are.
The Christian Science Monitor referred to the development, which was lauded by religious school and LGBT anti-discrimination advocates as a “lesson in compromise.”
