Despite the complete support of her colleagues and direct superiors within Southeastern Oklahoma State University's English, humanities and language department, Rachel Tudor, a professor of American and Native American literature, modernity and theory, humanities, composition and philosophy, has been denied tenure and informed that her employment will be terminated as of the end of this spring semester.
According to Claire Potter, a professor of American studies and history at Wesleyan University, Tudor has an amazing record as a scholar, teacher and colleague at the university and has been highly recommended by the tenure review committee. However, the dean and vice president of academic affairs deem Tudor's "lifestyle" inappropriate, so they have taken actions to make sure Tudor leaves.
Tudor is transgender.
Guess what? The issue—again—is bathrooms. Bathrooms and religious bigotry:
After her complete transition, the human resources department told Tudor she could only use the single handicap bathroom located quite a distance from her office. As a result, she could only assume that Douglas McMillan, the vice president of academic affairs, made such an outrageous request. In the past, for instance, he had openly asserted that Tudor's lifestyle "offends his Baptist beliefs." Discrimination in the workplace is illegal, but when officials hide their true intentions in rewritten policies and administrative bullshit, such cases are hard to prove. Unfortunately, this is where Tudor finds herself.
There are no workplace protections for trans people in Oklahoma so Tudor may not have any recourse or standing to sue. And it could be perfectly legal for this piece of shit to harass and discriminate against Tudor and cite his "Baptist beliefs" as the reason.
More on this tomorrow. This cannot go unanswered.
