Grad Student Expelled for Stance on Homosexuality 'Vindicated'

Eastern Michigan University has settled a lawsuit with a graduate student who was kicked out for refusing to affirm homosexuality, CBN News reports. Julea Ward was a student in the school's counseling program when she asked her superiors to refer a gay client to someone else, saying her Christian faith prohibited her from affirming homosexual behavior. Instead, EMU officials expelled her from the masters program. The school has now settled with Ward for $75,000, and her lawyer said her constitutionally protected rights had been "vindicated." Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel Jeremy Tedesco, who argued Ward's case, said: "Public universities shouldn't force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree. The Sixth Circuit rightly understood this and ruled appropriately, so the university has done the right thing in settling this case."