Lee University restricts gender identification for students and staff

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A proposed policy at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, to prohibit students from identifying as any gender other than their biological sex drew criticism from students and alumni. The policy went into effect for the fall semester of 2022.

Key Players

Lee University, a private Christian university affiliated with and partially funded by the Pentecostal Church of God, was founded in 1918 as an institution for training ministers. The university provides “education that integrates biblical truth as revealed in the Holy Scriptures” through the view of “personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior,” according to its website. In fall 2021, enrollment was listed as 4,505 students, primarily undergraduates. 

Affirming Alum Collective (AAC), a group made up of Lee alumni, connects “current Lee students with alums who are LGBTQIA+ or straight allies” and believes “that queer students do not need to repent for who they are or their existence.”

Further Details

At the start of the 2021 academic year, Lee University removed the words “gender identity” from its anti-discrimination policy to make its language consistent across university publications, ABC News 9 reported. University officials affirmed that the new language did not affect existing legal protections for students.

By May 10, 2022, controversy followed after a proposed policy on “Beliefs Concerning Human Sexuality and Gender” leaked to the student body. While it was unclear who leaked the draft, the policy had been undergoing revisions for several years and had been shared with faculty and staff. Its intended release date was Aug. 1, 2022. 

Several aspects of the policy were scrutinized, including its provisions that “humans do not have the ability, or observed right, to choose a gender,” and that “no member of the Lee University community may publicly identify or behave as a gender that does not correspond to his or her biological sex.” Under the policy, students were to be prohibited from speaking out against these restrictions or advocating “in person, in writing, or online, for sexual acts, behaviors or lifestyles that are contrary to Scripture.”

Kendra Mann, a spokesperson for the university, said the contents of the leak did “not represent sweeping changes in policy at Lee” and that they were “an explanation of beliefs … that have been in place for quite some time.”

The university handbook allows for Freedom of Speech but only “so long as these freedoms are neither inconsistent with nor in violation of the purposes and objectives for which the university exists,” according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Outcome

Students and alumni criticize the university for its proposed policy

The proposal was widely criticized by students and graduates, particularly members of Lee’s LGBTQ+ community. 

“I feel like this is just their last ditch effort to try to, at the very least, scare students into silence” and limit activism, said Taylor Lane, who identifies as lesbian. Lane left the university in December 2021, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

In September 2021, Joie St. Hubert, a former student who identifies as nonbinary and transgender, was suspended after he took to social media to criticize Lee for having an anti-LGBTQ+ environment. 

“Currently watching homophobic sorority girls on campus pass me by,” St. Hubert wrote in a TikTok post. Lee officials later suspended him for violating policies on language and online conduct, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported. 

Regarding the leaked proposal, St. Hubert said he was “really scared for my peers that are still over there,” expressing concern over the implications it would have for transgender students. 

AAC says proposal stifles Free Speech for LGBTQ students 

After the leak, the AAC posted on Facebook that the proposal severely limited “faculty and staff in their ability to discuss these topics in an open environment and suggests retribution if they have conversations that are against Lee University’s guidelines.”

“Stifling the voices of LGBTQIA+ students weakens the quality of education students receive and sets a dangerous precedent in how faculty and staff foster the next generation of thinkers and doers,” the statement read.

Proposal is implemented

According to AAC, the proposed policy went into effect with the start of the fall 2022 semester, on August 23, 2022. Lee University did not respond to the Free Speech Project’s requests for confirmation and comment.