transgender

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:

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:

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:

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

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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.

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

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