Today’s blacklisted American: Professor fired by University of Louisville for expressing his opinion
Allen Josephson, fired for expressing an opinion
They’re coming for you next: After publicly expressing his professional opinion at a 2017 Heritage Foundation conference, where he opposed the abuse of children by the queer movement that now dominates the medical community, Professor Allen Josephson was fired by University of Louisville, specifically because queer activists at the university demanded it.
From Josephson’s lawsuit [pdf], filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom:
[T]he officials at the University’s LGBT Center who became aware of and troubled at Dr. Josephson’s Heritage Foundation presentation included Ms. Stacie Steinbock (the director of the LGBT Center at the University’s Health Science Center) and Mr. Brian W. Buford (then the Executive Director of the LGBT Center). Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford opposed and objected to the viewpoints Dr. Josephson expressed at the Heritage Foundation.
…Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford (or other officials at the LGBT Center acting at their direction) contacted Dr. Christine Brady (an assistant professor in the Division) regarding Dr. Josephson’s Heritage Foundation presentation. Like Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford, Dr. Brady opposed and objected to the viewpoints Dr. Josephson expressed at the Heritage Foundation.
Upon information and belief, Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford (or other officials at the LGBT Center acting at their direction) discussed with Dr. Brady the need to ensure that some disciplinary or punitive actions were taken against Dr. Josephson due to the views he expressed at the Heritage Foundation. Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford (or other officials at the LGBT Center acting at their direction) repeatedly asked Dr. Brady what would be done about Dr. Josephson’s Heritage Foundation remarks. [emphasis mine]
The highlighted words illustrate the storm-trooper attitude of these queer activists. Steinbock and Buford certainly have the right to disagree with Josephson about the use of “gender transition” surgeries on young children, where they are castrated or mutilated, but that disagreement should be expressed in debate, not by an effort to blacklist and destroy. Josephson had expressed his opinions at an outside conference, and had made it clear he was speaking as an individual, not as a representative of the university. Steinbock and Buford had every opportunity to organize their own public forum to express their own viewpoints. They even could have invited Josephson for a face-to-face discussion.
Instead, they responded with blacklisting and censorship, showing us immediately their totalitarian nature.
Officials at the university then responded in the worst possible way. Instead of defending Josephson’s right to free expression, an ideal that should be fundamental to every university official, they chose blacklisting and censorship also. First they demoted him, removing him as head of its Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, a program he had run successfully since 2003. Next, after restricting his teaching to secondary positions for a year, they canceled his contract, essentially firing him.
Josephson’s lawsuit demands his job back, a clearing of his record, and nominal, compensatory, and punitive damages for the violation of his rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution. That lawsuit continues to move forward, despite the university’s effort to stop it.
One detail about the lawsuit is intriguing: Though it is the university fighting the lawsuit, the suit itself does not name the university itself as a defendant. Instead it names the university employees who took the actions to blackball Josephson, many of whom no longer work at the university or in the same division. Why they left is not known, but one wonders if their totalitarian behavior backfired on them, and they were gently asked to leave.
Should Josephson win, the question will be: Who will pay? Will it be this public university, thus sticking the taxpayer with the cost while letting these intolerant thugs off the hook? Or will the court apply at least some of the damages to the actual individuals involved? If the latter, we will have a hope that this kind of ugliness will finally cease. Punishing these totalitarians will send a signal that others better think twice before they try to slander, censor, and blacklist others.
If the former however nothing will change, and the thugs and goons running our universities will continue their thuggish behavior, knowing full well they can get away with it.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Allen Josephson, fired for expressing an opinion
They’re coming for you next: After publicly expressing his professional opinion at a 2017 Heritage Foundation conference, where he opposed the abuse of children by the queer movement that now dominates the medical community, Professor Allen Josephson was fired by University of Louisville, specifically because queer activists at the university demanded it.
From Josephson’s lawsuit [pdf], filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom:
[T]he officials at the University’s LGBT Center who became aware of and troubled at Dr. Josephson’s Heritage Foundation presentation included Ms. Stacie Steinbock (the director of the LGBT Center at the University’s Health Science Center) and Mr. Brian W. Buford (then the Executive Director of the LGBT Center). Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford opposed and objected to the viewpoints Dr. Josephson expressed at the Heritage Foundation.
…Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford (or other officials at the LGBT Center acting at their direction) contacted Dr. Christine Brady (an assistant professor in the Division) regarding Dr. Josephson’s Heritage Foundation presentation. Like Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford, Dr. Brady opposed and objected to the viewpoints Dr. Josephson expressed at the Heritage Foundation.
Upon information and belief, Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford (or other officials at the LGBT Center acting at their direction) discussed with Dr. Brady the need to ensure that some disciplinary or punitive actions were taken against Dr. Josephson due to the views he expressed at the Heritage Foundation. Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford (or other officials at the LGBT Center acting at their direction) repeatedly asked Dr. Brady what would be done about Dr. Josephson’s Heritage Foundation remarks. [emphasis mine]
The highlighted words illustrate the storm-trooper attitude of these queer activists. Steinbock and Buford certainly have the right to disagree with Josephson about the use of “gender transition” surgeries on young children, where they are castrated or mutilated, but that disagreement should be expressed in debate, not by an effort to blacklist and destroy. Josephson had expressed his opinions at an outside conference, and had made it clear he was speaking as an individual, not as a representative of the university. Steinbock and Buford had every opportunity to organize their own public forum to express their own viewpoints. They even could have invited Josephson for a face-to-face discussion.
Instead, they responded with blacklisting and censorship, showing us immediately their totalitarian nature.
Officials at the university then responded in the worst possible way. Instead of defending Josephson’s right to free expression, an ideal that should be fundamental to every university official, they chose blacklisting and censorship also. First they demoted him, removing him as head of its Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, a program he had run successfully since 2003. Next, after restricting his teaching to secondary positions for a year, they canceled his contract, essentially firing him.
Josephson’s lawsuit demands his job back, a clearing of his record, and nominal, compensatory, and punitive damages for the violation of his rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution. That lawsuit continues to move forward, despite the university’s effort to stop it.
One detail about the lawsuit is intriguing: Though it is the university fighting the lawsuit, the suit itself does not name the university itself as a defendant. Instead it names the university employees who took the actions to blackball Josephson, many of whom no longer work at the university or in the same division. Why they left is not known, but one wonders if their totalitarian behavior backfired on them, and they were gently asked to leave.
Should Josephson win, the question will be: Who will pay? Will it be this public university, thus sticking the taxpayer with the cost while letting these intolerant thugs off the hook? Or will the court apply at least some of the damages to the actual individuals involved? If the latter, we will have a hope that this kind of ugliness will finally cease. Punishing these totalitarians will send a signal that others better think twice before they try to slander, censor, and blacklist others.
If the former however nothing will change, and the thugs and goons running our universities will continue their thuggish behavior, knowing full well they can get away with it.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
What ever happened to tenure?
You know that thing that protected the left in the 60’s and 70’s.