Hey everyone! It’s my turn to let you know a little bit about me. Sorry for the delay; it’s the end of the school year where I am and things are a little bit crazy. My name is David and I am a second year student at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. I am double majoring in Communication Studies & Gender / Women’s Studies, and double minoring in English & Nonprofit Leadership. Believe me, that sounds a lot more impressive than it really is - that’s why I like it! I plan on working in the LGBTA community, hopefully with a national organization doing media work (hint, hint GLAAD! ;). At my school, I’m the new president of our LGBTA student group OUTspoken and for the past year I’ve been their secretary. I have also been involved with our LBGT Student Services office as a panelist and facilitator in our speakers bureau, SpeakOUT. In addition to both of those, I’m a tour guide and “telecounselor” (meaning I call prospective students) as part of WMU’s awesome Student Ambassador Program. I do a LOT of LGBTA “stuff” as I like to call it, and starting in June I’m going to be an intern with Michigan Equality working on the human rights ordinance battle here in Kalamazoo (more info here on that and I guarantee you I’ll rant about it once May comes). I pretty much devote all of my time to LGBTA stuff, my classes, and my job as a Student Ambassador. I’m one of those college students that has NO social life, but I love what I do and that makes up for it. I found out about the Campus Q Team after our LBGT Student Services office selected a group of us to go to the Campus Pride Summer Leadership Camp, and got involved from there. If you want to know more, PLEASE talk to me!

So I want to start out with full disclosure about this post... I am a 2008 graduate of Eastern Michigan University in the Higher Education Student Affairs program which is housed in the same department that the counseling program is housed in. During my time at EMU I was the Acting Graduate Student Body President and championed many issues around equal rights for LGBT students.

Now with that being said here we go.......

You can find a few news articles about this story here:
WorldNetDaily
The Eastern Echo
Ann Arbor News

From the Ann Arbor News:
"The Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom says student Julea Ward was dismissed from her graduate program in March after refusing to affirm a client's homosexual behavior prior to a counseling session, according to a press release from the group.

David French, ADF senior counsel, said the school initiated a disciplinary process against Ward despite the fact that she followed her supervising professor's advice and referred the client to a counselor who did not have a conscience issue with homosexuality.

Ward then allegedly was informed that the only way to stay in her program would be to undergo a remediation process to change her beliefs as they relate to counseling about homosexual relationships, the Defense Fund Center said. When she refused, she was given a formal review hearing, after which she was dismissed from the program. The dismissal was upheld March 26 by the dean of EMU's College of Education, the press release said."

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