Lawsuit By Expelled 'Lesbian' Teens Proceeds To Trial

(San Francisco, California) The California Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling allowing a lawsuit by two teenagers who claim they were expelled from a Lutheran school over allegations they were lesbians to go to trial.

California Lutheran High School had asked the justices to toss out the suit on the grounds that as a religious institution it had a First Amendment right not to have to comply with the state's non discrimination law.

The school, in Riverside County, is owned by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod which considers homosexuality a sin.

With the high court deciding not to hear the appeal the case will proceed.

The lawsuit, filed in Riverside County Superior Court, seeks the girls' re-enrollment at the school, unspecified damages and an injunction barring the school from excluding gays and lesbians.

Because both girls are minors their names were withheld by the court.

The suit alleges that the school's principal, Gregory Bork, called the girls into his office and grilled them on their sexual orientation and "coerced" one girl to say she loved the other one.

The next day, the suit alleges, Bork told the girls' parents they could not stay at the school with "those feelings." In a Sept. 12 letter to the parents, Bork acknowledged officials had seen no physical contact between the girls but said their friendship was "uncharacteristic of normal girl relationships and more characteristic of a lesbian one."

The case is being monitored by the state agency in charge of enforcing California's tough civil rights laws.

California civil rights law protects LGBT students from discrimination, but does not specify whether faith-based schools are exempt.