Student disputes claims that he targeted a trans person at Pace University’s” Save Women’s Sports” section.
According to a legitimate email from a nationwide free speech organization, Pace University must cease investigating a law student over claims of “aggressive” pointing and referring to a transgender student by his natural gender.
The New York law school’s response to the allegations against Houston Porter has not been returned in the last several weeks, according to The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
A panel Porter and the Federalist Society hosted about men competing in women’s sports, which is the source of the controversy. Porter faces expulsion for the allegations.
Program Officer Jessie Appleby, who was contacted by The Fix via email in the early part of December, stated that” Pace has not responded to our letter.” Additionally, the organization hasn’t updated the case in the last month.
The Title IX investigation into Porter comes after the Oct. 15 panel “erupted” in “pandemonium”, according to FIRE’s letter to Pace University.
” Attendees described a chaotic scene in which audience members—many of whom were wearing trans pride pins—jumped out of their seats, pointing and yelling at the panelists, and a professor allegedly rushed the stage”, the letter states.
According to the national free speech organization, attendees were also security-escorted to their cars.
Soon after, the university’s Title IX office opened a” sex-based harassment” investigation into Porter.
The university sent Porter a” Notice of Allegation” which said he “engaged in sex-based harassment” when he “aggressively pointed” at the student and “purposefully referred to her]a biological male ] as a man”.
According to the letter, the school will employ one investigator before Porter will appear before a “panel of hearing officers.” Possible sanctions include suspension, expulsion, or being banned from university facilities.
Porter has denied the allegations. ” There was so much noise, multiple people talking at once, so maybe someone in the crowd heard me say’ sir,’ or call some individual ‘ a man ‘ when they don’t identify as that”, he told The Free Press. However, I never addressed the alleged victim in those words. I did apologize and stand up for them, but I never did anything for anyone.
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But the allegations, even if true, would not be worthy of punishment, according to FIRE. Appleby, the group’s representative, told The Fix:
Beyond what the letter detailed, we do not have any factual evidence. However, as some attendees have described the chaos that occurred at the event, it’s possible that someone’s words could have easily been misunderstood or misrepresented in that kind of chaotic setting. However, even if the allegations presented here were accurate, aggressive pointing and misgendering would still be considered protected expression. Even if a student actually engages in abusive pointing or misgendering, Pace may not look into or punish him.
In response to two emails asking for comments in recent weeks about how they planned to respond to FIRE’s letter and provide evidence to back up the allegations against Porter, the university’s media relations team did not respond.
Although Pace is a private university, Appleby told The Fix that it” commits ] to ] not restrict or discipline speech simply because it concerns a sensitive topic or offends some listeners.” This includes a” speaker’s use of pronouns”.
While the school can “restrict discriminatory expression” when it is “actionable harassment” this is not the case here, according to Appleby.
According to Appleby, the language “must be so severe, pervasive, and objectionably offensive that it prevents the victim from getting the educational opportunities and benefits the school offers.”
” That is a very high bar. She said that the accusations of misgendering and aggressive pointing made here fall far short of that standard.
Porter, in his comments to , The Free Press, criticized the allegations against him.
” It’s really terrifying that the next generation of attorneys who are supposed to hear both sides before making a decision are basically convicting me without hearing my side of the story,” he told the news outlet. When we understand what the opposing party is saying, even if we may disagree with them, it makes us all better lawyers.
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