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Professor Files Lawsuit Against University Requirement to Use Transgender Labels
Professor Nicholas Meriwether has finally had enough.
In June 2018, a warning was put in this professor’s personnel file because he refused to refer to a transgender student, who was biologically male and called himself Alena Breuning, with female personal pronouns.
But Ms. Bruening demanded to be referred to as “Miss” and “she” in accordance with the student’s gender identity, filing a complaint against her professor earlier this year for not accommodating her wishes.
Shawnee State University, a public school in Ohio, requires its staff to refer to a transgender student by his or her preferred gender pronouns.
In spite of the Shawnee State University’s policy, Professor Meriwether, who is an evangelical Christian, filed a lawsuit with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom. They are arguing that his First Amendment rights are being violated. The school and Prof. Meriwether have tried to negotiate a resolution to this issue, but have fallen short of working it out.
In protesting the professor’s lawsuit, another publication, Think Progress, discounts his legal team’s claims as an effort to “discredit the legitimacy of transgender identities”:
They brazenly assert that ‘the concept of gender identity is entirely subjective and fluid,’ that ‘the number of potential gender identities is infinite (with over one hundred different options currently available),’ and that ‘the number of potential pronouns has likewise multiplied in recent years.’ It further claims that “some sources say” a person’s gender identity can be ‘affected by mood swings’ or ‘change depending on which friend you’re with.’
The publication describes Professor Meriwether’s communication style with students:
Meriwether, as it turns out, is very particular about how he communicates with students in his class. Deploying a formal Socratic method, Meriwether always addresses students using formal titles (Mr./Ms./Mrs./Miss) and ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am.’ He believes this is an ‘important pedagogical tool’ to foster ‘an atmosphere of seriousness and mutual respect.’
We have to find a way to encourage and support not only professors in universities, but all conservatives who find these demands unconstitutional and oppressive. Pushing back against these obscene demands is the only way to stop this country from being swallowed up by the Progressive agenda.
In the close of their article, Think Progress made the following comment:
ADF appears to hope that Meriwether’s case will be a vehicle for them to impose a double standard that justifies discrimination against transgender people that wouldn’t otherwise be tolerated against other groups. ADF attorney Tyson Langhofer said in a statement, ‘This isn’t just about a pronoun; this is about endorsing an ideology.’
That is false. It’s about respecting people for who they are.
It’s too bad that respect doesn’t go both ways.
Published in Education
Democracies should not be in the business of compelling people to lie.
People whose identities never shift could even sew their preferred gender onto their garments, a large ‘m’ or ‘f’, in a bright color such as scarlet.
Oh my. Well said, @robtgilsdorf
What does become of these lab rats when they are released into the wild?
Why can’t the professor create his own gender category: the “cis gendered hetero-normative birth sex assignist”– that is, a cis gendered hetero-normative person who perceives birth sex as unalterable?
Surely, anyone brave enough to publicly identify as CGHBSA deserves our respect!!
The professor needs to self-identify as The Supreme Being and warn the administration they should kneel before Him and that the university will be rent asunder and plunged into the deepest level of Hell if they dare to dictate to Him what He should or should not say
…which come to think of it, may actually happen.
He can switch back to being a mortal human on his lunch break.
Not that reductive, really.
They’re customers to be served, inasmuch as they (or someone) is paying for an education, and are owed an education. The school needs to adapt to serve their needs.
Either way, Valiuth is wrong. There may be a lot of things colleges can or should do to cater to their students, but encouraging them to believe falsehoods is not among them.
Do you have some thoughts on what type of adaptation the university should make, @joshuabissey?
I don’t have a detailed policy as yet, but it seems that what some of these students need is a swift boot to the head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8VD4JXUozM
They take over the HR department of major corporations and set policy.
I’m still giggling . . . I mean, what a cruel person you are!
Fortunately, not everywhere. It’s not exactly on topic, but I remember some grads starting in a new company who complained about a more senior employee and said the company should fire her. The company fired the grads instead.
Hopefully the STEM realm hasn’t been contaminated yet, but I’m sure that one day soon someone used to safe-spaces is going to have his or her first peer code review.
Peer code reviews are a little like Fight Club meets “Game of Thrones.”
There might already be a giant tech company that’s gone full SJW/NPC. You should Google it.
How the Earth feels? I’ll tell ya how she feels, she feels ravaged by your greedy cis-white patriarchy is how she feels!
That is as dispiriting as it is true.
EDIT: removed half-written reply to other comment.
And I’ll betcha 10% of the people are doing 90% of the work. They’ll put up with that right up until they don’t.
This, exactly this. I’ve more than once told co-workers they shouldn’t even try to tell me what to think,which is what speech codes are really about, as it would prove to be way to frustrating for them.
I thought the rule was 20/80.
She? Has the earth chosen this pronoun? More to the point, is . . . she . . . feeling “flat?”
You’ve…you’ve just sexually harassed the whole planet!
A great ending to a good day. And the best thing about earth is, I’m pretty sure she’ll come around again tomorrow.
It is about the progressive ideology behind the ‘prognouns’, isn’t it?
I have trouble remembering people’s names much less which of 57 pronouns I’m supposed to use for them today.
We’re supposed to pretend that XX becomes XY and XY becomes XX if the person asserts this today. As others have written, this is a lie. For a college to mandate this means that that institution requires its faculty to lie.
Will HR have a pronoun changing form? Will they post them?
(I have a suggestion as to where they can post them. Probably just start another fight with HR though.)
I would just assign each student in my class a number, and call on them by number. Problem solved.
I would consider referring to the student as a Miss or a she only if “she” was undergoing the process for sex change surgery. If it’s only a guy who wears makeup and a dress, it’s Mr. or his legal name (which he may have changed to a female name).
No. They are not. Nor is a proper education a “product” to be bought and sold.
If there is an actual customer (and I do not think the customer analogy holds up) – it would be the person(s) paying for the product. And that is almost NEVER the student. Parents, taxpayers, and generous donors would be the “customer” far more often than not. Perhaps the professor should then be required to kowtow to the absurd demands of only those students who are paying for their own education – in full. (“I need to see your receipt, please.”)
Except that students are not customers. They are students. And universities are not big box stores. They are schools. (In theory, at least.)
For most of my college life, my education was paid for by me, or by the G.I. Bill money I had earned. So I very much thought of myself as a customer. If, for example, I had been kicked out of a class for using correct pronouns or someone’s “dead” name, I would certainly have brought that up in my defense.
That being said, the whole point of school is to be taught, so the customer is not always right.