OAN Staff James Meyers
4:05 PM – Thursday, April 24, 2025
The University of Louisville has agreed to pay nearly $1.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a former professor after he was fired for criticizing sex change surgeries and hormone therapies for children.
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Dr. Allan Josephson worked for nearly 15 years as the chief of the University of Louisville’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology.
In his lawsuit, Josephson asserts that he successfully revitalized the underperforming department during his tenure, earning exemplary marks in his annual performance evaluations from 2014 to 2016.
In spite of his professional accolades, the complaint alleges that he was demoted in 2017, and then eventually fired, after making comments challenging the push to utilize hormone therapy and sex change surgeries for children — according to legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
ADF, which represented Josephson in court, announced the settlement agreement on Monday — praising the end result of the lawsuit as a “major victory” for free speech.
“I’m glad to finally receive vindication for voicing what I know is true,” Josephson also said in a statement. “Children deserve better than life-altering procedures that mutilate their bodies and destroy their ability to lead fulfilling lives. In spite of the circumstances I suffered through with my university, I’m overwhelmed to see that my case helped lead the way for other medical practitioners to see the universal truth that altering biological sex is impossibly dangerous while acceptance of one’s sex leads to flourishing.”
The complaint also noted that the drama unfolded in October 2017, when the psychiatrist participated in a panel discussion on transgender ideology hosted by the conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation — in which he criticized gender ideology activism toward children. After learning about his remarks, officials at the university’s LGBTQ center reportedly pressured his division to take disciplinary action against him immediately.
Criticism of his views also continued to pick up steam after he appeared as an expert witness in a legal case involving a school district’s bathroom policy around gender identity.
A number of Josephson’s co-workers, who strongly disagreed with his statements, even pushed for the school to take disciplinary action against him — the complaint says. The next month, Josephson was informed by the university that he was being “demoted from chief of the division to a junior faculty member.”
Scrutiny of his views intensified after he appeared as an expert witness in a legal case involving a school district’s bathroom policy around gender identity. University officials continued to “belittle and berate him,” inflicting irreparable damage to his “professional career and reputation,” and the school reduced his salary and benefits — eventually leading to his firing.
However, Josephson challenged his firing by filing a lawsuit against the school the following month.
He argued that the school “retaliated” against him for expressing his own personal views, in violation of his First Amendment rights, in addition to his right to due process and equal protection under the law. In total, it was a six-year legal battle, though it resulted in the favorable settlement. Alliance Defending Freedom filed a stipulated dismissal of the case on Monday, court records show.
“Hopefully, other public universities will learn from this that if they violate the First Amendment, they can be held accountable, and it can be very expensive,” ADF Senior Counsel Travis Barham said.
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