Subject: Conn. High Court Upholds Campus Ban on Military Recruiters
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 12:29:50 -0500

**AMERICAN  CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION**
_________________________________________________________________
News from the ACLU National Headquarters

    Citing Gay Rights Law, Connecticut High Court Upholds Ban on
                  Military Recruiting at University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                    Contact: Denny Lee
Wednesday, March 20, 1996                           (212) 944-9800 ext. 424

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut's highest court upheld Tuesday a ban
on military recruitment at the University of Connecticut School of
Law, ruling that the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on
lesbians and gay men violates the state's human rights law barring
discrimination based on sexual orientation.

    In a 3-to-2 ruling, state Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz wrote
"because the law school may not permit civilian employers to recruit
on campus if they discriminate, it may not permit the military, which
does so discriminate, to recruit on campus."  The decision upheld a
lower court ruling.

    "This is a victory for the lesbian and gay students who were being
unfairly disadvantaged by the military's discrimination," said Philip
D. Tegeler, acting legal director at the Connecticut Civil Liberties
Union, which brought the case with the national American Civil
Liberties Union.  "The ruling reinforces the role of universities to
ensure equal educational opportunities for all their students."

    The lawsuit was filed in 1992 on behalf of the Gay and Lesbian Law
Students Association at the university, charging that the school had
violated the state's civil  rights law by allowing an organization
that discriminates to recruit on state property.

    In July 1994, a Hartford Superior Court judge ruled that the
school violated the state's 1991 law prohibiting state agencies,
including educational institutions, from opening their facilities to
discriminatory employers.   That court permanently barred the school
from letting the military to use the college's facilities to recruit. 
Since then, students wanting to join the military have had to go off-
campus for their interviews.

    Similar laws barring sexual orientation discrimination have also
been passed in eight other states (California, Hawaii, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin) and more
than 150 municipalities nationwide.

    "The ruling is particularly important because very few state high
courts have applied gay rights laws in its decisions, and this one
does it very strongly," said Marc Elovitz, staff attorney for the
ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
 
    The military's recruitment ban on lesbian and gay students has
drawn protests on college campuses across the country.  About a dozen
universities and law schools have voluntarily barred the military from
campus because of its anti-gay policy, while some schools -- like the
University of Connecticut -- have been sued over allowing the
recruitment programs to remain.

    In New York, the state's highest court ruled in November 1993 that
the city of Rochester could ban military recruiters from its schools
because of the Pentagon's policy against lesbian and gay men. 

    "As long as the Pentagon continues to discharge able
servicemembers for being gay, efforts will continue to get rid of the
military ban and its harmful effects," said the ACLU's Elovitz. 

    "Although the ruling only applies to publicly-funded schools in
Connecticut, it could be influential at universities elsewhere," added
Elovitz.  "It's another step towards ending one of the last bastions
of government-sanctioned discrimination."

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Contact:  Denny Lee, (212) 944-9800 ext. 424
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Media Relations Office   132 W 43rd Street, NYC 10036    http:\\www.aclu.org