The Toledo Blade reports that on Monday a federal lawsuit was filed against the University of Toledo by its former Associate Vice-President for Human Resources, Crystal Dixon. Dixon was fired after she wrote a column for a local newspaper arguing that gays and lesbians are not "civil rights victims." (See prior posting.) The complaint (full text) alleges that "Plaintiff, an African-American woman and sincere practicing Christian, believes that homosexuality is a grave offense against the Law of God and that comparing homosexual activity with the struggles of African-American civil rights victims is absurd and untenable because she believes homosexuality is a lifestyle choice and not an immutable or inherent genetic and biological characteristic...."
The lawsuit alleges that Dixon's column expressed her personal views, and that her firing infringes her 1st Amendment free speech rights. The complaint also claims equal protection violations, arguing that others University personnel have been permitted to speak out on political and social issues without consequences. Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center who represents Dixon said that homosexuals have an "inordinate amount of influence" over University president Lloyd Jacobs. The University claims that Dixon's human resources position was one of special sensitivity, and that her ability to perform that job was undermined by her statements.
Via The Volokh Conspiracy.
He writes:
It does seem pretty clear that at least some of the progress of gay rights -- not all, but some -- is coming at he expense of the freedom (whether or not constitutionally protected freedom) of people who hold anti-gay religious views. Doubtless many who support gay rights understandably think this a fair tradeoff, especially when the rights are the rights of public employees, which have long been constrained (and in my view quite reasonably constrained) in certain ways. But what should be the reaction of those who oppose homosexuality on religious grounds, and care a good deal about their and their coreligionists' ability to express their views and act in accordance with those views in their private lives?
