Shame on you, Liberty University and Abilene-Christian University.

That’s the word from Campus Pride, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a safer environment for LGBTQ youth on college campuses.

As these two notorious schools of higher learning celebrate making it to the Big Dance, they also have the dishonor of being selected as two of the 150 colleges and universities named to “The Shame List” by Campus Pride. This online index identifies the “absolute worst campuses for LGBTQ youth” in the U.S., according to the org’s website.

The alphabetic list includes every higher ed institution whose administration officially and openly chooses a policy of discrimination against LGBTQ youth, as well as those which have applied for or received federal government exemptions to Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. In every instance, religious-based bigotry is part of the horrid history of these colleges and universities through their anti-LGBTQ actions, programs and practices.

And it’s not just Christian centers of learning, although the majority of colleges and universities on the list certainly are. George Fox University in Oregon is Quaker-affiliated; students at Yeshiva University in New York study Judaism; several institutions call themselves interdenominational or interfaith, but they are without doubt practicing various forms of Christianity to the exclusion of all other faiths.

When it comes to Christian schools, there are few more famous than the one founded by Jerry Falwell in 1971: Liberty University.

Campus Pride lists more than a dozen news articles detailing Liberty’s track record on LGBTQ issues, and defends its ranking this way:

“Liberty University has qualified for the Shame List because it has a long and well-documented history of anti-LGBTQ discrimination, including placing students in conversion therapy; denying tuition discounts to same-sex and trans spouses of military personnel, despite offering those discounts to heterosexual and cisgender spouses; and a formal affiliation with the dangerously anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel.”

Campus Pride lists Abilene-Christian as having “implemented an aggressive, discriminatory ban on same-sex relationships for student employees (including same-sex dating) that has created an inhospitable, harmful climate.”

Yet despite their flagrant records for openly discriminating against students who are LGBTQ, Abilene-Christian and Liberty get a pass from the NCAA time and time again.

After all, as writers on Outsports have made clear:

“A host of schools cloaked under the umbrella of ‘Christian institutions’ have athletes and coaches sign agreements forbidding them from coming out as gay. Schools like BYU prohibit same-sex relationships on campus.” — Anthony Nicodemo

“The NCAA’s own house isn’t in order. They are complicit with Christian schools that are often the proving ground for religious discrimination strategies that state legislatures borrow. NCAA member schools have been carving out pockets for legal bigotry as long as there has been a Title IX.” — Haven Herrin

The Southland Conference-winning Wildcats of Abilene, Tex. made their first appearance in NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Thursday in Jacksonville, Fla., after making the jump to NCAA Division I in 2013. National college basketball powerhouse Kentucky Wildcats, the number 2 seed, won in a rout, 79-44. Interesting footnote from SB Nation: three of Kentucky’s last four NCAA tournament games have come against teams that are also nicknamed the Wildcats.

Friday night, the ASUN champion Liberty Flames defeated the No. 5 Mississippi State Bulldogs, 80-76. As SB Nation reported, junior guard Caleb Homesley from Los Angeles buried five threes and scored a game-high 30 points in Liberty’s upset of Mississippi State. With his Flames trailing 63-53 midway through the second half, Homesley scored 14 points in less than five minutes to flip that 10-point deficit into a 2-point advantage for the underdogs. His three-pointer with just 1:12 to play put Liberty ahead for good.

Liberty coach Ritchie McKay joked that the Flames’ late-game surge was sparked by a desire to eat at In-N-Out, as USA Today’s ForTheWin reported.

At No. 12, Liberty University entered the tourney with the highest seeding in its history, and for the first time in the South Region of the tournament. In 1994 and 2004, the Flames were in the East Region. In 2013, Liberty was a part of the “First Four” in the Midwest Region.

Sunday night the 4th-seeded Virginia Tech Hokies defeated the Flames 67-58 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in San Jose, Calif.

And the NCAA turned a blind eye to what goes on back on campus.

Read the entire list and find colleges and universities on “The Shame List” by clicking here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated to reflect the final score of the Kentucky vs. Abilene-Christian first round game, and was updated twice more following the Mississippi Bulldogs and Virginia Tech Hokies games played by the Liberty Flames.

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