Let LGBTQ club at Yeshiva

To the editor:

Recently I heard a show on NPR that discussed Yeshiva University and its refusal to officially recognize an LGBTQ student club three times in two years.

The students have filed a lawsuit saying the school must recognize the club under the city’s human rights law. The students even found a new name for the group, Pride Alliance, after Yeshiva would not use the title of “Gay-Straight Alliance.” Yeshiva still would not recognize the club with the new name.

I urge you, if you believe in fairness and equality, to call the Yeshiva University student life department and ask for the chair. Belonging to a club with like-minded people forms a sense of community that would be beneficial to LGBTQ students and their friends. It is very difficult for LGBTQ people to feel at home where they sense they are not valued because of who they are and who they were born to be.

College students are often still grappling with coming out to themselves as well as to family and friends, and support would be so valuable to them. Gay-Straight Alliances have been in place for many institutions and schools for many years.

Yeshiva is registered as non-sectarian and gets government funding. According to the students’ lawyer, the school does not officially have a religious affiliation, and is therefore mandated to abide by the rules of New York City’s human rights law.

This fact has been known for years, and the struggle to form a club has been going on for a long time. Students affirmed they did not want to file a lawsuit, but since Yeshiva will not allow the club to form, they had no alternative.

Please call Yeshiva University at (212) 960-5400. Ask for the student life department chair, or any other Yeshiva administrator who will take your call.

You will be doing a good deed to support these students.

Ariana Holback

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