LGBT

‘Transgender’ Employee’s Lawsuit Against Liberty University Moves Forward

A federal court ruled that a sex discrimination lawsuit against Liberty University can move forward. The school fired a transgender-identified employee who violated the university’s Christian beliefs about sex and sexuality.

The former employee, Jonathan Zinski, who now goes by the name Ellenor, believes, “You can be transgender and Christian. I am.”

Zinski started taking female hormones even before he was hired by the Christian school and agreed to Liberty’s doctrinal position which states that “denial of birth sex by self-identification with a different gender” is a sinful act “prohibited by God.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and Butler Curwood, PLC filed a lawsuit on behalf of Zinski, alleging the school violated his Title VII employment rights.

ACLU of Virginia Senior Transgender Attorney Wyatt Rolla, who was born female but is transgender-identified, said in a statement:

No one should be fired because of who they are, but Liberty University made it clear that’s exactly why it fired Ellenor. It’s no surprise the judge ruled our case can move forward. Workplace discrimination against transgender people is against the law – no matter your religious beliefs.

Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal aid nonprofit, is representing the school. Founder and Chairman Matt Staver sharply disagreed.

“Liberty University has the right under the First Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to uphold its sincere Christian religious beliefs and require its employees to do the same. Jonathan Zinski intentionally and deceptively set up Liberty University in an attempt to undermine its religious beliefs and mission.”

Zinski’s lawsuit states he was hired to work at the university’s IT Helpdesk in February 2023. Four months later, Zinski told the school’s Human Resources Department that he “identified as a trans woman, had been undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and intended to legally change [his] name from Jonathan to Ellenor soon.”

According to Liberty Counsel, when Zinski was first hired, he “agreed to adhere to the university’s doctrinal position regarding the biblical understanding of gender.”

But he was violating that agreement even before working for the school, as Liberty Counsel explained:

When Zinski was hired, he acknowledged and affirmed the doctrinal statement, but then as soon as his 90-day probation period expired, he revealed he had begun taking female hormones four months before he was hired, and that he planned to “identify” as female. Zinski set up this case when he applied to be hired.

Despite the fact that Zinski signed the belief statement while already on opposite sex hormones, the ACLU of Virginia claimed, “Ellenor is a devout Christian who is committed to Liberty’s mission of ‘preaching Christ,’” adding,

“Today she is an active member of her local church, Trinity Episcopal, whose pastor fully supported her transition, even providing gender-affirming clothing.”

In his opinion allowing the case to go forward, U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon for the Western District Of Virginia relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bostock decision, writing, “Sex is the criterion at issue here. In Bostock v. Clayton Cnty., Ga., the Supreme Court of the United States held that the term ‘sex’ as used in Title VII encompasses sexual orientation and transgender status.”

When Congress passed that act, Americans understood that “sex” meant being male or female – not homosexuality or transgenderism. These identities, based on a person’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors, are now viewed as an intrinsic part of human identity. As Rolla stated, it’s “who they are.”

Judge Moon opined that it didn’t matter what Congress meant when it passed the Civil Rights Act, saying, “Words change with time, thereby placing prior Congresses’ views of the present situation beyond our reach.” 

One wonders if the meaning of other words has “changed with time,” such as those in the Bill of Rights’ First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

While religious non-profit organizations, like Liberty University, typically have a ministerial exemption based on the First Amendment, the judge found “that it does not apply in this case,” adding, “Zinski was not a minister under any formula. The ministerial exception does not provide an affirmative defense to liability at this stage of litigation.”

When the Supreme Court redefined “sex” in Bostock to mean something it had never meant before, Justice Samuel Alito, in his dissent, harshly rebuked the majority opinion at every turn:

The arrogance of this argument is breathtaking. … The Court’s argument is not only arrogant, it is wrong, it fails on its own terms. “Sex,” “sexual orientation,” and “gender identity” are different concepts, as the Court concedes. …
Without strong evidence to the contrary (and there is none here), our job is to ascertain and apply the “ordinary meaning” of the statute. And in 1964, ordinary Americans most certainly would not have understood Title VII to ban discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Liberty Counsel said it will appeal the case, arguing “that federal law protects religious institutions to uphold their sincere Christian beliefs and to employ those who are aligned with its religious mission and beliefs.”

