INTEGRITY The Lesbian & Gay Jusice Ministry of the Episcopal Church Office: (212) 468-6136 Home: (201) 868-2485 P.O. Box 5202 New York, NY 10185 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SPECIAL TO: ENS and RNS HEADLINE: GENERAL SEMINARY EXPELS LESBIAN PROFESSOR FROM FACULTY HOUSING New York, N.Y. June 25, 1993 Professor Deirdre J. Good has filed a complaint with the City of New York Commission on Human Rights against the General Theological Seminary, the Episcopal Church's oldest seminary, alleging discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation and marital status. Dr. Good has been ordered to vacate faculty housing at the end of her upcoming sabbatical for allegedly violating school policy regarding cohabitation. She is professor of New Testament at General where she has taught since 1985. The seminary's Executive Committee took its action expelling Good based on its interpretation of The Com nunity Life Handbook, which states: "Persons living together as couples in seminary housing must be married as this is understood by the Church. Good, who is a member of Integrity/New York, is a lesbian and lives with her life partner. Good's living arrangements were brought to the attention of seminary officials in February. Although the faculty subsequently advised that the housing policy needed to be reconsidered, the seminary's dean since May 1, the Rt. Rev. Craig B. Anderson, former Bishop of South Dakota, apparently decided to go along with the Executive Committee. However, the committee wanted Good to move out immediately and Bishop Anderson persuaded them that she ought to be perrnitted to remain until January 1994, after a sabbatical she will be taking during the Michaelmas (fall) 1993 term. The student/resident housing policy was written under the previous dean, the Very Rev. James C. Fenhagen, who retired last year. There is no question that it applies to students and ostensibly to nonseminary renters, but there is doubt about its application to faculty. The Faculty Bylaws make no mention of such a policy. However, the Faculty Bylaws, passed in 1981 before Dean Fenhagen's tenure, state that the faculty member must live (with family, where appropriate) in seminary housing, and must not sublet. There are currently two other faculty households in residence at the seminary which include persons not related by blood or marriage. General Seminary is historically a residential community. Faculty salaries reflect the fact that housing is provided. The Executive Committee does not propose to dismiss Prof. Good from the faculty (she has tenure) but neither does it offer to increase her salary to compensate for the deprivation of housing. The City of New York Commission on Human Rights offered to mediate this dispute, but the seminary declined. The New York City Lesbian and Gay Rights Law, enacted in 1986, specifically prohibits discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation. General Seminary has for some years rented apartments to the general public who have been required to subscribe to the Community Life Handbook policy. The complaint states that the General Seminary housing constitutes "a housing accommodation as defined by the Administrative Code of the City of New York."