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ADF: Georgetown derecognition of pro-family student club would be hypocrisy

Friday, Oct 27, 2017
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer regarding calls for Georgetown University, “the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institute of higher learning in the United States,” to derecognize student organization Love Saxa, represented by the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, because the student group holds to Catholic and Jesuit views of marriage:

“To call for the derecognition of a student organization at a Catholic university because it holds to Catholic views on marriage is preposterous. Love Saxa’s opponents haven’t called for the dissolution of the LGBTQ Resource Center, for example, even though it holds to views that conflict with Georgetown’s prohibition on groups whose purpose or activities are ‘inconsistent with acceptable conduct at an American university committed to the Roman Catholic moral tradition,’ yet they have targeted Love Saxa for views wholly consistent with the Catholic faith. It’s not enough that many of those who don’t hold to conservative religious or political views are seeking to silence those with whom they disagree on public university campuses and elsewhere in the public square. Now they are even seeking to silence them at private, religious universities, which are unquestionably free to recognize student clubs that adhere to the universities’ own founding values. Georgetown should act consistently with its own Catholic identity and reject any request for Love Saxa to be derecognized.”
 
  • Pronunciation guide: Langhofer (LANG’-hoff-ur)
 
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
 
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ABOUT Tyson Langhofer

Tyson Langhofer serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom and director of its Center for Academic Freedom. Before joining ADF, Langhofer was a partner with Stinson Leonard Street LLP, where he worked as a commercial litigation attorney for 15 years and earned Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent® rating. Langhofer earned his Juris Doctor from Regent University School of Law, where he graduated cum laude in 1999. He obtained a B.A. in international business with a minor in economics from Wichita State University in 1996. A member of the bar in Virginia, Kansas, and Arizona, Langhofer is also admitted to practice in numerous federal district courts.