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University of Louisville campus
The university canceled a graduation ceremony for LGBTQ+ students and reached a reported seven-figure settlement with an anti-transgender former professor.
The University of Louisville, a public institution in Kentucky, has canceled its LGBTQ+ graduation event and reached a nearly $1.6 million settlement with a former professor who sued, claiming that his anti-transgender comments had led to his demotion and firing.
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The school canceled its Lavender Graduation event, which was to take place last Monday and honor the achievements of LGBTQ+ students, “amid new federal and state policies calling on schools to end diversity, equity and inclusion practices,” The Courier-Journal of Louisville reports.
In March, the Republican-controlled Kentucky legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's veto of a bill banning DEI initiatives at public colleges and universities in the state. At the national level, Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to revoke federal funding from schools with DEI programs. On Thursday, however, two federal courts issued preliminary injunctions blocking that guidance from the Department of Education.
University spokesman John Karman told The Courier-Journal that the cancellation came because of the new state and federal policies. However, he “said he was not aware of any other graduation ceremonies canceled due to the policies,” the paper reports.
Meanwhile, the University of Kentucky, based in Lexington, canceled its Lavender Graduation as well, along with the Harambe Unity Celebration Graduation, which was to honor Black graduates, and the First-Generation Student Pinning Ceremony.
Also, the University of Louisville has settled a federal lawsuit filed in 2019 by Allan Josephson, who had been a professor in the Department of Pediatric and who had denounced gender-affirming care for trans youth, The Courier-Journalreports. Josephson was represented by the anti-LGBTQ+ Alliance Defending Freedom.
In 2017, he spoke at a Heritage Foundation event, at which he said “transgender ideology” endangers young people and that the “notion that gender identity should trump chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, external genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics when classifying individuals is counter to medical science.” This view is contrary to that of every major medical group in the U.S.
He was first demoted “to the role of a junior faculty member and stripped … of his teaching duties,” says an ADF press release, and after that the university declined to renew his contract.
The university declined to divulge details of the settlement, but the ADF said it was close to $1.6 million.
The suit was dismissed Monday, “as the parties have settled all claims raised in this litigation,” states a document from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
“I’m glad to finally receive vindication for voicing what I know is true,” Josephson said in the ADF release.