Let’s pray they prevail, as Zinski v. Liberty University has important implications for churches, religious schools and ministries. The Daily Citizen will keep you updated as the case moves through higher courts.

Related articles and resources:

The Bostock Slippery Slope: Girls Who Think They’re Boys Must Be Allowed to Use High School Boys’ Restroom, Appeals Court Rules

EEOC Releases Major Guidance Ending Many Workplace Protections for Women

Federal Judge Blocks Administration’s Attempt to Impose Gender Ideology on Employers, Healthcare Providers

Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Attacking Faith-based Schools

New Post-Bostock Lawsuit Would Force Doctors to Perform ‘Gender-Transition’ Surgeries Against Their Medical Judgment

‘Not Only Arrogant, But Wrong’: Justice Alito Slams SCOTUS Majority for Redefining ‘Sex’

President Trump: ‘There are Only Two Genders: Male and Female’

Politicians and Religious Conservatives React to Landmark SCOTUS Ruling on Employment Discrimination

Image from Shutterstock.

Iowa Governor Signs Bill ‘That Safeguards the Rights of Women and Girls’

After contentious hearings and demonstrations at the Iowa Capitol, Governor Kim Reynolds signed a law protecting girls’ and women’s rights.

The new law, Senate File 418, defines “sex” in Iowa statutes as “the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.” The measure also removes “gender identity” from nondiscrimination laws.

As legislators were considering the bill, transgender-identified protestors and their allies flooded the state Capitol, reported the Des Moines Register. “More than 2,000 LGBTQ rights supporters chanted, shouted and jeered in protest as House and Senate lawmakers passed the bill, sending it to Reynolds’ desk.”

The Gazette, a news outlet in Cedar Rapids, posted videos and photos from the protests. Protestors carried signs with the usual transgender slogans, such as “Trans Rights Are Human Rights” and “I’d rather have a TRANS daughter than a DEAD daughter.”

Here you can see some opponents of the bill singing, “We are singing, singing for our lives.”

The bill, of course, doesn’t take the lives or civil rights of transgender-identified people. Gender confused Iowans have all the same rights as other Iowans.

Adding spurious internal or socio-political identities, like “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (SOGI), to non-discrimination laws harms those who disagree with these sexual ideologies. Such legislation is based on the idea that a person’s identity is defined by sexual attractions, thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

As we’ve previously written in the Daily Citizen, SOGI laws, policies and regulations affect freedom of speech, parental rights, religious freedom, girls sports and the basic privacy, safety and dignity of women and men. 

Something is not a “civil right” if it threatens or strips others of their civil rights, which is what SOGI nondiscrimination laws do.

The Iowa House passed the measure with a vote of 60-36, while the Senate passed the bill with a vote of 33-15.

In a video and press statement about SF 418, Reynolds said, “Today, I am signing into law a bill that safeguards the rights of women and girls.”

“It is common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women. In fact, it is necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls.”

The protections were necessary, the governor said, because the state’s “Civil Rights Code blurred the biological line between the sexes” and “forced Iowa taxpayers to pay for gender reassignment surgeries.”

The bill protects women in sex-segregated spaces and activities, the governor explained, saying:

It is why we have men and women’s bathrooms, but not men and women’s conference rooms; girls’ and boys’ sports, but not girls’ math and boys’ math; separate men and women’s prisons, but not different laws for men and women. It is about the biological differences, and that is all.

It is also why Iowa has enacted laws protecting girls’ sports for girls and women’s private spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms.

She added that all people deserve “respect and dignity, concluding her statement by saying, “What this bill does accomplish is to strengthen protections for women and girls, and I believe that is the right thing to do.”

