Court allows professor to challenge university’s transgender pronoun mandate
A federal appeals court has allowed a philosophy professor to sue a public university in Ohio after he faced disciplinary action for declining to use female pronouns for a male student who identified as a transgender woman.
The court ruled his legal challenge on grounds of academic freedom, free speech and free exercise of religion deserves to be heard.
The Sixth Circuit ruling reverses a decision by a federal district court to dismiss the professor’s claims that his free speech and free exercise claims were violated.
Dr. Nicholas Meriwether has served as a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University for 25 years. When a male student who identifies as a transgender woman asked to be referred to as a woman, university officials sided with the student and cited school non-discrimination policy.
