A former counseling student at Missouri State University has filed a lawsuit against the school after it expelled him for his stance of wanting to refer gay couples to other counselors.
Andrew Cash, 46, was enrolled in the program in 2007, and during a presentation in 2011 said in response to a question by professor that he will counsel gay individuals separately on a variety of issues, but would refer couples to other counselors whose beliefs were not same as his.
His lawsuit states that the school put him on a remediation plan requiring him to undergo counseling sessions and redo two audit courses, against which he appealed. The school ousted him from the program in 2014.
Cash was told that his position on referring gay couples to other counselors went against American Counseling Association norms.
He is being represented by Thomas More Society at the US District Court in Missouri in the lawsuit where the university's board of governors and officials are defendants.
The complaint filed by TMS reads: "[Cash] was targeted and punished for expressing his Christian worldview regarding a hypothetical situation concerning whether he would provide counseling services to a gay/homosexual couple."
"[MSU], acting under color of state law, and according to policy and practice, have explicitly and implicitly discriminated on the basis of viewpoint and deprived [Cash] of his rights to freedom of speech and expression secured by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," continued the complaint.
Cash has not been able to complete his degree and is barred from working as a counselor. He wants MSU to take him back in the counseling program so that he can graduate from school.
"Because of [MSU's] actions, [Cash] has suffered, and continues to suffer, economic injury and irreparable harm. He is entitled to an award of monetary damages, including punitive damages, and equitable relief," the lawsuit states.
TMS Attorney Thomas Olp said: "Unfortunately, Missouri State University departed from its mission by denying educational opportunity to Mr. Cash simply because he expressed, in an academic setting, sincerely-held religious beliefs which his advisor deemed hostile to her own and therefore unacceptable."
"An educator should not permit her own ideology and agenda to ruin the educational opportunities of her students. We feel the responsibility, on Mr. Cash's behalf, to try to correct this," Olp said.
Cash's case is similar to Ward v. Polite, which was filed by an Eastern Michigan University student Julea Ward who referred a potential client seeking advice on a same-sex relationship to another therapist as she could not affirm the relationship during counseling because of her sincerely held beliefs. Ward was expelled from the program, but she appealed the decision in court which ruled in her favor.
The court said in a statement: "[She] was willing to work with all clients and to respect the school's affirmation directives in doing so. That is why she asked to refer gay and lesbian clients (and some heterosexual clients) if the conversation required her to affirm their sexual practices. What more could the [non-discrimination] rule require? Surely, for example, the ban on discrimination against clients based on their religion does not require a Muslim counselor to tell a Jewish client that his religious beliefs are correct if the conversation takes a turn in that direction and does not require an atheist counselor to tell a person of faith that there is a God if the client is wrestling with faith-based issues. Tolerance is a two-way street."
