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“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.”
–Travis Barham, Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has found that University of Louisville officials may have retaliated against a professor for expressing his views on gender dysphoria and must go to trial and answer that charge before a jury.
Dr. Allan Josephson joined the University of Louisville as a professor at its medical school in 2003. Josephson was named the Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, which is under the Department of Pediatrics.
Josephson later grew concerned over gender transition treatments and began speaking out about the matter in 2014. He consulted on cases involving children who were seeking to use the bathroom or locker room of their chosen gender and served as an expert witness in lawsuits regarding childhood gender dysphoria.
In 2017, he was invited to speak at a Heritage Foundation panel entitled “Gender Dysphoria in Children: Understanding the Science and the Medicine.”
The Heritage Foundation explained to attendees that the panelists were speaking in their personal capacity and not on behalf of their organizations, and the Heritage Foundation paid for Josephson’s travel.
After Josephson’s comments, many at the university were angry with his views and confronted him.
Josephson was then demoted from his position as division chief.
After his demotion, his supervisors began crafting his job responsibilities. Before they had finished crafting his duties, they began tracking his activities and seeking to gain documentation that could justify not renewing his contract.
Some of the officials began tracking him before he was even demoted.
Months after establishing his job duties, supervisors met with Josephson, claiming that his performance was insufficient. This was the only formal job performance warning Josephson had ever received during his career.
Usually medical school employees are placed on performance-improvement plans if their job performance is found to be unsatisfactory, but officials never even spoke about a performance-improvement plan to Josephson. He claims that although he increased his efforts, his higher-ups never discussed this improvement with him in the months between his performance meeting in July 2018 and February 2019, when his contract was not renewed.
Evidence showed that as early as March 2018 supervisors were already predicting Josephson would not be back. They succeeded in ending his 40-year career.
He sued the University of Louisville, and in March 2023, a federal district court ruled that a jury should hear his charge that school officials retaliated against him for his constitutionally protected speech.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed that ruling, finding that Josephson’s medical opinions and concerns over gender dysphoria are protected speech and that a jury can find that the school retaliated against him. As a result, university officials will now stand trial.
Josephson was represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). In a statement, 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.
We look forward to continuing to protect Dr. Josephson’s clearly established right to free speech and reminding all public universities that they are marketplaces of ideas.”
It is clear that immediately after Josephson made comments doubting the wisdom of rushing children into pharmaceutical and surgical transitions, his medical school colleagues were bent on retaliating against Josephson and silencing him.
They were angry and saw him as unscientific. And they were worried about his views harming the reputation of the medical school.
What’s funny is, Josephson was the only one in this controversy who was actually following science.
Medical experts in several nations have since expressed similar doubt surrounding the wisdom of gender transition treatments. For example, gender transitions in minors have now been banned in the United Kingdom, except for research purposes.
Dr. Hillary Cass wrote in her two-year review commissioned by England’s National Health Service that studies do not show a benefit to gender transition treatments. She recommended a holistic approach to gender dysphoria rather than an unquestioning view.
Evidence is mounting that medical, surgical, and even social transitions on minors are harmful. That’s what Josephson was warning 10 years ago, only he lost his job and career.
Fortunately, the Sixth Circuit has ensured that Professor Josephson will finally have his day in court — and a chance to defend his name, his reputation, his beliefs, and his right to speak freely.
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