A college student in Pennsylvania was kicked out of class recently for saying there are only two genders, infuriating a professor.
Lake Ingle, a senior at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said he was silenced and punished by professor Alison Downie for what he said after a lecture on Feb. 28.
Downie showed a 15-minute TED talk by Paula Stone Williams, a transgender former pastor who railed against “sexism from men” and “male privilege,” among other topics.
After the video was shown, Ingle said that Downie opened the floor to “women only, barring men from speaking until the women in the class have had their chance to speak.”
Ingle said no woman spoke for some time. So he “took this opportunity to point out the official view of biologists who claim there are only two biological genders,” and refuted the “gender wage gap” idea.
“The floor was opened, and not a single woman spoke. Thirty seconds or so passed and still no woman had spoken. So, I decided it was permissible for me to enter the conversation, especially because I felt the conversation itself was completely inappropriate in its structure,” Ingle told Campus Reform.
“I objected to the use of the anecdotal accounts of one woman’s experience to begin a discussion in which they were considered reality. It was during my objection that Dr. Downie attempted to silence me because I am not a woman.”
Student kicked out of class for saying there are only two genders https://t.co/LbHgFzbRM0
— lorraine (@lorrainewatmou1) March 12, 2018
He also told the class that the official view of biologists is that there are only two genders, reported Fox News.
Ingle said the class soon ended but he was asked to meet with Downie the next day. During the meeting, she gave him an Academic Integrity Referral Form and Documented Agreement. The form said that Ingle committed multiple violations, including “angry outbursts in response to being required to listen to a trans speaker discuss the reality of white male privilege and sexism” and “disrespectful references to the validity of trans identity and experience.”
The document states that Ingle would be required to write an apology and read it during class, after which he would have to listen in silence as the professor and any students who wanted to spoke about how he or she felt during what Ingle said.
A letter from the university’s provost soon arrived and informed Ingle he was barred from the class.
Ingle said he believes the incident is a free speech issue and has hired a lawyer to represent him.
“My professor is violating my First Amendment rights because of the fact that my views and ideology is different from hers,” Ingle told Fox News. “So she took it on herself to silence and embarrass me—bully me—for speaking up in class.”
According to Downie’s page on the university’s website, she has a PhD in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University with a concentration in Christian Feminist Theology.
“Her academic interests include ecofeminist theologies, disability theologies, religious understandings of self and memoir, religious themes in literature and film, and interfaith dialogues. She is also active in the scholarship of teaching and learning,” the page states.
Downie has not commented on the incident publicly.
Downie and Ingle had an initial hearing on Friday and a ruling is set for March 19.
From NTD.tv
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