The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled Tuesday that University of Louisville officials must stand trial for firing Dr. Allan Josephson. The school fired Josephson after he expressed his personal views in a panel discussion on gender dysphoria.
Josephson, professor of psychiatry and the chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology at UL since 2003, spoke on his own time and in his personal capacity at a Heritage Foundation panel discussion about how best to treat children experiencing gender dysphoria in October 2017, during which he disagreed with the idea that the best way to treat these children is to affirm their gender confusion. He stated, among other things, that gender dysphoria is a psychological issue that cannot be fully addressed through medicine and surgery; that the new “affirming” treatment neglects children’s developmental needs and relies on false ideas; and that children often demand things that are not good for them and a parent’s role is to resist these demands.
Less than seven weeks later, Josephson—who had significantly improved the division in his time as chief—was given an ultimatum: resign, or be fired from his position as division chief, in retaliation to his constitutionally protected speech at the panel and due to pressure from some faculty members and the school’s LGBT Center.
Josephson was then demoted to the role of a junior faculty member and was removed as the CEO of the Bingham Child Guidance Clinic Clinic (now the Bingham Clinic) without consulting its board, which violated the university’s agreement with the clinic. Due to the demotion, he was forced to discontinue several academic projects, was stripped of his leadership duties and was resigned to the type of academic and clinical work reserved for junior faculty members. His work environment became increasingly hostile until the university informed him of its decision not to renew his contract when it expired on June 30, 2019, ending a nearly 40-year academic career.
“Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Josephson, as we must, Josephson has shown that he engaged in protected speech when he spoke as part of the Heritage Foundation panel,” the circuit court wrote in its opinion. “Defendants should have known that Josephson’s speech was protected and that retaliating against Josephson for his speech would violate his First Amendment rights.”
Responding to the ruling, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Travis Barham said: “Public universities have no business punishing professors simply because they hold different views than a few colleagues or administrators. The court’s decision affirms that basic truth. Dr. Josephson had a long and distinguished career at the University of Louisville, leading and rebuilding its child psychiatry program. On his own time, he spoke about treatments for children struggling with their sex, and the University punished him for expressing his opinion. That’s exactly what the First Amendment prohibits, and when public universities disregard our nation’s highest law, they must be held accountable.”
Photo: Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom