A junior in Catholic high school has been suspended for the remainder of the year for protesting the use of the girls’ bathroom by biological males.
Eleventh grader Josh Alexander organized a protest last fall at Saint Joseph Catholic high school, where he is a student, when the principal refused to take any action to prevent males using the girls’ bathroom.
“Males do not belong in female washrooms is our message,” Josh said at the time.
“Protect the girls from this evil narrative. Stop depriving our students of a healthy and natural environment. ‘God made them male and female: Mark 10:6,’” he said in a social media post.
Josh has also been accused of calling transgender students by their “dead names” (names they used before transitioning) and of arguing in classroom discussions that there are only two genders.
After Josh insisted that God created only two sexes, the school suspended him, arguing his presence would be detrimental to the “physical and mental well-being” of trans students.
On receiving his suspension, Josh filed an appeal with his school board, insisting that the punishment constitutes discrimination against his religious beliefs.
Josh “cannot, due to his sincere religious beliefs, knowingly speak a falsehood, such as acknowledging the fiction that people can change from male to female (or vice-versa),” wrote his lawyer, James S.M. Kitchen, in an email to the school’s principal.
“As a matter of his Christian beliefs, which happen to be consistent with biological truths regarding gender, Mr. Alexander believes all human beings, except in rare circumstances of developmental abnormality, are made by God as either immutably male or female,” Kitchen said.
Liberty Coalition Canada, a Christian conservative organization with which Kitchen is affiliated, posted a statement on its website saying:
Josh not only has a right to express himself during class discussions and through public forums, he also has a right to not be discriminated against by his school for his sincere religious beliefs. Being suspended and excluded from classes is the height of discrimination.
The confrontation escalated Monday, when Josh was allegedly arrested for attending class after being suspended.
Josh has cited Scripture to justify his positions, most recently posting from Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.”