Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 18:14:27 -0700 From: Ron Buckmire Subject: UConn Military Recruiters Face High Court Test _________________________________________________________________ News from the ACLU National Headquarters Connecticut High Court Hears Gay Law Students' Challenge to Military Recruitment on Campus Ruling Could Impact Recruiting Programs at Other State Universities FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Denny Lee, ACLU National Tuesday, October 24, 1995 (212) 944-9800 ext. 424 Philip Tegeler, Connecticut CLU (203) 247-9823 (New Haven, CONN., Oct. 23) In a major test of the military's discriminatory recruitment program at colleges and schools, the Connecticut Supreme Court heard oral argument on Tuesday, Oct. 24 in a lawsuit brought against a state-funded university for allowing military officials to discriminate against lesbian and gay students on campus. The lawsuit, brought by the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union in 1992 on behalf of the Gay and Lesbian Law Students Association at the University of Connecticut, charges that the school violated the state's civil rights law for allowing organizations that discriminate to recruit students on state-owned property. "This is an important test of the state's gay civil rights law, at the state's own law school," said Philip Tegeler, acting legal director at the Connecticut CLU, who will be arguing the case before a five-judge panel of the state's highest court. "We're asking the law school to enforce its non-discrimination policies equally for all campus recruiters." The case is on appeal from the Hartford Superior Court which held, in July 1994, that the UConn School of Law gave the military "license to discriminate through the use of the school's facilities." Judge Frances Allen ruled that the law school violated the state's human rights law, and permanently barred the school from allowing the military to use school facilities for recruiting purposes. The human rights law, passed in 1991, prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, public accommodations, education, housing, and credit. Connecticut is one of nine states including California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin that have laws protecting lesbians and gay men from discrimination. About 150 municipalities nationwide have enacted similar laws. Although no federal law currently protects the basic right of lesbians and gay men to be free from discrimination, President Clinton has recently come out in support of pending federal legislation that would establish such protection in the workplace. Around the country, the military's recruitment ban on gay students has been drawing increasing protests on college campuses. About a dozen universities and law schools have voluntarily prohibited military officials from recruiting because of its anti-gay policy. Some schools, like UConn, have been sued over allowing military recruiting programs. In New York, the state's highest court ruled that the city of Rochester could ban military recruiters from its schools because of the military's policy against gay men and lesbians. The lawsuit was brought by a 17-year-old Rochester high school student in 1991. "As long as the military continues to discharge lesbian and gay servicemembers, it has no place in the public schools and universities in this country," said Marc E. Elovitz, staff attorney at the ACLU's national Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, and co-counsel in the case. "The University of Connecticut violated state law, as well as it own non-discrimination policy, by opening its doors to discrimination and subjecting its students to unequal treatment. No student should be deprived of opportunities and educational benefits because of their sexual orientation." 30 _________________________________________________________________ Media Relations Office 132 W 43rd Street, NYC 10036 (212) 944-9800 ext. 414