STATEMENT OF CARDOZO BOARD OF OVERSEERS

The Board of Overseers of Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is wholeheartedly and unequivocally opposed to Yeshiva University’s undergraduate division’s discriminatory policy against its LGBTQIA+ students. Yeshiva's decision to deny the students’ request for a Pride Alliance club is extremely disturbing to us as representatives of this great law school. We want to make it perfectly clear that Cardozo operates completely independently of the undergraduate school of Yeshiva University.

The law school has always been steadfastly nondenominational and nondiscriminatory. Since inception, Cardozo has proudly embraced our LGBTQIA+ community, and has supported and empowered the wonderful contributions they have made to the law school. Whether it’s our active and vibrant OutLaw student group founded nearly 30 years ago, the Cardozo OutLaw Alumni Association, Cardozo OutLaw’s annual Nathaniel E. Gates award to recognize outstanding contributors to our LGBTQIA+ community, the Cardozo Fund for LGBT Rights and our related Paris Baldacci Scholarship for Outstanding Student Work on LGBT rights, or our continual educational, networking and social programming on issues of import to the LGBTQIA+ community, Cardozo’s LGBTQIA+ community and pride are interwoven into the fabric and soul of our school.

Yeshiva University’s refusal to recognize the YU Pride Alliance denies LGBTQIA+ students at the undergraduate level their individuality and their ability to express themselves. We have urged, and continue to implore, the leadership at Yeshiva College to resolve this lawsuit by simply providing the YU Pride Alliance a student club, as a place of mutual support and community. Such an action would make clear that the support of our students is our imperative, especially those who are uniquely vulnerable and are navigating the complex issues of being both modern Orthodox and LGBTQIA+.