A transgender professor sued after being denied a leadership role and campus transfer, claiming sex discrimination. On appeal, the 6th Circuit affirmed the summary dismissal of the case, because the employer had its ducks in a row.
Here's what happened, and why the university won.
The professor unleashed weeks of profanity-laced tweets calling colleagues "cishet white ladies," "transphobes," and worse. Colleagues reported feeling harassed.
The dean didn't overreact. She rescinded a special workload arrangement but still invited the professor to participate on committees.
When the professor sought a campus transfer, faculty committees said "no" — citing fit, collegiality, and department needs. Notably, this same department had unanimously granted tenure just a year earlier.
When a procedural hiccup arose, the dean ordered a do-over vote. That's the opposite of discrimination
The court saw exactly what was happening: Kent State had clear, documented, legitimate reasons for its actions, none of which had anything to do with gender identity.
The lessons for every employer:
1. Document decisions in real time. The dean's contemporaneous emails explaining why she was rescinding the workload change became the best evidence that the move wasn't discriminatory.
2. Stick to process, even when it's messy. By ordering a clean, second committee vote, the dean showed respect for procedure, which killed any claim of bias.
3. Focus on conduct, not identity. The university responded to unprofessional conduct (personal attacks on colleagues), not to who the professor was, and that distinction carried the day in court.
By honing in on those three things—documentation, process, and conduct, you'll put yourself in a much stronger position to defend any dispute that lands in court.