In an example of two-faced reporting, the sports blog SBNation on Monday declared Abilene Christian University's upcoming first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance "an amazing accomplishment." But its Outsports section (a strident mouthpiece for LGBT pressure groups) considered it "March Badness" when anti-LGBT bigots like Abilene Christian and Liberty University qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Both schools earned "Shame List" designation.
"As these two notorious schools of higher learning celebrate making it to the Big Dance this week, they also have the dishonor of being selected as two of the 150 colleges and universities named to 'The Shame List' by Campus Pride. This online index identifies the 'absolute worst campuses for LGBTQ youth' in the U.S., according to the org’s website," reports Outsports LGBT pitbull Dawn Ennis. "Shame on you, Liberty University and Abilene-Christian University."
Abilene Christian (players and coach celebrating NCAA Tournament berth in photo) and Liberty both have "horrid" histories of anti-LGBTQ actions, programs and practices, Ennis continued: “When it comes to Christian schools, there are few more famous than the one founded by Jerry Falwell in 1971: Liberty University” They added:
“Liberty University has qualified for the Shame List because it has a long and well-documented history of anti-LGBTQ discrimination, including placing students in conversion therapy; denying tuition discounts to same-sex and trans spouses of military personnel, despite offering those discounts to heterosexual and cisgender spouses; and a formal affiliation with the dangerously anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel.”
Quoting Campus Pride, Ennis accused Abilene-Christian of implementing "an aggressive, discriminatory ban on same-sex relationships for student employees (including same-sex dating) that has created an inhospitable, harmful climate.”
Despite the so-called flagrant records of open discrimination against LGBT students, Abilene-Christian and Liberty both get a pass from the NCAA, Ennis groans. Previous Outsports posts condemned the NCAA for not condemning universities with religious beliefs on sexuality:
Anthony Nicodemo scolded the NCAA for selling out the LGBT community: “A host of schools cloaked under the umbrella of ‘Christian institutions’ have athletes and coaches sign agreements forbidding them from coming out as gay. Schools like BYU prohibit same-sex relationships on campus.”
Haven Herrin wrote: “The NCAA’s own house isn’t in order. They are complicit with Christian schools that are often the proving ground for religious discrimination strategies that state legislatures borrow. NCAA member schools have been carving out pockets for legal bigotry as long as there has been a Title IX.”
Other schools who, in Outsports' opinion, deserved the big hammer of the LGBT juggernaut coming down hard on them are George Fox University, a Quaker-affiliated school in Oregon, and several interdenominational or interfaith universities that are "without doubt practicing various forms of Christianity to the exclusion of all other faiths."
Though individual institutions are reaping the wrath of an LGBT activist media outlet here, the NCAA is the real target. Ennis wants the NCAA to mete out harsh punishment to Christian bigots, but instead, she complains that “the NCAA turns a blind eye to what goes on back on campus.”
Apparently the NCAA respects the fact that religious freedom and free speech are America's first liberties and private universities are free to live out their faith.
