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…
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.
You can both feel sorry for somebody who got mugged and note that taking a shortcut through that dark alley with a wallet full of cash was a bad idea with a foreseeable outcome
Civil liberties don’t vanish because a place delcares itself Christian…
I realize that, but… still
Tell that to the Christians
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.
Christians have a great history of not forcing their faith on people, right? It isn’t a core tenant of Abrahamic faiths or anything.