There are more than 100,000 LGBTQ students at U.S. religious schools.
When Jace Dulohery started school at Oklahoma Christian University in 2020, no one knew he was transgender. He had already begun to medically and socially transition, and no one questioned him living in male housing his freshman year.
However, when he opened up to a resident assistant about being trans that year, the information made its way up the administrative ladder at the school, which is affiliated with the Churches of Christ.
Eventually, he said he was forced to live in private housing.
“There’s just no room for a normal college experience when there’s actual discrimination happening,” Dulohery told ABC News. “This is not Christian behavior. This is not loving. This is not merciful. This is not compassionate. This is not of God. This is harmful.”
Dulohery said the university’s legal team cited the religious exemption to Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, as the basis for its actions. It’s just one way that he says the school has become increasingly hostile against LGBTQ people on campus.
He, other LGBTQ students and allies hope that the ongoing national debate about LGBTQ discrimination in education can push their movement forward and put an end to Title IX’s religious exemption.
Advocates say the exemption claimed by Oklahoma Christian in certain circumstances, and which is claimed by more than 100 other universities, allows schools to partake in legalized discrimination against LGBTQ people, even while federal law otherwise prohibits it.
They also say that the exemptions reinforce a particular view of Christianity that they say is not reflective of the faith as a whole.