At the center of the debate surrounding Psalm 100’s dismissal of a gay member is the conflict between a First Amendment right and a University policy.
Three student panelists highlighted the contrast between the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly and UNC’s anti-discrimination policy at a panel discussion as part of Tuesday’s First Amendment Day events.
More than 30 students attended the debate about the controversial ousting of Will Thomason, who Psalm 100 members said was dismissed because his views on homosexuality did not align with the group’s constitution.
The event’s three panelists were Joshua Groll, a 2011 UNC graduate and former writer for The Carolina Review, Andrew Brown, a 2008 UNC graduate and student at the UNC School of Law, and Billy Kluttz, a senior political science and women’s studies major. James Heilpern, a senior religious studies major, organized and moderated the debate.
Brown said groups should be allowed to be discriminating in membership if three factors exist.
“The University should allow full recognition and funding for all groups, the group cannot be violent or coercive in limiting its membership and the group should not have a monopoly on that activity,” he said.
Brown said it is necessary to protect the abilities of people to disagree in order to have educated dialogue between groups.
Groll said as long as the University does that, groups should be permitted to accept or reject members based on their alignment with the group’s beliefs.
“If the group’s ideology is that they don’t associate with homosexual beliefs, they have that right,” he said.
Panelists discussed the link between ideology and identity for much of the debate.
“There is a false dichotomy in the belief that ideology and identity never intersect,” Kluttz said.
