INDIANA, Pa. — A student at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania says he was kicked out of his religious studies course for contending in class that there are only two genders and for providing his views when his professor had asked to hear from women only.
Lake Ingle says that on Feb. 28, his class was shown a TED Talk recording of former church planter and pastor Paul Williams, who now goes by the name Paula, as he discussed “mansplaining,” “male privilege,” and male sexism. The video was part of a study on “Christianity 481: Self, Sin, and Salvation,” and was entitled “I’ve lived as a man & a woman—here’s what I learned.”
Ingle states that at the end of the recording, his female professor asked for comment from women only. After no girls in the class sought to speak, he decided to provide his point of view, stating that biologists believe that there are only two biological genders. He also outlined why he disagrees that there is a wage gap between men and women.
“The floor was opened, and not a single woman spoke. Thirty seconds or so passed and still no woman had spoken. So, I decided it was permissible for me to enter the conversation, especially because I felt the conversation itself was completely inappropriate in its structure,” Ingle recalled to Campus Reform. “It was during my objection that Dr. [Alison] Downie attempted to silence me because I am not a woman.”
The following day, in meeting with his professor, he was provided with an Academic Integrity Referral Form and an agreement, outlining that Downie wanted Ingle to apologize to the entire class and then listen as his professor—and any students that wished to—outlined how his choice to speak out made her feel.
Ingle is officially accused of “[d]isrespectful objection to the professor’s class discussion structure; refusal to stop talking out of turn; angry outbursts in response to being required to listen to a trans speaker discuss the reality of white male privilege and sexism; disrespectful references to the validity of trans identity and experience; [and making a] disrespectful claim that a low score on any class work would be evidence of professor’s personal prejudice.”
