[article] U.S. Medical college bans gay group

damien

http://www.nynews.com/newsroom/122904/a0129medschoolgroup.html
By MELISSA KLEIN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: December 29, 2004)

VALHALLA — At New York Medical College, there are clubs for Jewish students, lovers of ballroom dance and those who are passionate about neuroscience, orthopedics or pediatrics.

Until recently, gay students also had their own organization, one that the Catholic-affiliated college allowed to exist as long as there was nothing that hinted of homosexuality in the title, such as the words "pride" or "rainbow." But when the Student Support Club changed its name to Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender People in Medicine, it found it was not welcome on campus and was told to disband.

"The goal, unfortunately, has been to marginalize us and hide us," said Joshua Sahara, a second-year student who had been president of the organization. Sahara said the club's mission was education on health issues, not promotion of a "homosexual lifestyle," as some on campus had suggested.

The controversy, which had largely been confined to the campus, was brought out in the open this month by the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, a group that works to promote equality in health care. The organization urged its members last week to write to the school, press and elected officials to protest the college's decision.

"They're trying to make sure that their peers have good information that will help them be effective, compassionate health-care providers," said Joel Ginsberg, interim executive director of GLMA, which is based in San Francisco. Ginsberg said the group decided to make its concerns public after its November letter to Ralph O'Connell, dean of the medical school, went unanswered.

The college released a statement that it was not its practice "to discriminate in any way on the basis of sexual orientation." "New York Medical College retains the right to conform all policies, practices and procedures in a manner that preserves its rights, character and identity as a health sciences university in the Catholic tradition," the statement said. "The college will neither sponsor nor support an organization whose objectives are incompatible with our institutional values."

The medical school, which was founded in 1860, began a relationship with the Archdiocese of New York in 1978. The archdiocese, according to the college's Web site, helped restructure the college's debt and added Catholic hospitals to those affiliated with the school. "Truthfully, I didn't realize how Catholic it was," said Sahara, who is 27, grew up in Alaska and attended college in Hawaii.

Sahara joined the Student Support Club last year, which then had five members, and said he worked successfully to have a sexual orientation clause put into the university's anti-discrimination policy. Emboldened, the group decided to change its name to Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender People in Medicine, which is similar to the names used by other such student groups nationwide.

The group's mission was to improve health-care delivery to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender patients. It hoped to hold a conference on minority health issues and provide opportunities for students to shadow health-care providers who work with gay patients. "We just feel that education is the most important thing here," Sahara said.

Sahara said there was trouble from the start of the current school year, when the club was not included in a student handbook and was told it could not participate in a fair in which organizations try to attract new members. In October, administrators told him the organization's goals were not consistent with the college's mission and the Catholic tradition, he said. The club, which had grown to about 13 members, would not receive funding and would not be allowed to meet as an organization on campus, Sahara said.

Laura Newman, Westchester County's liaison to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, said other colleges in the county, including faith-based schools, had taken steps to welcome gay students and that even many high schools have "gay-straight" alliances. She said she would have to research whether the medical school's actions violated the county's anti-discrimination policy.

"For a school like that to do that here in Westchester is really unacceptable," Newman said. "We sort of want to put a little bit of peer pressure, public pressure on them, to say maybe you want to think harder about doing the right thing."