University officer fired for criticizing homosexual politics files lawsuit

Toledo, Ohio, Dec 2, 2008 / 19:07 pm

A university administrator fired from the University of Toledo for her published remarks criticizing homosexuality and expressing her Christian views has filed a lawsuit against the school. The suit alleges the violations of her constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection of the law.

Attorneys who filed the suit charged that the administrator was fired “for being a Christian.”

Crystal Dixon, associate vice president of human resources at the state-run University of Toledo, wrote an April 18 column for the Toledo Free Press in response to an April 4 column by the paper’s Editor-in-Chief Michael S. Miller.  Miller argued that Ohio is behind in “gay rights” and also criticized the University of Toledo’s lack of health care benefits for some domestic partnerships.

Dixon, who did not identify herself as a university employee, wrote in her column:

“As a Black woman... I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are ‘civil rights victims.’  Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a Black woman. I am genetically and biologically a Black woman and very pleased to be so as my Creator intended.”

She referenced prominent individuals who had renounced their homosexual behavior, sometimes because of “a realization that their choice of same-sex practices wreaked havoc in their psychological and physical lives.”

She closed her column with two references to the Bible.  She said that God had created humankind male and female and gave them free will, which she described as an “inalienable right to choose.”  Saying there are consequences for our choices, Dixon said it is “base human nature to revolt and become indignant” when the world or God Himself disagrees with our choices.

Dixon also insisted that God “loves the sinner but hates the sin” and that Jesus is “radically transforming the lives of both straight and gay folks and bringing them into a life of wholeness.”

Lloyd Jacobs, President of the University of Toledo, soon after published a column in the same paper to “repudiate” Dixon’s views and to insist her comments “do not accord with the values of the University of Toledo.”

Dixon was placed on leave and fired by the university in May.

According to a press release from the Thomas More Law Center, Dixon had earlier questioned the University President’s decision to hire his niece over five more qualified candidates. His niece was hired for the Human Resources Department where Dixon worked.

The Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center on Monday filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court on Dixon’s behalf. It is being assisted by Toledo attorney Tom Sobecki.

“It’s clear that radical homosexuals have an inordinate amount of influence over the University President.  He openly brags about being friendly to ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning individuals.’  But he doesn’t care about the constitutional free speech rights of Christians,” charged Richard Thompson, President of the Thomas More Law Center.

“Where is the so-called free expression of ideas and tolerance that universities so adamantly defend in other contexts?  Crystal Dixon has a constitutional right to privately express her personal opinions, and this particular opinion represents the view of a majority of Christian Americans." 

"Crystal Dixon believed and expressed this – essentially she was fired for being a Christian,” Thompson said.