In addition to defining “sex,” here are some of the other definitions from SF 418 which will be used in state statutes:

  • Female – means an individual who has, had, will have through the course of normal development, or would have but for a developmental anomaly, genetic anomaly, or accident, a reproductive system that at some point produces ova.
  • Male – means an individual who has, had, will have through the course of normal development, or would have but for a developmental anomaly, genetic anomaly, or accident, a reproductive system that at some point produces sperm.
  • “Woman” or “girl” refers to a female.
  • “Man” or “boy” refers to a male.
  • “Gender,” when used alone in reference to males, females, or the natural differences between males and females shall be considered a synonym for sex and shall not be considered a synonym or shorthand expression for gender identity, experienced gender, gender expression, or gender role.
  • The term “equal” does not mean “same” or “identical.”

The bill makes allowances for those with “a medically verifiable diagnosis of disorder or difference of sex development.” It allows for sex-segregated spaces in locker rooms, restrooms, prisons and shelters, and it forbids schools from promoting or instructing kindergarten through sixth grade students about sexual orientation or gender theory.

Related Articles and Resources:

Are Sex and Gender Different Things?

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Dear Colleague Letter

Kansas Legislature Enacts ‘Help Not Harm’ Legislation, Overriding Governor’s Veto

Transgender Resources

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

What Are Male and Female in God’s Story?

Why a Trans Woman is a Not a Woman

Image from Shutterstock.

Senate Set to Vote on Bill that Protects Women’s Sports

The Senate is expected to vote Monday on the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” legislation reintroduced last month by Senator Tommy Tuberville and designed to make permanent President Trump’s executive order banning men from competing in women’s sports.

The House of Representatives passed similar legislation in January; all Republicans voted for the bill, along with Texas Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez.

“Common sense should tell us that women and girls shouldn’t be forced to compete in sports or share a school locker room with biological males,” said Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma. “Although the Biden Administration fought to erase biological differences, I want to uphold equal opportunity for the next generation of female athletes.”

Senator Tuberville echoed Senator Lankford, saying, “President Trump ran on the issue of saving women’s sports and won in a landslide.”

He added,

70% of Americans agree — men don’t belong in women’s sports or locker rooms. I have said many times that I think Title IX is one of the best things to come out of Washington. But in the last few years, it has been destroyed. While I’m glad that the Biden administration ultimately rescinded the proposed rule, Congress has to ensure this never happens again. I am welcoming my first granddaughter this spring and won’t stop fighting until her rights to fairly compete are protected. I hope every one of my colleagues will join me in standing up for our daughters, nieces, and granddaughters by voting for this critical bill.

Given the 53 Republican seats in the Senate and 60 votes needed to advance the bill for a final vote, the fate of Monday’s vote remains uncertain.

Regardless of what state you reside in, your senators need to hear from you. Please reach out to them and urge them to vote “yes” on the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” or S.9.

Opponents of the bill have wrongly suggested the legislation is dangerous and discriminatory. In reality, it helps to ensure the safety of women and rights a major wrong with females being unfairly targeted on various fields of competition. Over 900 women have lost trophies and awards to men pretending to be female.

Thankfully, the American people aren’t falling for the ruse. Wide majorities believe women shouldn’t have to be squaring off against men. It’s common sense. It shouldn’t be controversial.

Many have remarked on the powerful image of President Trump surrounded by girl and women athletes as he signed the executive order that officially (albeit temporarily) rescinded funding from any program that deprived female athletes of fair competition.

It’s tragic that common sense legislation like the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” is necessary. But what will be even more calamitous if an obstructionist minority of Senators refuse to protect our daughters from creeps, con artists and the mentally confused who are scamming girls sports. 

Again, please contact your two senators and ask them to vote “YES” on the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” or S.9.

Image from Getty.

New Gallup Poll Shows the Incoherence of ‘LGBTQ+’ Fiction

The Gallup polling group does an annual U.S. survey tracking how much of the population identifies as “LGBTQ+”. They released their most recent findings late last week, and this new data further demonstrates how incoherent this meaningless alphabet soup really is.

In 2023, 7.2% of Americans said these letters identified them in some way. In 2024, that number climbed slightly to 7.6%. This year, that number jumped to an even more unreasonable 9.3%. It is unreasonable because the whole idea that “LGBTQ+” represents anything objectively true and real — something that anyone actually is — is a myth.

