UCF suffered a big loss in its expensive legal fight to keep controversial records secret.
The court ruled that UCF must turn over records relating to a controversial study by Mark Regnerus on gay and lesbian parenting. It was the second time in about two weeks that UCF lawyers were incorrect on issues in two separate public record lawsuits.
UCF professor James Wright is the editor of Social Science Research journal, which published the research paper at issue. UCF insisted that Wright’s emails were not public record because they were not related to university business. The judge ruling on the issue disagreed that these records should be kept secret.
“The overlap between the Journal and UCF is wide; the connections between the two are many,” said Judge Donald Grincewicz.
Attorney Andrea Morgensen, who represents the plantiff, made the point that the Journal and UCF are intertwined.
“UCF and the Journal are so intertwined that the records are public records and require disclosure,” said Morgensen in an email to KnightNews.com
John Becker, an LGBT activist, writer and blogger, filed a lawsuit against UCF back in March when he requested emails related to Mark Regnerus’s study New Family Structures Study. UCF houses the journal, however they denied his public records request.
“The light is at the end of the tunnel, folks. I hope that soon, UCF’s stonewalling will end, we’ll be able to access these public records, and we’ll finally uncover the full truth behind the discredited Regnerus study for ourselves,” Becker said on his blog.
UCF spokesman Grant Heston did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Another hearing for this lawsuit is set for Thursday.
