ACLU Demands California Professor Stop Teaching Anti-Gay Health Lies

The ACLU has sent a letter to Fresno City College demanding that health professor Dr. Bradley Lopez stop teaching anti-gay lies to his students.

The ACLU letter includes several examples of Professor Lopez teaching sectarian views and personal bias as “fact.” In recent lectures, Professor Lopez:

* Presented a slide listing “homosexual facts,” including that homosexuality is a “biological misapplication of human sexuality” and said that the “recommended treatment” is “psychological counseling” or “hormone supplements.”
* Presented LGBT people as a burden on and/or threat to society, claiming, for example, that anything but a heterosexual union provides a “one-sided foundation for raising children.”
* Presented bible passages as “empirical” evidence that life begins at conception in support of his assertion that abortion is murder and “the leading cause of death in this country” (because there are over a million abortions a year).
* Followed a slide on climate change in a presentation on “environmental health” with a slide containing a Biblical quote about the world ending in fire, and said “that is the real global warming we should be worried about.”
* Repeatedly referenced the Bible and used it as a teaching tool, for example assigning as homework a question as to Jesus’ genetic makeup.

“The college class room of a state school should be a welcoming environment for all students, and courses, especially health courses, should be based on objective and medically accurate information, not religiously-based bias,” said Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. “While Professor Lopez is free to talk about his religious beliefs outside of the classroom, Fresno City College has an obligation to protect its students from religious indoctrination and anti-gay bias presented as ‘science’ or ‘fact.’ Professor Lopez’s health class fails students in both regards.”

As it is a public university, the ACLU charges that Lopez' lie-filled teachings violate the separation of church and state. Fresno City College has until February 15th to respond to the ACLU's letter, presumably after that a suit will be filed.