UofL settles suit by former professor who says he was fired for comments on gender dysphoria
Republished from Kentucky Lantern
LOUISVILLE — The University of Louisville and former professor Dr. Allan M. Josephson have settled a years-long legal battle over Josephson’s comments about how to treat gender dysphoria and the punishment he alleges followed those comments.
A Monday court document says both parties agreed “this case should be dismissed with prejudice as the parties have settled all claims raised in this litigation.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian law firm that represented Josephson in his lawsuit against the university, said UofL agreed to pay almost $1.6 million in “damages and attorneys’ fees.”
Fired University of Louisville professor claiming free-speech violation argues for jury trial
A university spokesperson said he could not comment “as this settlement is related to a personnel matter.”
“After several years, free speech and common sense have scored a major victory on college campuses,” Travis Barham, an ADF lawyer who represented Josephson, said in a statement. “Public universities have no business punishing professors simply because they hold different views.”
“Hopefully, other public universities will learn from this that if they violate the First Amendment, they can be held accountable, and it can be very expensive,” Barham said.
Josephson, formerly chief of the UofL medical school’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, made the comments in question during a Heritage Foundation panel discussion in 2017, which his colleagues found to be anti-LGBTQ and “demanded that the University take disciplinary action against” him, according to court filings by Josephson.
Those comments included:
- The “notion that gender identity should trump chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, external genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics when classifying individuals is counter to medical science.”
- “Transgender ideology neglects the child’s need for developing coping and problem-solving skills necessary to meet developmental challenges.”
- Parents should “use their collective wisdom in guiding their child to align with his or her biological sex.”
Within seven weeks of the comments, “defendants demanded that he resign his position as division chief and effectively become a junior faculty member,” Josephson alleged in court documents. Josephson was “demoted, harassed, and ultimately fired for speaking out on the harms of ‘transitioning’ children,” his lawyers said.
After Monday’s settlement, Josephson said in a statement “I’m glad to finally receive vindication for voicing what I know is true.”
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