In 2016, Canadian Professor Jordan Peterson made huge waves for standing up to woke students at the University of Toronto. He said he would not be forced to refer to anyone by their chosen gender pronouns.
This led to a huge controversy, and ultimately rocketed Peterson to fame and becoming a bestselling author.
Professionally, however, it had serious consequences on Peterson’s career as an academic. He faced many confrontations from his university and their woke board of leaders.
Here in America we still, fortunately, have a bit more freedom in the air.
A woke college student in Ohio found out this after trying to force a professor to use his chosen gender pronouns.
Call Me She/Her … Or Else!
Professor Nick Meriwether is a professor at Shawnee State University, a public college in Ohio. In 2018, while teaching his course on political philosophy, Meriwether took a question from a student.
The student was a male who identified as female. Meriwether confirmed something the student said by noting “yes, sir,” which greatly upset the student. The student demanded he be referred to as a woman and with “feminine titles.”
Meriwether said he’d refer to the individual by any name he wished, but would not use different pronouns.
The student was so angry with Meriwether calling him “sir” that he started yelling at him and saying he’d get Meriwether fired.
He then went to the university’s administration and lodged a formal complaint. He said being referred to as “sir” and not having pronouns recognized was making him feel unsafe and unwelcome.
What happened at this point is that Shawnee University got very scared and immediately lashed out at Meriwether.
The university said he must use any pronouns the student wished or he would be punished in the future. They also put a special “warning” in his file about his refusal to do so.
Nick Meriwether will be paid by a public university in Ohio $400,000 for damages plus attorney fees after punishing him for declining a mentally deranged male student's demand to be referred to as a female. https://t.co/2xFr5zhcKM
— SuperThug🎖 (@souperthug) April 17, 2022
Professor Sues
Meriwether was not amused by his own employers immediately stabbing him in the back, so he sued them. Specifically, Meriwether said Shawnee State was violating his First Amendment right to hold faith in a religion.
As a Christian, Meriwether did not believe in changing gender; referring to someone else’s gender pronouns would violate his beliefs.
The first district court threw out Meriwether’s lawsuit, seeing it as unimportant, but an appeal overturned that decision. It decided Meriwether’s claim had merit.
Now, Shawnee State will be wishing they never went after this humble philosophy professor. The school is looking at a price tag of $400,000 in damages and legal fees to be paid to Meriwether.
They will also take away the red flag note of warning they put in Meriwether’s employee file.
@ShawneeState Prof. Nick Meriwether just beat you in court. Got nice size award too. Good for him. Should have went for for more. Also today I identify as an American Indianan and the I find the name of your school offense to me and my people. Fix it, NOW!
— Jack Reacher (@jjm845) April 17, 2022
Go Woke, Go Broke
This is just the latest example of the rule that Walt Disney Company is also finding out: go woke, go broke.
Shawnee State undoubtedly wishes they’d just stuck to common sense now, but instead, they’re going to be draining their public funding straight into Meriwether’s account.
