Fresh off the heels of the Prop 8 victory, my beloved California is faced with another case of discrimination on the basis of orientation. The California 4th District Court of Appeal has ruled that a Lutheran school was within its right to expel two lesbian students based on their gender preference in partners:

After a Lutheran school expelled two 16-year-old girls for having “a bond of intimacy” that was “characteristic of a lesbian relationship,” the girls sued, contending the school had violated a state anti-discrimination law.

In response to that suit, an appeals court decided this week that the private religious school was not a business and therefore did not have to comply with a state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating. A lawyer for the girls said Tuesday that he would ask the California Supreme Court to overturn the unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal.

The appeals court called its decision “narrow,” but lawyers on both sides of the case said it would protect private religious schools across California from such discrimination suits.

Are we really living in the 21st century? Mind you, these girls weren’t having sex in the washroom or anything close to activity that could have gotten them expelled. The L.A. Times has the “shocking” reasons for their expulsion:

The girls were expelled in their junior year for “conducting themselves in a manner consistent with being lesbians,” said McKay, who added that the girls never disclosed their sexual orientation during the litigation. Hanson said the girls had been “best friends” and, citing their privacy, declined to discuss their sexual orientation. They are now in college, he said.

The dispute started when a student at the school told a teacher in 2005 that one of the girls had said she loved the other. The student advised the teacher to look at the girls’ MySpace pages. One of the girls was identified as bisexual on her MySpace page, the other’s page said she was “not sure” of her sexual orientation. McKay said the website also contained a photograph of the girls hugging.

According to the principal, who called each girl out of class separately, both admitted they had hugged and kissed each other and told other students they were lesbians. The girls said they admitted only that they loved each other as friends.

The court ruled that since the school regards homosexuality as a sin, it was within its rights to expel the girls on the basis on having engaged in “immoral or scandalous contact, on or off campus.”

To add insult to injury, The LA Times reports that their girls allege that the principal, upon questioning them about their relationship, seemed to have more than just his professional duties at heart (ahem).

Way to go, California. When a group of kids jumps a gay student at recess and beats him to a pulp, they can say it’s justified because gays and lesbian kids don’t deserve to be treated like everyone else.

Via / LA Times