Re: Preserving California’s diverse higher education opportunities [Letter, Village News, 8/4/16]

Contrary to the opinion expressed in the subject article, SB 1146 will have a beneficial effect on diversity in California’s higher education facilities. The primary purpose of SB 1146 is to clarify this point: no college/university in California receiving government funding may use exclusion from Title IX to exclude themselves from the anti-discrimination provisions of California’s education code.

Additionally, in the interests of reducing discrimination litigation, privately funded colleges/universities that do request Title IX exclusion must document their specific deviations from California’s code and make this information freely available to regulators and others potentially affected by that request.

I would have thought it obvious that our government should not be supporting selected religious faiths over others, which would be a violation of our Constitution’s First Amendment establishment clause. And it would go against all we’ve fought for to ensure that everyone has equal access to an education.

Apparently it’s not so obvious for one particular faith. That faith’s religious beliefs have morphed into its political beliefs. Intended or not, it tends to blur the division between Church and State, as shown in political beliefs espoused by the GOP; for example, “[Title IX]... is now being used... to impose a social and cultural revolution upon the American people by wrongly redefining sex discrimination to include sexual orientation or other categories.... Their edict to the states concerning restrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities is at once illegal…” (2016 GOP political platform).

John H. Terrell