A child psychiatrist who voiced concerns about sex changes for minors won a settlement against the school that fired him over his comments.
The University of Louisville agreed to pay Dr. Allan Josephson $1.6 million to end a six-year legal battle over a talk he gave at a conservative think tank in 2017, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) announced Monday. Josephson is credited as one of the earliest prominent experts to challenge the popularity of transgender procedures for children such as surgery and hormone therapy.
“Dr. Josephson risked his career and reputation to speak the truth, and the University of Louisville fired him for taking a stand,” ADF said on its website. “Nearly a decade later, Dr. Josephson’s legal victory tells the story of how gender ideology engulfed America—yet the truth won out.”
Josephson alleged that university officials began targeting him for his skepticism of trying to change children’s genders, leading them to cancel his contract in 2019 and end his nearly 40-year journey in academia. The pattern of behavior allegedly began after Josephson spoke on a panel at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation in 2017.
Josephson told his audience that doctors pushing sex changes are “neglecting the developmental needs of children” and called it “unbelievable” that the medical establishment would ignore biology in favor of “this feeling, this notion of gender identity.”
Days later, a director of the University of Louisville’s LGBT Executive Center became aware of the event and emailed the dean of the School of Medicine, according to court documents. The director allegedly warned that Josephson “might be violating the ethical standards for psychiatry” and that his opinion “runs counter to the messages of inclusion and welcome that we have been sending.” Josephson’s team alleged this was one of a long line of steps officials took against him over his views.
The university fought ADF’s lawsuit all the way up to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals before eventually settling. The school’s media team declined to comment in an email to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed back on the transgender movement since returning to office, designating sex as biological in government policy, directing a health agency to study those who regret sex changes, trying to ban gender-dysphoric military members and other actions.
While announcing the settlement, ADF rejoiced that “the tide has shifted back toward truth and common sense” under Trump.
“I’m glad to finally receive vindication for voicing what I know is true,” Josephson said in the press release.
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