Jesse Cruz, a gay junior attending Seton Hall University, is suing the Catholic school because they relocated him to a different dorm after his roommate complained. Cruz contends that they moved him because he’s gay. The university claims they’ve done nothing wrong.
Excuse me while I have flashbacks.
For what it’s worth, Seton Hall University is an alma mater. When he attended SHU, a friend of him sued the university when they refused to recognize our gay-straight alliance (despite having a non-discrimination policy that included sexual orientation and taking federal funding). Our gay-straight alliance was forced to meet in private while enacting desperately needed programing and providing support for LGBT students.
While helping to lead the banned gay-straight alliance, he continued to work for the university as a resident assistant in one of the school’s dorms. At one point, the school threatened to fire him for his involvement with the banned gay-straight alliance, and i told him that he needed to “pick between his personal beliefs and employment by the school.” In fact, a gay administrator told me those very words. He threatened to sue, and went to the press. The school back-peddled, and then backed down – and claimed the whole thing never happened. The thing is, it had happened.
he kept his job as a resident assistant, and continued to advocate for LGBT students through the gay-straight alliance.
At a different point in time, in honor of national coming out day, members of the banned gay-straight alliance (including myself) wrote pro-equality messages on the sidewalks – including quotes by MLK. Seton Hall University sent out a team of maintenance workers to wash away the words with power washers and hoses. The school later claimed that the sidewalk washing was done “by accident.”
I can’t help but remember the circumstances of my situation – and the school’s legacy of deception – when I read about Cruz’s predicament. Indeed, the school does have a policy that allows students to change rooms on “room change day” – but it is the policy to change the student that wishes to me moved, and not the roommate (which is exactly what happened to Cruz). In my three years as a resident assistant, we never moved the roommate, but always the person filing the complaint. So it does appear that Cruz received unfair treatment.
A lawyer for SHU claims that “the university has never taken any action against Mr. Cruz based on his sexual preference.” Sexual preference? Kinda says it all, in my humble opinion.
But I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out in court.
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