![]() ![]() Zelaya and Wilmot talked about their termination in a 50-minute video uploaded to YouTube the week they were fired. The issues have been especially fraught at Christian colleges, with institutions like Hillsdale College in Michigan seen as a beacon of conservatism against progressive and “leftist” ideology. ![]() “Over the past years, we've required anything extraneous be removed from email signatures, including Scripture quotes,” he said.Ĭampuses around the country are fertile ground for the ongoing culture wars about gender identity, sexual orientation and social justice issues, particularly in red states where lawmakers and governors have been chipping away at transgender rights and restricting school curriculum. Houghton spokesperson Michael Blankenship declined to comment on personnel matters, citing confidentiality, but said in an email that “Houghton University has never terminated an employment relationship based solely on the use of pronouns in staff email signatures.” “Our overall concern is that these recent changes demonstrate a concerning pattern of failure on the part of the current administration to respect that faithful and active Christians reasonably hold a range of theological and ethical views, and in turn, failure to allow for genuine dialogue about these differing views,” the letter states. Zelaya and Wilmot, neither of whom identifies as transgender, were terminated from their jobs as residence hall directors after refusing to remove the identifiers, they said.Ī petition to protest their firings was signed by more than 700 alumni. Zelaya, who uses she/her, and Wilmot, who uses he/him, said Houghton University asked them to remove the pronouns from their signatures to align with an institutional policy introduced last fall to streamline email formats. Raegan Zelaya and Shua Wilmot thought the pronouns in their work email signatures would be a helpful identifier that could foster conversation and promote inclusivity, particularly at the small Christian university in New York where they worked.īut their good intentions ultimately cost them their jobs, Zelaya and Wilmot said in a video posted to YouTube last month. They were employees of Houghton University, not students. May 24, 2023: A previous headline on this article identified the subjects of the story as college students. (Malcolm Davon Smith via Associated Press)ġ2:17 p.m. Raegan Zelaya, left, and Shua Wilmot, shown in an image from a YouTube video, said they were fired from their jobs at Houghton University in New York after refusing to remove their pronouns from their email signatures. ![]()
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