A Utah professor who was required by his university to use them/them pronouns to refer to a nonbinary student is now suing school leaders, claiming that his free speech rights were violated.
Richard Bugg is a tenured theater arts professor at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, about 250 miles south of Salt Lake City.
The longtime professor, who has taught at the university for more than three decades, is a respected name in the Cedar City theater scene, according to the Southern Utah outlet St. George News. He is the founder and executive producer of the SimonFest Theatre Company.
According to the suit, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, on the first day of the fall semester last year, a nonbinary student asked Bugg to refer to them using they/them pronouns.
Bugg said that even though he tried to do so, he “unintentionally” used female pronouns to refer to the student “two or three times.”
On Sept. 15, the student submitted a formal complaint to the school’s Title IX Office. A second student also submitted a complaint to the office voicing opposition to the professor not using they/them pronouns.
In January, after the university concluded an investigation into the matter, it found that the professor’s alleged actions violated SUU policy and constituted discrimination and harassment based on gender identity, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
In April, school leaders added that the professor’s actions also constituted sexual harassment, because it was considered “conduct based on sex” that was so severe and “objectively offensive” that it denied the student equal access to education.
In the 24-page lawsuit filed this week, Bugg alleges that his right to free speech was threatened by the school’s request that he engages in “politically sensitive speech,” something that the professor is “politically and educationally opposed.”
Bugg is “opposed to the coercion of speech that is taking place on our campus and on most campuses,” according to the lawsuit.
On Wednesday, the university said in a statement that “while SUU has limits on what it can discuss when an issue involves personnel matters or students, SUU implements and follows its established policies based on the law. This includes a meaningful opportunity for all to be heard before a decision is made.”
Bugg’s attorney, Jerome Mooney, told The Salt Lake Tribune that his client “wants people to express themselves the way they want to, but doesn’t feel like he should be compelled to do things which he personally finds objectionable.”
