Academia is its own beast and assuming that what goes at a college will protect Fortune 500 employees is unrealistic. That said there’s a precedent here and it’s an important one. Forcing people to use male pronouns for women or vice versa has been an important tool for ideological compliance.
The “you shall comply” familiar form of fascism has even escalated to fining business owners and threatening them with prisons for failing to call men, women. And on campus the ideological reign of terror has been particularly pronounced and this case represents a major victory.
A philosophy professor at a university in Ohio won his lawsuit against the institution after it forced him to call a student by their preferred pronouns.
Shawnee State University, a public institution in Portsmouth, Ohio, reportedly rebuked Nicholas Meriwether in 2018 for not addressing a transgender student with the student’s choice of gender terms, saying at the time such language was part of his job and therefore not First Amendment-protected speech.
And, wouldn’t you know it, the First Amendment abides even on campus. This is also a test of religious freedom against sexual accomodation.
Shawnee State University officials punished philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether because he declined a male student’s demand to be referred to as a woman, with feminine titles and pronouns (“Miss,” “she,” etc.). Although the philosophy professor offered to use any name the student requested, the university rejected that compromise, choosing instead to force the professor to speak and act contrary to his own Christian convictions and philosophical beliefs,” ADF says.
After a three-year fight against the university, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit reportedly ruled in 2021 that Meriwether’s rights had been violated.
According to an ADF release on April 14, 2022, the university has agreed to a settlement that includes monetary compensation and an agreement that Meriwether will never be mandated to comply with pronoun rules again.
The Bill of Rights wins, Stunning and Brave loses.
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