Is The Message "Gays Aren't Welcome To Be Doctors"?

College continues ban on gay students group
By KEITH EDDINGS
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: March 11, 2005)

New York Medical College yesterday rejected an appeal from a national organization of gay doctors to end a ban that prohibits gay students from organizing on campus, the head of the organization said after meeting with the school's dean.

"The dean expressed openness to the idea of expanding the coverage of (gay-related) health topics in the curriculum," Joel Ginsberg, the executive director of Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, said after the meeting.

But he added he was disturbed that "the school does not seem prepared to permit" the formation of an independent lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) campus group.

"I question whether a school that bans its gay club can ever effectively teach its students to be accepting and nonjudgmental about the LGBT patients they treat," Ginsberg said.

The dean, Dr. Ralph O'Connell, has not responded to several requests for an interview with The Journal News since the decision to ban the gay group became public in December. Yesterday, a guard blocked a reporter from entering the building where O'Connell works and an aide in his office referred the reporter to college spokeswoman Donna Moriarty. She could not say whether the ban was discussed at the meeting.

In a guest column in The Journal News on Jan. 10, O'Connell wrote that the college withdrew its funding and sanction from the campus group, Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender People in Medicine, because its activities would be inconsistent with the college's "Catholic tradition." The school has been affiliated with the Archdiocese of New York for 26 years.

The Westchester County Human Rights Commission is investigating whether that longtime affiliation is strong enough to exempt the college from county anti-discrimination laws. Alison Greene, the commission's executive director, said yesterday that the investigation was wrapping up. But she expressed a wish that the college "would be more cooperative so that we can resolve this quickly." She would not elaborate.

Ginsberg discussed the ban with Greene yesterday by telephone, and also met with Westchester County Health Commissioner Joshua Lipsman, who recently resigned from the medical college faculty to protest the ban. He said he would meet in Washington tomorrow with Dr. John Nelson, president of the American Medical Association. Nelson brought national attention to the issue in an interview defending the ban, which he likened to Brigham Young University's decision to suspend four athletes accused of rape, because "you have to follow the rules" set by the college.

Laura Fasulo, the president of the medical college's student senate, was also in O'Connell's office during the dean's meeting with Ginsberg, but she could not be reached afterward.

On Monday, the student senate adopted a nuanced resolution saying it "has always and will continue to support the creation and recognition of a (gay and lesbian) club on this campus." But adding that the goal should be achieved "with respect to the values of a college in the Catholic tradition."

At the meeting, Ginsberg gave O'Connell a petition signed by 1,150 health care professionals and students that said banning the campus group was a signal to medical students that gays were "not fully welcome within the medical profession" and could help make graduates ignorant of the gay community's health needs.

"This is kind of historic," Ginsberg told 13 students who met him outside O'Connell's office before the meeting. "Eighty percent of the medical schools in the country have a Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender People in Medicine chapter of the American Medical Student Association. This school doesn't. No other school has done this — said you can't have a gay club."

Joshua Sahara, president of the banned group, was not invited to yesterday's meeting.

"It's just frustrating," he said afterward. "It's still very difficult to be an LGBT student at New York Medical College."