The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) will hold a
rally in support of Jennifer Keeton, the
student fighting for her right to hold anti-gay views, The
Augusta Chronicle reported.
Keeton, a graduate student in the
Counselor Education Program at the Augusta State University in
Georgia, is challenging school officials who have declared her
anti-gay beliefs incompatible with the counseling profession.
U.S. District Judge J. Randall Hall
ruled in August in favor of the university. Hall said it was
reasonable for a public university to enforce academic standards.
Keeton, who is represented by the Christian-based Alliance Defense
Fund (ADF), has appealed the ruling.
Leaders from the KKK say they'll
protest the school's treatment of Keeton, 24, on October 23rd
outside the university's main entrance.
“It's your constitutional right, so
how could you tell someone you have to do something completely
different?” Bobby Spurlock, the KKK's imperial wizard knighthawk
and grand dragon of South Carolina and North Carolina, told the
paper. “We're not out to harm her. We're trying to protest the
constitutional rights that they are trying to take away from her.”
ADF attorneys have blasted the group's
plans.
“Jennifer and the ADF are disgusted
by the KKK and all it stands for,” David French, a senior lawyer
with the ADF, said. “To say more than that or to discuss their
activities at length risks bringing more attention to a failed
organization that is seeking to exploit news stories for its own
purposes. As the KKK admits in news reports, Jennifer has had no
contact with them and neither have we. Neither, Jennifer nor ADF
wish to give the KKK the attention it craves.”