In an upsetting and discouraging reversal, an appeals court in Ohio has ruled that an evangelical Christian professor has standing to sue the university that disciplined him for deliberately misgendering a student.
The ruling concerns Professor Nicholas Meriwether, who fell afoul of the LGBTQ inclusion policies at Shawnee State University after a student — referred to in court documents as Jane Doe — asked him to use the correct pronouns for her and stop referring to her with masculine titles like “Sir” and “Mr.”
Honestly, I think intentionally misgendering should just be countered with constant correction debate and argumentl. Threathening a prof job is problematic since tenure exists to protect those with ideas abhorent to others. Instead fight the right way, by constant debating and presenting of arguments. Not threathen financial and social harm. There lies a dangerous precedent.
Well then I guess students have the right to misgender the Professor too.
I agree! Misgender those who misgender!
But honestly, im used to misgendering. If you hang out with Iranian students they are constantly misgendering lol
Well, let's hope the college does something it can do - change that prick's schedule. Teach at 8am Saturday. And yes, there are 8am Saturday classes some places - I taught one for two semesters. That and those night classes that run till 9 or 10. Taught those too.
So a professor will not address a student as they have personally asked him to do. So the professor has chosen to disrespect the student's request because his own personal belief, well, God's belief he would argue, is that the person is not who they are. So we'll just go to court? Oh my.
Extract: "In this more recent opinion, Circuit Judge Amul Thapar leaned heavily on the idea of intellectual freedom as a justification for disrespecting Doe’s identity:
Traditionally, American universities have been beacons of intellectual diversity and academic freedom. They have prided themselves on being forums where controversial ideas are discussed and debated. And they have tried not to stifle debate by picking sides. But Shawnee State chose a different route: it punished a professor for his speech on a hotly contested issue."
I don't see that intellectual freedom comes anywhere close to protecting hate-based abuse and public humiliation. Intentionally using the wrong pronouns instead of the students actual name clearly denotes bullying and hate-speech. Under the circumstances, I'd say the school should summarily fire the teacher, taking said action to avoid the identified risk of the school being sued by the student because the school allowed a hostile environment.
kinda surprised that the court seems to be going the opposite direction, myself