The “University of Louisville has agreed to pay almost $1.6 million in damages and attorneys’ fees to settle a six-year-old lawsuit filed by its former chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology,” reports The College Fix:
Dr. Allan Josephson was essentially terminated after he criticized transgender ideology, and filed a lawsuit in April 2019 to fight the decision.
“He risked his livelihood and reputation to speak the truth boldly, and the university punished him for expressing his opinion—ultimately by dismissing him. But public universities have no business punishing professors simply because they hold different views,” said Travis Barham, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the doctor. “Hopefully, other public universities will learn from this that if they violate the First Amendment, they can be held accountable, and it can be very expensive,” he added.
Dr. Josephson says, “Children deserve better than life-altering procedures that mutilate their bodies and destroy their ability to lead fulfilling lives.”
The College Fix adds,
Josephson was hired by the University of Louisville in 2003 to lead its “struggling” Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology. Over the next 15 years he worked to turn the division around, and built a program with a national reputation. But…some of his peers were upset that he openly dissented from the transgender orthodoxy that says gender dysphoria should be embraced, encouraged, accepted and treated as a normal and healthy by the medical community…The doctor’s concerned peers…eventually helped get him demoted, then terminated, the lawsuit claimed.
The university has previously argued during a hearing it could fire Josephson for his comments because they related to his official duties as a professor.
The settlement comes seven months after the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Josephson’s case could proceed.
Sex-change procedures come with serious side effects than can leave transgender people with lifelong pain and discomfort. 95% of young transgender people on testosterone develop pelvic floor dysfunction; most have bowel issues and sexual dysfunction. As the Telegraph reported, “Around 87 per cent…had urinary symptoms such as incontinence, frequent toilet visits and bed-wetting, while 74 per cent had bowel issues including constipation or being unable to hold stools or wind in. Some 53 per cent suffered from sexual dysfunction…Almost half had an ‘orgasm disorder’, while a quarter suffered from pain during sexual intercourse.
“Gender-affirming surgery is significantly associated with elevated suicide attempt risks,” according to a recent study that was published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science. Hot Air sums up this peer-reviewed study as finding that “suicide risks” are “1200% higher after gender-affirming surgery.”
To overcome parents’ natural reluctance to subject their kids to the suffering associated with sex changes, doctors who do sex changes often tell parents that they need to gender transition their kid to keep them from committing suicide, even though this isn’t true. One of America’s most prominent gender doctors, “Dr. Olson-Kennedy disclosed to how she speaks with parents of gender dysphoric patients: ‘We often ask parents, “Would you rather have a dead son than a live daughter?”’”
But even a the leading transgender lawyer who supports gender transitions for kids was forced to admit this claim was false. That lawyer, Chase Strangio, conceded to the Supreme Court that “completed suicide is thankfully and admittedly rare” among transgender youth, even those not given gender-affirming treatment, and that “there is no evidence…that this treatment reduces completed suicide.”
