Six progressive organizations gathered on the Quad Thursday to protest the University’s recent granting of an exception to a required nondiscrimination clause in student organization constitutions.
The organizations included the UA Social Work Association for Cultural Awareness, UA Planned Parenthood Generation Action, UA Leftist Collective, Southern Youth Labor Movement, UA College Democrats and the Queer Student Association, all supported by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The exception, granted to conservative student organization Young Americans for Freedom after the group pushed back against the required statement in an email to University President Stuart Bell, omitted the terms “gender identity,” “gender expression” and “sexual identity” from a list of protected characteristics in the clause. The exception still included that membership was open to all UA students.
The University has required a nondiscrimination statement mentioning “gender identity,” “gender expression” and “sexual identity,” and other protected characteristics, since at least 2016.
Travis Jackson, a member of the board of directors for Alabama Equality, was given first billing on the announcement for the protest.
“I want them to retract removing those three expressions because what they don’t understand is that when they remove those wordings, they put fear and discomfort into our community,” Jackson said.
Jackson led the protest with multiple chants including, “No more silence no more fear, make our voices loud and clear, YAF we call you out, we’ll fight for change and that’s no doubt”; “Queer and trans people on this earth, healthcare access is what they deserve”; and “Down with discrimination, up, up, with liberation.”
Gabrielle Gunter, event coordinator for Generation Action and a first-year graduate student in women’s studies, was also concerned about the implications of the change.
“I believe that everyone has a right to join any student organization. We are a public university, so I think part of what they want to do is exclude trans individuals, nonbinary individuals; they want to exclude any queer individuals,” she said. “When the University rolls over for them, they roll over for fascism.”
Makhayla DesRosiers, a community organizer for the SPLC, said the organization was at the protest to “add support capacity” and add knowledge on “discriminatory practices.”
“The Southern Poverty Law Center understands hatred and bigotry, and right now we see that communities are in intense need of loving and understanding, and we stand in support of the Queer Student Association,” she said.
Following the protest, Alex House, associate director of communications for the University, said in an email statement that the University “prohibits discrimination against any member of our campus community” and that membership in registered student organizations continues to be open to all UA students.
House said the University has also updated its required nondiscrimination clause to remove reference to any particular protected class or characteristic. A reason for the change was not provided.
The new clause will now read: “Membership in registered student organizations shall be open to all students of The University of Alabama, without regard to any federally protected class, except in cases of designated fraternal organizations exempted by federal law from Title IX regulations concerning discrimination on the basis of sex.”
Trenton Buffenbarger, president of YAF, said his organization will continue to allow all students to attend its events.
“Even with UA policy, even without it, no one is barred from joining our organization. There’s no membership process. Anyone can come to any of our meetings or events,” he said.
Buffenbarger said that while YAF was open to all, the organization didn’t believe in “gender ideology,” adding that “by forcing us to put that language in our clause when we very vehemently disagree with it, it feels like compelled speech.”
“I don’t think UA will back down now, especially because we went through Stuart Bell’s office for this,” Buffenbarger said.
Jackson was concerned that actions like YAF’s may not stop here.
“If you remove the language, then you’re removing the queer and trans people from not only your group, but you’re encouraging other student groups to remove them from their groups as well,” Jackson said. “It’s not just language on the line; you’re putting fear and discomfort in minority groups at this university.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated March 28 to correct the spelling of a name.
