Public Universities Sued Over Imposing Transgender Ideology and Pronoun Policies
Faculty members who failed to use specified pronouns could face penalties “up to firing or expulsion.”
Both the Young Americans Foundation (YAF) and Defending Education have filed lawsuits against public universities over policies they say compel adherence to aspects of radical gender ideology. The lawsuits target the University of Minnesota and the University of California, respectively, alleging that each institution imposes those requirements through their “anti-discrimination” policies.
In its lawsuit against the University of Minnesota, YAF contends that the university’s policy unlawfully restricts students from engaging in debate over aspects of transgender ideology.
In the filing, YAF alleges that the university’s student life policies “forbid students and guests from speaking on one side of the debate about gender identity and transgender issues, and also forbid them from using biological pronouns to refer to transgender-identifying people.”
YAF states on its website, “This means that a UMN student can be accused of discrimination for believing that there are only two genders; refusing to use incorrect pronouns; refusing to recognize transgenderism; and speaking out for their own privacy against members of the opposite sex using their bathrooms.”
In the Defending Education lawsuit against the University of California, the group claims the school’s “Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment (SVSH) Policy” determines that “[i]ntentionally calling someone their name used before [gender] transition, as opposed to their lived name, is called dead-naming, and may be a form of sexual harassment.”
Furthermore, students at the University of California are required to undergo “Sexual Harassment, Anti-Discrimination, Prevention and Education (SHAPE) training which outlines [how] students must abide by this gender ideology.
“Speech codes like those in UC’s SVSH policy impose vague, overbroad, content- and often viewpoint-based restrictions on speech,” according to Defending Education.
“And, as the Supreme Court has routinely confirmed, they are unconstitutional.”
Both of these university systems have a record of obligating university members to adhere to some forms of transgender ideology.
In 2019, the University of Minnesota drew criticism when a new faculty policy required them to “use the names, gender identities and pronouns specified to them by university members, except as legally required.”
Faculty members who failed to use the specified pronouns could face penalties “up to firing or expulsion.”
Similarly, the University of California Riverside provided students with a “Trans Guide,” which directed them to identify students by their “accurate gender identity and lived or preferred name on university-issued documents.”
Taken together, the policies cited in both lawsuits illustrate the broader dispute over whether public universities may require students and faculty to affirm contested views on gender identity.
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Comments
Simplify the pronouns by calling them “it”. Problem amusingly solved.
No, that won’t solve it at all, because that is not their preferred pronoun. The whole point here is control; you must refer to a person, when addressing others, by whichever pronouns that person has dictated to you. And it’s their privilege to change them whenever they like and you must follow suit.
I feel much the same way when governments rename their countries or cities and demand that I start referring to them by these new names. No, you don’t get to dictate to me how I will use the English language. I will continue to use Bombay and Madras, and not Mumbai and Chennai. If I’m feeling particularly truculent I will say Peking. And I absolutely refuse to spell Turkey in that new weird way they insist I must. Now hang on while I drive up the Interborough to the Triborough, and then up to the Tappan Zee.
St. Petersburg/Leningrad/Petrograd… Pick one. On the other hand, I have no problem with natural language revision; Londinium/London, for example.
“Ms.” was introduced decades ago, and there was never any insistence on its use and nobody punished anyone for not using it. People were merely reminded that so-and-so wants to be called “Ms.” There was also a bonus – if in doubt about how to address a woman (everyone still understood what that was back then), use “Ms.” and nobody flipped out because that wasn’t their preference. It has caught on gradually, as new words have always become common by use, or discarded by disuse, by the public.
Now its use is mandatory and those who object to being labelled angry divorceeshomosexualsmisandrists and instead addressed as Miss or Mrs are ignored.
What new spelling for Turkey?
A few years ago the Turkish government changed the spelling of the country’s official English name. I refuse to use the new spelling, or even to remember it, on the grounds that Erdogan doesn’t own the English language.
Just tell ‘them’ you identify as Your Lordship.
Or ignore them entirely – do not speak to them, do not refer to them, do not acknowledge their existence. They have chosen to place themselves outside of normal society; let them deal with the consequences.
Just say ‘tranny’. Then when they flip out refer to them by their biological sex while directing them to relax. ‘Sir, calm down, get your emotions under control’.
That should explode their fantasy, which is the point. Their fantasy cosplay is theirs NOT ours. We ain’t required to be unwilling participants in their cosplay. Treat any attempt to ‘require’ participation the same way we should at ‘mandatory’ DEI/CRT training; No I will not shut up, leave the room, stop asking questions while refusing to move on or allow the lecture to proceed until each point of the presentation has been fully explored to my.satisfaction b/c y’all demanded I participate well this is me participating. Unless of course y’all want to hand me a permanent exemption from all this BS along with everyone else who wants a get out HR jail free card’.
In the past, there was never an insistence that someone who fancied himself Napoleon Bonaparte must be addressed a “emperor.” It was understood (insanity aside), that a person could call themselves anybody or anything they wanted, but they had no authority to demand that others do the same, enabling their delusions.
That is difficult in schools ruled by the wokeista. Using first names is the only solution I can come up with, despite their “gender fluidity” enabling them to turn on a dime. The frequency of “transgressions” (is there a pun there?) increases with how much the student(s) in question “like” the teacher, which may be for trans friendly attitudes or class rigor.
The teacher still eats it.
History books of the future will not be kind.
Assuming there are any.
I do consider these ‘rainbow’ flags Marxist flags.
On the programs, of course it won’t stop, they are not going to quit just keep trying some other way.
Just another entry in the category of “woke-leftists and progressives will eventually destroy themselves.”
“Eventual” still results in much violence, poverty and death.
Methinks we need to add haste to the process, starting with the SAVE act.
Been a very long time, so how does it go?
4 legs good, 2 legs better?
Of course they won’t admit it
Jordan Peterson was the canary in the coal mine this time.