More changes help declaw bill targeting Christian colleges

LOS ANGELES—In the latest and possibly last amendment to California Senate Bill 1146, state Sen. Ricardo Lara struck another section that could have been problematic for faith-based colleges and universities.

Last week, Lara removed the section that would have required colleges to notify the state whenever they suspend or expel a student for violating a moral code of conduct. Officials determined that section violated the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Lara originally intended to use the mandatory reporting requirement to gauge the prevalence of LGBT discrimination on Christian campuses. The bill’s new wording includes a compromise to work with religious colleges to create an “unbiased” survey of the campus climate toward LGBT students. It’s not yet clear what that collaboration would look like.

As of Aug. 19, SB 1146 requires schools to publicly disclose their Title IX exemption, but not until the 2017-2018 school year. On Tuesday, the California Assembly passed the bill with a 45-28 vote. SB 1146 will now return to the Senate for a concurrence vote on the recent amendments. After that, it will head to Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it into law.

Although Lara scaled back his initial plans for the legislation targeting Christian colleges, he’s not abandoning efforts to force them to give up their biblical beliefs about gender and sexuality. On Tuesday, he told NPR he planned to try again next year to “make religious colleges and universities liable for discrimination.”

“We’re saying if there is discrimination and you can prove that in a court of law, people should be able to have damages for that,” Lara said.