Antigay GA counseling student sues university
A conservative student at a Georgia University has filed suit against the school–claiming it told her that her anti-gay beliefs are incompatible with the standards of her desired profession.
Jennifer Keeton is currently enrolled in Augusta State University’s Counselor Education Program. According to her lawsuit, instructors at the school took issue with Keeton stating that homosexuality is a choice – and received reports from students that she had expressed an interest in “conversion therapy” outside of class.
Keeton is being represented by the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund, and appears in a video on the group’s website.
Keeton: “The school counseling faculty has decided that my views are not acceptable for me or to share with other students., and because of that they have required a remediation plan in which the end result would be altering my beliefs or being dismissed from the program.”
ADF claims the school violated Keeton’s civil rights.
A spokesperson for the American School Counselor Association sent OutQ the organization’s guidelines for dealing with LGBT youth – which state that counselors must recognize “that sexual orientation is not an illness and does not require treatment. The school did not return a call for comment.
–Aaron McQuade
The SiriusXM OutQ News Blog 
She should pick another profession where she can be free to be a bigot. It is like a doctor stating that they don’t believe they should operate on someone who is homosexual. Shame on you.
scott
July 23, 2010 at 4:52 PM
Exactly…sorry lady, you have the right to be a bigot and have whatever beliefs you may have, however it is true that this is probably not the right career choice for you. as a counselor you are required to listen and understand all types of people and their situations. No school is going to want to teach someone to become a counselor, when they know the person is going to screw people up more. That would be like working in convelescent care and believing all the plugs should be pulled.
Scotty
July 23, 2010 at 6:20 PM
She has the right to believe whatever she wants. She also has the right to learn how to counsel people, and other people have the right to go to her if they believe that their homosexual feelings are wrong.
And NO ONE has the right to tell someone else that they should believe something is right that they believe is wrong.
I have the right to believe that any homosexual feelings I have are wrong and then I have the right to go to a counselor who will help me to deal with them the way I want to deal with them.
Those who preach tolerance should practice tolerance.
Linda
July 27, 2010 at 3:37 PM
You can believe whatever you want but as a good counselor you need to be open to your client’s beliefs and accept them for who they are and if you can’t then you need a new field. This woman sueing the school is clearly batshit crazy and needs psychological help!!!
Scott
July 27, 2010 at 4:13 PM
1. She stated her belief that homosexuality is a choice.
2. She expressed interest in “conversion therapy”.
These are not necessarily “anti-gay” sentiments. They are opinons about how she views the construct of sexual orientation (and there are sufficient examples of individuals who have changed in orientation to warrant great skepticism of the universal immutability model for everyone).
Counselors all have personal views or values. When they find that they cannot effectively counsel a specific client because of their views they are instructed to refer the client to another counselor.
Also, stating that homosexuality does not “require” treatment is not the same as stating that treatment of homosexuality is always unethical. Sometimes clients actually want it (it is called ‘self-determination’). “Live and let live” goes the other way too.
Stew
July 29, 2010 at 12:22 PM
I don’t think she has anything to complain about. The American School Counselor Association’s guidelines “state that counselors must recognize ‘that sexual orientation is not an illness and does not require treatment'”. If she doesn’t agree with the statement that the school follows, then why does she want to be educated there? That’s like telling an LDS church that a gay person has the right to be Mormon so the church has to change!
Bill
August 4, 2010 at 10:23 AM