Christian universities are fighting a lawsuit filed by an LGBT legal group, which seeks to strip federal financial aid from college students for attending faith-based universities that espouse biblical beliefs on marriage, gender and sexuality. 

The Oregon-based Religious Exemption Accountability Project, an LGBT activist organization, filed a federal lawsuit on March 29 against the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of 33 LGBT former and current students who felt discriminated against on 25 faith-based campuses across the country.

The lawsuit wants to remove the Title IX religious exemption to restrict students at faith-based institutions that adhere to traditional sexuality and gender beliefs from receiving tuition grants, student loans and any form of federal financial assistance.

Alliance Defending Freedom, a national religious liberty advocacy legal group, filed a motion last Friday to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of college students at Corban University in Oregon, William Jessup University in California and Phoenix Seminary in Arizona. ADF contends that the demands of the lawsuit threaten the federally-protected rights of religious post-secondary institutions.

“This lawsuit wants the federal government to tell Christian schools, ‘To continue accepting students who have federal financial aid, all you have to do is to start acting contrary to your own beliefs.’ That’s neither reasonable nor constitutional,” ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of U.S. Litigation David Cortman said in a statement.

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