Co-Ed Fraternities?

I was in a fraternity in college. In fact, I was the president my senior year. As time goes on, I often feel the need to quickly follow this disclosure by some qualifier along the lines of "But don't worry, I wasn't, you know, one of those guys. My fraternity was really uncool! The Sig-Eps kicked our ass in basketball, the AZDs wouldn't mix with us -- I swear!"

That said, I have no regrets, my brothers were a great bunch of guys, and I'm still friends with a lot of them to this day. We had a great time in college, and even went to class now and then. Which is probably why last Thurday's federal appeals court ruling that CUNY can deny recognition to a fraternity on the grounds that it's all-male nature violates the university's anti-gender bias policy strikes me as complete crazy.

As the article notes, this reasoning flies in the face of ruling by a different appeals court last year that Southern Illinois University can't deny recognition to the Christian Legal Society due its anti-gay policies. The court said:

CLS’s beliefs about sexual morality are among its defining values; forcing it to accept as members those who engage in or approve of homosexual conduct would cause the group as it currently identifies itself to cease to exist,” says that decision. “What interest does SIU have in forcing CLS to accept members whose activities violate its creed other than eradicating or neutralizing particular beliefs contained in that creed?”

Personally, I think homophobia born of religous conviction is homophobia nonetheless. But that's me; it's a free country, and the First Amendment freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly are the foundation on which our civil society rests. It's alarming that our colleges and universities are often the places where those values are least likely to be respected.