The bitter nationwide debate over transgender rights is playing out on a very personal level in a federal court lawsuit filed in Virginia by a former Liberty University employee. She was fired by the evangelical Christian school after disclosing her identity as a transgender woman.
The lawsuit on behalf of Ellenor Zinski was filed in July by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the Richmond law firm of Butler Curwood. It alleges that she was fired last year from her job on Liberty’s Information Technology help desk solely because of her gender identify, in violation of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Earlier this month, the conservative legal organization Liberty Counsel filed a brief on behalf of the university asking the federal district court to dismiss the lawsuit. The brief contends that the Civil Rights Act explicitly permits religious educational institutions to make employment decisions consistent with their religious doctrine — in this case a doctrinal statement asserting that “denial of birth sex by self-identification with a different gender” is sinful.
It just shows how difficult it is for a trans person to get a job in the U.S. when she was desperate enough to take a job at a fascism indoctrination mill.
I wish Dems would start spitting fire and come out with an ad going through the list of prejudices throughout our history.
"Native Americans / Aborigines? Italians? Jews? Asians? Blacks? Latinos? Women voting? Muslims? Gay? And now trans?
Isn’t it always something? When will we all see the pattern here that these witch hunts always fall on the wrong side of history. And they’re always perpetrated by the same sort of people - not grouped by the color of their skin race or religion, but of profound ignorance rooted in fear of the unknown. Cutting across every other adjective used to divide us, we are ALL human."
Side note but my god I still think of that Bernie Sanders ad from his 2016 campaign, Vote Together.
The problem right now is that there are a bunch of bigots who vote Democratic and the margins are sliver-thin.
Maybe they would actually get more voters if they did that, but I don’t know that they necessarily would. I think the people who have given up on the Democratic party would say, “too little, too late.”
There’s also the problem that the party is being run by a bunch of elders who have paleolithic moral compasses.
Fair point. I feel Immediately following elections Democrats need to pivot into this one-part educational teacher mindset to dispel common myths on us history and civics (eg, “The Dems were the slavers!”), and one-part activism. Every election cycle we fall for the trap of letting the blind lead the blind. To carve out the winning electorate by whatever means necessary as you say. But when do we actually try to nudge Americans in the right direction? This is what I commended Warren or Sanders for because they built a movement around where the country needed to go through facts and conviction and persuaded people.
Democrats rarely persuade and equally fall for whatever bullshit narrative Republicans design.
I was about to say, why the fuck would you work for a Christian organization if you are trans? It’s like being black and working for the KKK.
I’m just amazed they didn’t figure it out sooner. She does look like she can pass, but I’m still amazed. You would think a place so paranoid of atheist librul indoctrination would run background checks before they hire anyone. Unless a background check wouldn’t turn up her deadname, I guess…
Unless a background check wouldn’t turn up her deadname, I guess…
It absolutely would. There might not be anything specific about gender identity, but it wouldn’t be too hard to do the math.
I think it’s more likely that they don’t do background checks, because they don’t want to appear on c/priestarrested.
Not at all. If these people actually read the Bible they’d be completely fine with trans people. They don’t, they just make up shit to fit their preexisting beliefs and then call themselves Christian.
It depends what kind of Christianity you’re dealing with. Where I live, most of the churches have rainbow flags on display with “everyone’s welcome here” messages and lost of leftish liberals with fairly progressive views. Some even put pro-LGBTQ+ messages on their signs that call people out for bigotry. But Liberty University isn’t that kind of Christianity.
Yup. A lot of churches have the stance of “love thy neighbor. Did I fucking stutter?” and it’s very refreshing after decades of nonstop hate. Not saying the hate isn’t still out there, but we’ve come a long way even in the past 10 years.
Not all Christian organizations would have an issue. However the conservative ones, which are unfortunately the majority, would.
If you read the article, you’d know it wasn’t desperation. It was an institution she admired and specifically wanted to work there. It’s even sadder than being desperate. She was already indoctrinated into the cult that hates her for who she is.
And yet, without such people, these institutions will never change. If you want these institutions to be non-hateful, you have to get non-hateful people into them. We’re not going to get rid of Liberty University any time soon. And I would prefer to see it grow into a non-bigoted institution than to have it remain a bigoted institution indefinitely.
See I’d care more if she was fired by GE or Target or something, but… What did she expect? This is basically like announcing you’re getting married to a black woman at the Klan rally, and then wondering why they’re tying your neck to a tree.
I mean I don’t wanna play “Blame the victim”, but, come the fuck on…
Gladly. Freedom of religion goes both ways. They are free to practice their religion for the same reason they are not allowed to punish people for not following it.
I mean I don’t wanna play “Blame the victim”, but, come the fuck on…
You can’t say you don’t want to do something then proceed to do it. I mean, you can but obviously if you didn’t want to play the card you could have chosen not to play it.
That’s coming from someone that commits the same sin at times but I’m trying hard to curb that.
If you’re going to say you don’t want to do something just don’t do it.
Also, our civil liberties should be protected everywhere, the institution is in the wrong here. Just because someone has a particular gender identity should not matter.
Enforcing their religious views on employees, even if they turn out to have that right, is so morally wrong.
Gangster Capitalism has a great podcast series on Liberty University for those interested.
So I could make up a random relgion, which seems legal in the US (see scientology) and then I would be allowed to discriminate based on my religious beliefs which I totally made up.
That lawyer’s argument is crazy.
In Oklahoma, you don’t even need a religion. Not wanting to employ trans people is a valid reason to be fired. I have lost garbage DAY LABOR gigs for being trans.
They also made it illegal to be a trans teacher, and no federal agency seems at all interested in looking into it. I’m surprised this woman has been able to get a lawsuit off - I’ve been looking for someone to take mine for three years!
Lol, John Oliver did exactly that https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Perpetual_Exemption
