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.
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.
I never quite understood what drives people to align with such institutions but I assume it’s not for anything positive. It’s okay for evangelical xtians to be unpleasant until you become the target has been my experience with such people.
Sometimes you just have to work at places that are hostile to trans people, and you just have to hope they don’t find out you’re trans. If the only place that you can find a job in your field is at a Christian College, maybe you’ll accept the job and hope for the best. Potentially losing a job at some point in the future is better than not having a job today.
I’m not trans so I can’t speak to that particular demographic but I’ve found evangelical xtians to be deeply unpleasant to most people who deviate from what they perceive as the norm. I do everything possible to avoid being anywhere near them as a result.
You just gotta love that this place is called “liberty”, a place where you’re free to do whatever you want as look as you only do the things a tiny group of people allow you to do.
The one thing that really REALLY disgusts me beyond anything is just the sheer hypocrisy on the right / conservative side. They break all the rules, they commit all the crimes, and immediately turn around and accuse the “other side” of doing exactly what they just did, and then call themselves “liberty” or " law abiding" or some shit like that. It soooo grinds my gears…
If you’re going to be evil, then at least fucking own it. At least call yourself a dictator, at least call yourself a religious terrorist. Say what you want about al Qaeda, but at least they know they’re evil and they don’t pretend to be a loving sweet group of happy campers.
Gangster Capitalism has a great podcast series on Liberty University for those interested.