Gallup reports this new 9.3 percentage apex has nearly doubled since 2020 and is much higher than 3.5% in 2012, the first year Gallup started polling these amorphous identities. Nearly all this growth has taken place among the younger generation, demonstrating this is more social/ideological contagion, rather than something that exists in nature.

What Does “LGBTQ+” Even Mean?

It is not unfair to question what this collection of letters even means.

Gallup explains they asked people if they “identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual.” We must be mindful of the fact that increasing numbers of young people believe its unfashionable to identify as heterosexual, regardless of their actual sexual desires or behaviors. We are naive if we assume someone saying they are “LBGTQ+” means they are attracted to the same-sex or identify as some “other gender.” When asked to identify which of the letters (or the undefined +) they identify with, the majority of this elastic group said they were either bisexual (5.2%) while 5% declined to give an identity at all. This is very telling.

Only 2% said they were “gay,” 1.4% identified at “lesbian” and just 1.3% said they were “transgender.” Fewer than 1% said they were some other identity like pansexual, asexual or queer.

It has been documented that respondents don’t always mean what we might think they mean when they identify as non-heterosexual. Eric Kaufmann, a Canadian professor of politics at the University of Buckingham in England, found in his 2022 research that “LGBT identification was running at twice the rate of LGBT sexual behavior” [emphasis added].

Kaufmann adds, “The majority of the increase in LGBT identity can be traced to how those who only engage in heterosexual behavior describe themselves.” In effect, young people are increasingly using the imprecise “LGBTQ+” identity for reasons beyond what their actual behavior is.

Kaufmann concludes, “Overall, the data suggest that while there has been an increase in same-sex behavior in recent years, sociopolitical factors likely explain most of the rise in LGBT identity.”

Leftist commentator and comedian Bill Maher famously skewered the incoherence of this exploding “LGBTQ+” identity among our youth.

Maher wryly notes that “if we follow this trajectory, we will all be gay in 2054!” Of course, that is no more true than it is that nearly 10 percent of Americans are gay, lesbian or trans. Young people are increasingly identifying with this mish-mash alphabet soup because its trendy and it challenges norms, something nearly every generation of young people has been eager to do to express their so-called independence.

Research published in 2023 in The Journal of Sex Research explains researching adolescent sexual identity is confusing because, they find, “sexual orientation is multidimensional and fluid.” The categories are increasingly meaningless. So much so, that “for many gender diverse adolescents, common questions about sexuality, sexual behavior, and sexual orientation were simply impossible to answer.” Findings “showed multiple developmental patterns, but overall, many adolescents were ‘fluid’ in the sexual identity label and romantic attraction they reported …”

That is what happen when we tell our youth they can literally define their own realities.

Does “LGBTQ+” Even Exist?

Douglas Murray, a British public intellectual who identifies as homosexual, explains in his very important book, The Madness of Crowds, that LGBTQ+ is an absurd fiction.

LGBT is now one of the groupings which mainstream politicians routinely speak about – and to – as if they actually exist like a racial or religious community. It is a form of absurdity. For even on its own terms this composition is wildly unsustainable and contradictory.

Why?

Murray is very clear. “Gay men and gay women have almost nothing in common. … Neither have very much use for each other, and almost none meet in any ‘communal’ spaces.” He adds, “Gay men and gay women, meanwhile, have a famous amount of suspicion towards people who claim to be ‘bisexual.’”

He is not done.

“And there is tremendous dispute over whether the T’s are the same thing as everybody else, or an insult to them” and “Queers want to be recognized as fundamentally different to everyone else, and to use that difference to tear down the kind of order that gays are working to get into.”

No, “LGBTQ+” does not exist as a meaningful, coherent category. That is precisely why polling like this from Gallup and other such organizations only tells us how many young people don’t want to be affiliated as mainstream and are all too happy to confuse pollsters with completely made up categories.

Additional Resources

How the Binary in ‘LGBTQ+’ Reveals Its Utter Incoherence

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

Why the ‘LGBT Person’ and ‘LGBT Community’ Don’t Really Exist

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

Are Sex and Gender Different Things?

No GLAAD, Gender Ideology is NOT ‘Settled Science.’ It’s the Opposite

Why Focus on the Family Cares About the Gender Issue?

