An adjunct nursing professor at Seattle Pacific University (SPU) filed a lawsuit this week accusing the private Christian university of discriminating against him and refusing him job opportunities because of his sexual orientation.
Jéaux Rinedahl — who teaches in SPU’s Lydia Green Nursing Program in the School of Health Sciences and has nearly 40 years of experience in the health care industry — alleged in the lawsuit that when he applied for a full-time, tenured position as an associate nursing professor, the university rejected his application because he’s gay.
When he saw the full-time faculty position posted in May, he was thrilled.
“It was a dream come true,” Rinedahl said. “What I’ve been looking for for all of my career.”
The then-dean of the school’s nursing program encouraged him to apply, but according to Rinedahl, about a month later she called to tell him the university had rejected his application for one reason: “It’s because you’re not heterosexual.”
“She actually did say that,” Rinedahl said. “I was shocked.”
He added, “I had to sit down because I was getting weak and dizzy. I had prepared myself for this opportunity for years. … This is what I was going to do for the rest of my career until retirement, and in a sentence, it was gone.”
Rinedahl said the dean, who has since been promoted to interim dean of the School of Health Sciences, added that, in order to be employed full-time, he would have to sign a statement declaring he was heterosexual.
“I could not do that,” Rinedahl said.
The university’s admissions webpage welcomes LGBTQ students. “Seattle Pacific University is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion for our undergraduate and graduate students, welcoming and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students in all academic pursuits, faith practices, and life together in community.” It also adopted a statement on human sexuality in 2005 that states, in part, “We believe it is in the context of the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman that the full expression of sexuality is to be experienced and celebrated and that such a commitment is part of God’s plan for human flourishing. Within the teaching of our religious tradition, we affirm that sexual experience is intended between a man and a woman.”
This statement and the school’s practice of excluding LGBTQ people from full-time positions led to the controversy that began in 2021.
SPU was founded by Free Methodists in 1891. The Free Methodist church began in 1860 and is currently headquartered in Indianapolis. It has about 828 congregations in the United States.
Other colleges affiliated with the Free Methodist Church are Azusa Pacific University, Central Christian College of Kansas, Greenville University, Roberts Wesleyan College and Spring Arbor University.
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Nursing professor sues Seattle Pacific University, says he was denied full-time job ‘because he’s not heterosexual’