A philosophy professor in Ohio filed a lawsuit against his university on Monday for punishing him after he refused to refer to a transgender student according to their preferred gender pronoun.
In January, Nicholas Meriwether, an evangelical Christian and 22-year employee at Shawnee State University, responded to a question from Alena Bruening by saying, “Yes, sir.” Bruening is a biological man who identifies as a woman.
Bruening approached Meriwether after class and demanded that he refer to him using feminine pronouns. When Meriwether did not instantly agree, Bruening promised to get him fired and used derogatory language towards the professor.
Meriwether, who refers to all of his students as “sir,” “ma’am,” “Mr.,” or “Miss,” offered to use the student’s first or last name instead, but this did not satisfy university administrators or the student.
Shawnee State University’s “Nondiscrimination policy” defines gender identity as a “person’s innermost concept of self as male or female or both or neither—how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves.”
Meriwether believes God created only two genders, male and female, which are determined by a person’s biology.
Roberta Milliken, acting dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, launched an investigation into the matter and formally charged Meriwether with causing “a hostile environment” in his classroom for refusing to violate his religious beliefs.
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SOURCE: CBN News, Emily Jones
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