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Biological males living in dorms with biological women at a Christian college seems unfathomable, but after a College of the Ozarks’ request an injunction from the Biden administration’s new transgender order was denied by a federal judge, it could soon become reality.
Quick Facts
The Biden administration’s policy allows the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to investigate complaints of discrimination based on gender identity. The policy forces Christian institutions to house students according to their gender identity rather than their biological sex. Schools that don’t adhere to the rule can face fines of up to six figures.
College of the Ozarks President Jerry C. Davis said, “The Biden Administration’s policy forces College of the Ozarks to decide between defending its religious liberty from government overreach or violating our core beliefs.”
After a federal court denied the school’s request for an injunction, Davis stated,
“While we are disappointed in today’s ruling, we expect to appeal so that schools are not forced to open women’s dorm rooms to males and violate their religious beliefs. For more than 100 years, College of the Ozarks has provided a distinctly Christian education to students with financial need. We will not abandon our mission. The fight to protect our religious freedom has just begun.”
The school is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). ADF Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake said,
“The government can’t force schools to open girls’ dorm rooms to males or vice-versa. President Biden is punishing religious schools, organizations, and churches simply because of their beliefs about marriage and biological sex. Religious schools like the College of the Ozarks are free to follow the religious tradition they represent. That’s why we are asking the court to halt enforcement of this unconstitutional directive while our lawsuit proceeds.”
HUD has historically interpreted sex discrimination to pertain to biological sex, but under the Biden administration, gender identity has superseded sex.
The HUD memorandum reads,
“At the core of this Department’s housing mission is an endeavor to ensure that all people peacefully enjoy a place they call home, where they are safe and can thrive, free from discrimination and fear. Yet, this ideal remains unrealized for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queeridentifying persons, who have been denied the constitutional promise of equal protection under the law throughout most of American history. Courts and governments have routinely withheld legal legitimacy from loving couples because of their sex and denied many persons the freedom to express a gender that defies norms. These injustices have perpetuated across our civic institutions: the workplace, the marketplace, places of education, and many others. But among the most personal and fundamental of these institutions is housing, where, when granted the protection of fair housing law, we all can enjoy the happiness and freedom to love whom we choose and to safely express who we are.”
The Biden administration paints a picture of America as a historically discriminatory nation with an ongoing crisis of rampant discrimination. This “discrimination” is the insistence that science exists and that males are males and females are females. To the Biden administration, the requirement that men not be allowed in women’s dorm rooms, bathrooms, shelters, and showers and vice versa is discriminatory.
What is happening is another example of gaslighting by the left. The left seeks to control the conversation and rewrite the definition not only of “male” and “female” but also discrimination. The Biden administration is attempting to create a new and ludicrous reality that even Lewis Carroll couldn’t have imagined his character Alice enduring in the nonsensical world of “Alice in Wonderland.” Moreover, if someone violates this Bidenesque “standard,” they can be fined and possibly even shut down as the president has weaponized HUD to serve as a political bludgeon to impose his illogical views on the rest of the nation.
College of the Ozarks, by contrast, provides what so many students need in this country — opportunity and freedom. Its business model is unique in that it allows students to work their way through all four years of school rather than take on a crushing avalanche of student loan debt. Through the school’s Bible-based policies, students not only are granted opportunities they would otherwise be denied but they also learn about the value of hard work, gain a full appreciation for the education they are receiving, and leave school without having to face the years of debt that so many other new graduates do. No school should be penalized for adhering to common sense, much less a Christian school which is following its religious beliefs and helping its students get the best possible start in life.
This court decision was the opening salvo in what will be a long, protracted fight to protect not just religious liberty but also the safety and privacy of young women.
Ryan Bangert of ADF explained, “Policy pushed forward by President Biden forces the College of the Ozarks to open its dormitories to members of the opposite sex. The Fair Housing Act has long prohibited discrimination on several grounds, including sex, but by redefining sex, the Biden administration is twisting the Fair Housing Act to harm young women directly.”
As the school appeals this decision, let’s pray that the rest of the judiciary has a better understanding of the Constitution and basic science.