Yes, Sexuality and Gender Are Undeniable Gospel Issues

Image from Shutterstock

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

The U.S. Department of Education has launched multiple investigations into schools and athletic associations for Title IX violations, including schools that allow boys in girls restrooms and sports.

The investigations follow an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, which declares that the practice of letting men compete in women’s sports is “demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”

The order directs the DOE to remove federal funds from “educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.” 

The most recent investigation was launched after the president got into a dustup with Maine Governor Janet Mills over boys taking slots on girls teams, as National Review reported.

When asked whether Maine would follow the executive order, the governor replied the state was “complying with state and federal laws.”

The president then said, “We are the federal law. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.” 

According to National Review, “Mills replied that she will see Trump in court as her state openly resists federal law. Maine’s high school sports governing body is continuing to abide by state law regarding athletic eligibility, defying Trump’s order.”

A male high school student recently won Maine’s Class B indoor girls pole vaulting championship, helping his team eke out a one-point victory for the Class B title.

The male sophomore, who goes by the name Katie Spencer, won the event with a vault of 10-6. Two girls, freshman Briella Boudreau and senior Kessa Benner, tied for second and third, 10-0.

As a result, the DOE announced it was looking into the Maine Department of Education “amid allegations that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics and that it has denied female athletes female-only intimate facilities, thereby violating federal antidiscrimination law.”  

Maine’s not the only one being scrutinized for discriminating against girls. Here’s a roundup of more groups the DOE is looking into:

  • The DOE announced it was investigating “three entities for suspected Title IX violations: San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor released a statement saying, “This administration will not tolerate the mistreatment of female athletes.”

He added, “The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls – and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms – to promote a radical transgender ideology.” 

  • The education department released a statement that it had also “directed investigations into the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)” after the groups “publicly announced plans to violate federal antidiscrimination laws related to girls’ and women’s sports.”

According to the DOE statement, both groups “announced their intentions to abide by state law as it relates to girls’ and women’s sports in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws. Both state laws allow athletes to participate on teams based on an individual’s subjective gender identity rather than biological sex, even though biological sex is the basis for Title IX protections.”

  • The DOE’s Office of General Counsel announced it “sent a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) urging them to restore to female athletes the records, titles, awards, and recognitions misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories.”  
  • The DOE’s Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to the Denver Public Schools District for violating Title IX when “the District converted a girls’ restroom in East High School to a multi-stall all gender restroom.” The letter goes on to state: “East High School now has an exclusive restroom for male students and no restroom for female students on its second floor.” Not having equal facilities for girls clearly violates their Title IX rights, the letter said, adding that the department would be investigating discrimination at other Denver schools.

America First Legal Senior Advisor Ian Prior said in a statement, “A male student in these school districts can wake up, claim to be ‘gender expansive or transgender,’ and then have a pass to use female locker rooms and restrooms. If the female students are uncomfortable sharing those locker rooms and restrooms with that male student, it is the female students who must make alternative arrangements. That is sex discrimination.”

When boys participate in girls sports, they steal victories, scholarships and opportunities to compete. It’s also unsafe. Allowing boys into dressing rooms, showers and restrooms, as an assault on girls privacy, dignity and safety.

For too long, girls and women have been pushed to the sidelines by males claiming to be female. We applaud the Department of Education for launching these investigations and hope for success as they fight transgender ideology and discrimination against girls and women.

Related articles and resources:

The U.S. Department of Education offers resources related to Title IX here and complaint filing information here.

If you’re concerned about what your child is being taught in school, check out this updated, free resource from Focus on the Family and Family Policy Alliance: Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.

We want parents to feel confident and equipped to manage issues affecting public – and private and online – schooling. The FREE downloadable resource helps you be aware of what’s going on in your child’s classroom and offers guidance for how to advocate for your child in the school year ahead.

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Don’t Let the Media Deceive You About Trump’s Order Protecting Female Athletes

The Journey Back to My True Identity

Parents Support Core Subjects, Keep Males out of Female Sports

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

What is ‘Gender Identity’?

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