A university pays $400K to professor who refused to use a student's pronouns

Shawnee State University in southern Ohio has agreed to pay philosophy professor Nick Meriwether $400,000 after disciplining him for not using a transgender student's pronouns. (Alliance Defending Freedom)

A public university professor in Ohio who was disciplined four years ago for refusing to use a transgender student’s pronouns is being awarded $400,000 following a lawsuit against the university.

Nick Meriwether, a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, sued the college in 2018 after he was disciplined for not using she/her pronouns to refer to a transgender woman, according to a news release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal organization focusing on religious freedom and free speech cases.

In a January 2018 philosophy class, Meriwether responded to the student by using the phrase “Yes, sir.” Once the class ended, the student asked Meriwether to use she/her pronouns when addressing her, but Meriwether refused to do so, according to ADF.