In a January 2018 political philosophy class where Meriwether was an instructor, he responded to a male student’s question with the phrase “yes, sir.” The professor said he responded “yes, sir” because “Doe is male,” Doe “appears male,” and no one seeing Doe would assume that Doe was “biologically female.”
The student approached the professor after class and identified as transgender and demanded the professor use female titles and pronouns. The professor voiced doubts that he could comply and questioned that students could “dictate how professors must refer to them.”
The student allegedly became “belligerent,” circled the professor, called him an obscene sexual term, and got in his face “in a threatening fashion.”
The university first asked Meriwether to stop using masculine and feminine titles and gendered pronouns entirely. He said this was practically impossible and proposed a compromise in which he would refer to the student by his last name. The student voiced dissatisfaction and the professor’s later accidental reference to the student as “Mr.” provoked further controversy.
“Misgendering” is a major taboo for many supporters of transgender identity and for many who identify as transgender. This position is rapidly becoming normalized under strict interpretations of anti-discrimination law and policies which treat gender identity as a protected class akin to race or sex.
The student threatened a lawsuit against the university, and under pressure from the university, Meriwether agreed to address the student using preferred pronouns on the condition he could put a disclaimer in his syllabus. The disclaimer would state that he followed the pronoun policy under duress and that he views biological sex and gender as the same and unchangeable.
The university dean said this was not compatible with the institution’s gender identity policy. The university’s Title IX office concluded that the professor had created a “hostile environment” that violated the university’s non-discrimination policies against disparate treatment. In a written warning, officials said the professor could be fired or suspended without pay for violating the policy.
Meriwether said the student received high grades and was not treated differently than other students. The professor’s faculty union unsuccessfully appealed the disciplinary action before he filed his lawsuit.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights is among those representing the student and the Sexuality and Gender Acceptance student group at Shawnee State.
Asaf Orr, senior staff attorney and director of the center’s Transgender Youth Project, told the Chronicle for Higher Education his clients are “disappointed” by the decision.
“The decision opens the door to discrimination generally,” said Orr. “Nothing in the opinion’s reasoning is limited to discrimination against transgender students.”
Meriwether himself discussed the case in a Sept. 28, 2020 opinion essay for The Hill. He contended “leftist professors and students enjoy enormous leeway, protected from any message that might question their views or ‘offend’ them.”
“But conservative and traditionally religious professors and students who dare cross the leftist party line, such as the requirement to speak precisely as ‘woke’ ideology demands, are subject to discriminatory policies and even dismissal,” he said.
Meriwether said his own college experience did not affirm his own identity.
“I cannot recall a single professor who identified with my Protestant orthodoxy. One well-respected professor gave a public lecture on campus about how people like me are destroying the planet. And I could provide several other examples,” said Meriwether.
He explained that he had seen these differences as part of the college environment, believing “I can’t expect everyone to agree with me, and I hope they extend the same courtesy to me.” However, the professor said he now questions whether this still described the college experience.