A college student at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania was reportedly kicked out of his Christianity class after he told his professor that he believed there are only two genders.
The student, religious studies major, Lake Ingle, claims that his professor, Dr. Allison Downie, kicked him out of the class and attempted to have him permanently removed from her lectures.
According to The Washington Examiner, the commotion occurred after the class watched a 15 minute Ted Talk by transgender ex-pastor Paula Stone Williams about ‘mansplaining’, ‘sexism from men’, and ‘male privilege’.
After the talk had finished the professor asked the women in the class to say what they thought about the talk and any opinions they had that they wanted to share.
When no women shared their thoughts, Ingle apparently spoke up claiming that biologists state there are only two genders.
Shortly after this, Ingle was asked to leave the class and told not to return.
He was later handed a letter which claimed:
You are barred from attending this class in accordance with the Classroom Disruption policy.
Ingle claims what his professor did was unconstitutional, saying to Fox News:
My professor is violating my First Amendment rights because of the fact that my views and ideology is different from hers. So she took it on herself to silence and embarrass me – bully me – for speaking up in class.
It is my firmest belief that every human being has the freedom and right to identify, dress, and represent oneself as they see fit.
I think this is all an attempt to silence my views personally because they contradict the ones she pushes in class so evidently.
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He added that Downie’s decision to kick him out of the class was a result of her refusing to listen to the other side of the argument.
He said:
You can’t say that anecdotal evidence is fact. My professor pretty much just tried to shut me up because she was just letting women speak. I brought up the fact that biologists don’t agree that there’s more than two genders and I said the wage gap she’s referring to – 77 cents on the dollar – that even the New York Times debunked that.
Downie and Ingle had a hearing about the matter two weeks ago and have a ruling scheduled for today. If the board rules against Ingle he won’t be able to graduate in May and thus will struggle to pursue his life goal of becoming a professor himself.