Private Christian school settlement highlights gaps in anti-LGBTQ discrimination protections
Tennessee Christian Preparatory School paid $10,000 to settle a lawsuit after banning graduating senior Morgan Armstrong from her graduation ceremony and withholding her diploma for coming out as gay on social media. The case underscores how private religious schools remain outside federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ students, a vulnerability Project 2025 aims to entrench.
The settlement — reported by multiple outlets including WSMV4 and People, and confirmed by the school's own public statement — stems from an Instagram post Armstrong made on April 23, 2025, in which she came out as gay. The school barred her from the graduation ceremony and refused to mail her diploma on June 15, 2025. Under the settlement approved in June 2026, the school paid $10,000 but admitted no wrongdoing. Armstrong's lawsuit alleged the school's actions violated her rights under Tennessee law, but the settlement avoided creating any broader legal precedent.
This case is a textbook example of the gaping loophole in federal and state civil rights protections for LGBTQ students attending private, religious schools — precisely the kind of religious-exemption expansion Project 2025 champions. Unlike public schools, which are bound by Title IX (though the current administration has weakened protections for transgender students under that statute), private religious schools in Tennessee and many other states are free to discipline or expel students based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Supreme Court's 2020 Bostock decision only addresses employment discrimination, not education. Without congressional action like the Equality Act or state-level updates to nondiscrimination statutes, LGBTQ students in these schools remain unprotected. The settlement's no-admission-of-wrongdoing clause ensures no legal accountability, leaving the next student in the same position.
The humanitarian alternative
Congress should pass the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in education, employment, housing, and public accommodations — with narrow, specific religious exemptions that do not allow schools receiving federal funding or tax exemptions to discriminate against students. At the state level, Tennessee and other states without comprehensive nondiscrimination laws should enact protections for LGBTQ students in all schools, including private and religious institutions. Such laws could include a 'religious liberty' carveout that is tailored to prevent harm to students, ensuring that schools can maintain their religious character without expelling or punishing students for their identity.
Falsifiable predictions
What this entry claims will happen, and what data would prove it wrong. The Reckoner revisits these against current reality.
- Within two years, at least three more states will introduce legislation to bar discrimination against LGBTQ students in private religious schools that receive state vouchers or tax credits.
- The Trump administration will issue a guidance or rule expanding religious exemptions for schools receiving federal funds, citing the First Amendment, within 12 months.
Grounded in
Original source — excerpted
news Tennessee school pays student $10K for blocking her from graduation after she came out as gay"See more of our coverage in your search results. A Tennessee private Christian school has paid out $10,000 to a senior who said she was blocked from attending ..."