Two dollars was enough to start a fierce debate about the line between religious freedom and discrimination at Texas A&M University.

The controversy stems from a bill initially introduced in the TAMU Student Senate as the “GLBT Funding Opt-Out Bill.” The bill would have allowed students to choose not to give a portion of their student fee — roughly $2 per student —  toward funding the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center at TAMU on the basis of moral or religious objection, reported The Battalion, the student newspaper of TAMU, on March 22.

“There is not a traditional family values center that will promote the opposite of what the GLBT promotes. Since we are funding one of those and not the other one, I believe that students should be able to choose whether to pay for it or not,” said the bill’s author, Chris Woolsey, to The Battalion.

Before it was passed, the bill was revised by the TAMU Student Senate, which changed its title to “The Religious Funding Exemption Bill” and dropped the language that mentioned the GLBT Resource Center to avoid singling out a specific group, The Battalion reported April 3.

TAMU student body President John Claybrook vetoed the bill last week.

“Although much adjusted in its final form, the good accomplished through this bill pales in comparison to the damage done. The damage must stop today,” Claybrook said in a news release.

Despite the bill’s veto, the controversy has called attention to questions about deeper issues of discrimination against individuals who identify as part of the LGBT community at TAMU, which has been ranked as one of the least LGBT-friendly colleges by The Princeton Review for the last two years.

Renee Costello, a sophomore archaeology and history major at TAMU, said in an email she thinks a “don’t ask, don’t tell” mindset exists on campus. In her opinion, while most students are genuinely accepting of students who identify as LGBT, there is also a small population on campus that responds to those students in hateful ways.

“The fact that our student body would propose such a bill proves the fact that the GLBT center is still very much needed on campus,” Costello said. “I cannot fathom what must be going through the head of somebody who values the principle of the $2 refund over helping fellow students in need. If students need their religious and moral beliefs to influence the university they go to, then there is a way for them to ‘opt-out’ — go to a different university.”

Costello said that while there is a large conservative presence at TAMU, the idea of community and mutual support is also a prominent tradition.

University President R. Bowen Loftin echoed Costello’s statement in an email sent to students.

“The climate that emerged during [the bill’s] creation, modification and disposition negatively impacted one of our most sacred core values — respect. Respect includes conveying to all of our students, faculty and staff, regardless of their social and cultural identities, that they are welcomed in Aggieland for what they can contribute to and derive from our educational mission,” he said in the email.

Costello said it was inspiring to see how students came together to support the LGBT community and oppose the bill. But she said she thinks the bill’s damage has already been done and that the situation is a poor representation of the values of the school and its students.

Said Costello: “There is this idea that Aggies are all intolerant, conservative Republicans and this is just not true, so the fact that we are making headlines for such hateful actions is very disappointing.”

Published on April 10, 2013 at 11:27 pm

Contact Michelle: mlsczpan@syr.edu