It’s usually the Social Justice Warrior students who hound professors for saying politically incorrect things, but sometimes faculty colleagues play that role. In today’s Martin Center article, I write about a really nasty case at the University of Louisville where that occurred.
Dr. Allan Josephson has been in medical practice since 1976 and after two other university medical-school appointments, he was tabbed in 2003 to become chief of Louisville Medical School’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology. He performed exceptionally well in that role.
But Dr. Josephson is not in agreement with the current “progressive” thinking about dealing with gender dysphoria and said so on a panel at a Heritage Foundation event in 2017. For his deviationism, the medical school came down on him like a ton of bricks. He was demoted, his budget slashed, and he was assigned as much work as a junior faculty member. His efforts at calming the waters were unavailing. For saying wrong things about gender dysphoria, he’d become persona non grata.
He labored through a year of opprobrium and humiliation until the medical school informed him back in February that his contract would not be renewed.
He’s not going quietly, however. With the expert assistance of Alliance Defending Freedom, he has filed suit against the university for violating his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. I think his case looks strong and will follow it. The university may wind up giving him his job back and parting with a substantial sum of money to cover compensatory damages, punitive damages, and legal fees, all because of a few intolerant folks on the faculty who couldn’t abide a veteran doctor disagreeing with them.