One of the earliest opposing voices of medical and surgical transition for minors, fired for infuriating transgender lobbyists, has received an unlawful termination settlement.
Dr. Allan Josephson lost his job at the University of Louisville after speaking against gender transition for minors at a conservative think tank in 2017. The court battle lasted 6 years, with the employer agreeing to pay him $1.6 million.
“Dr. Josephson risked his career and reputation to speak the truth, and the University of Louisville fired him for taking a stand,” stated Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented him. “Nearly a decade later, Dr. Josephson’s legal victory tells the story of how gender ideology engulfed America—yet the truth won out.”
He sought to deconstruct an argument in a case he testified as an expert witness that “the cost of not assigning sex is dire” and that gender identity should trump biology and anatomy.
“It is counter to medical science to use chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, external genitalia, [and] secondary sex characteristics to override gender identity for the purposes of classifying someone as male or female,” the argument continued. “Gender identity should control when there is a need to classify an individual.”
“This is medical science,” Josephson rebutted.
“That’s how we categorize things. But that should take second place to this feeling this notion of gender identity?” He asked.
“Unbelievable,” he concluded.
When Brian Buford, the director of the University of Louisville’s LGBT Executive Center, learned of his speech at the Heritage Foundation event, he reported him to the dean of the School of Medicine, claiming that he “might be violating the ethical standards for psychiatry.”
He also argued that Josephson’s statement “runs counter to the messages of inclusion and welcome that we have been sending.”
Josephson was subsequently targeted, demoted from his role as the head of the division, which he had held since 2003, and stripped of his teaching duties.
He was also allegedly “ostracized” by faculty members, “subjected to other forms of hostility,” and advised to apologize. Other faculty members who understood which direction the University of Louisville was taking on transgender issues remained silent to avoid rocking the boat.
“I was stunned to realize I was actually being punished for doing what I was paid to do; namely, think and speak,” he wrote on Daily Signal.
The alleged harassment culminated in the university’s refusal to renew his contract in 2019, effectively firing him and ending his 40-year teaching career.
“I wasn’t fired for poor management, teaching, or unprofessional conduct,” he continued. “The university ended my career because I elected not to surf the current wave of social activism, because I expressed views -supported by scientific literature and clinical experience -that the university found politically incorrect.”
“In my case, activism trumped academic thought.”
The University argued it was entitled to the Eleventh Amendment immunity and qualified immunity and requested a summary judgment to dismiss the case.
In 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky rejected the argument and ruled that Josephson’s speech was protected by the First Amendment, allowing the case to be heard by a jury.
However, the University of Louisville took the case to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the District Court’s decision, sending it back for trial.
