We recently reported here that members of the San Diego Police Officers Association posted anti-gay remarks to an online message board that were critical of the Dec. 7 Gay & Lesbian Times issue featuring Mayor Jerry Sanders and Police Chief William Lansdowne as our “Persons of the Year.” We argued that homophobia is often tolerated, even considered acceptable, while other forms of discrimination such as racism and anti-Semitism are not.

This double standard has been raised time and again by law professor and Gay & Lesbian Times columnist Robert DeKoven. Most recently, DeKoven has called on City Attorney Mike Aguirre to determine whether San Diego State University is in violation of San Diego’s Human Dignity Ordinance, which prohibits the city from doing business with any organization that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation. The Gay & Lesbian Times is joining DeKoven in his appeal to the city attorney.

SDSU is not directly engaged in discrimination, DeKoven argues. Rather, it is condoning, encouraging and supporting discrimination by offering city-subsidized facilities to universities that do openly discriminate, specifically Brigham Young University and the Air Force Academy. SDSU football teams playing these universities at Qualcomm Stadium, which is city property much the same as Balboa Park, are obligated to follow city law and the HDO, which prohibits city lands and facilities from being used by groups that discriminate.

SDSU also announced that it will add Notre Dame to its schedule in the coming years, a university that prohibits campus groups from discussing topics of sexual orientation.

Here’s where the double standard kicks in. The city would not tolerate the use of city resources to support schools like Bob Jones University, a school with a history of racial segregation and discrimination. So then why would those universities that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation be allowed access to our publicly-funded stadium and related facilities?

If SDSU is found in violation of city law, it would have to withdraw from the Mountain West Conference to ensure it no longer hosted teams from colleges and universities that openly discriminate. DeKoven posits that SDSU could avoid economic hardship by moving to the Pacific-10 Conference, a conference that does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. The governor and the Legislature may be able to persuade the UC Board of Regents to admit SDSU into the Pac-10.

Whether this is indeed plausible, however, should not weigh in on the city attorney’s decision to pursue this legal issue. No dollar amount is worth our civil rights.

SDSU’s violation of the Human Dignity Ordinance mirrors the Boy Scouts of America case, in which a federal judge ruled that the BSA is violating lease provisions for discriminating on the basis of religion and sexual orientation. Aguirre himself testified before the City Council that the BSA is in violation of city law. It is his responsibility as our elected city attorney to take up these issues and force organizations to follow city law. Such a ruling could influence policy on campuses nationwide.

Aguirre has quite a few irons in the fire already, but here’s a legal argument that he may actually be able to win while making a name for himself at the same time. Tempting combo, eh, Aguirre?