No one should face discrimination because of who they are – but that’s what happened to Rev. Dr. Julie Nemecek when she came out as transgender while working at Spring Arbor University. The University cut her pay by 20% and forbid her from discussing her transition with anyone connected to the University, which at the time included a brother, sister-in-law, and one of her kids. Julie and the University entered mediation, where she shared a powerful opening statement about her life, discrimination, and basic dignity.
“I fully support the SAU’s statement of faith, and I have no doubts that God has gone before us and is a sustaining power in the peace that Joanne and I have. The University has demonstrated an incredible ignorance and unwarranted transphobia. This is me, I am Julie. I do not have what you’ve called a ‘transgender personality.’ I am a transgender person and always have been, including all the time I worked with Spring Arbor University. After I began to understand my diagnosis, I lost the physical and emotional energy to keep living a lie and shortly after that voluntarily shared this information with Spring Arbor University. No matter how hard Spring Arbor University tries, there is simply no Christian justification for blatantly interfering with my prescribed treatment for my transgender identity.”
Ultimately, Julie needed to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to combat the mistreatment and stand up for herself.
That same year, administrator Kim Hayworth was accused of opening an out gay student's mail, a federal crime
In the fall of 2017, a speaker at SAU's twice-weekly chapel service was met with applause after placing LGBTQ people in the same category as drug addicts and murderers. His sermon stated: "I don't have time to tell you the stories of lesbians that come to our church and repent of their sins and now are living straight lives. I don't have time to tell you about murderers who walk in and they get changed by the power of God, I can't tell you the drug dealers who actually hand me drugs and say, 'I don't want to do this anymore.' And it's not by my might, it's not by my power, it is by the spirit of the Lord.
View more sources here:
https://facesoffreedom.org/rev-dr-julie-nemecek/