Hampden-Sydney has reinstated retired Army Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin as a visiting professor. He was let go after his comments on transgender bathrooms.
General Boykin is a devout Christian who was formerly one of the greatest warriors in the U.S. military. A founding member in 1978 of America’s most elite military counterinsurgency unit, Delta Force, he rose through the fighting ranks to become the commanding general of Delta Force. He later was the head of the Army’s Special Warfare Center, led the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, and served at the Pentagon as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, retiring as a three-star general and one of the world’s foremost experts on national security and fighting terrorism.
He currently works as executive vice president of the Family Research Council, and for nine years has taught on faculty at Hampden-Sydney College.
But as Breitbart News reported earlier this week, Hampden-Sydney College fired Boykin under pressure from anti-Christian LGBT activists, following Boykin’s comments opposing city ordinances and legislation backed by President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, authorizing people to go into bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers that they say matches their “gender identity,” even if it’s the opposite of their true sex.
Boykin had responded by saying, “the first man who goes into the restroom with my daughter will not have to worry about surgery.”
LGBT activists mischaracterized this comment as calling for violence against transgender people who reject their biological sex. Now Hampden-Sydney College has reversed course. The school announced late yesterday on Facebook that, “After discussions with Hampden-Sydney College, Gen. Jerry Boykin has accepted another year’s contract to teach in the College’s Military Leadership and National Security minor as Wheat Professor.”
Boykin tells Breitbart News that he is “deeply grateful for all the support” he’s received, and that “our First Amendment principles are worth standing up for and defending.” He says he looks forward to returning to teaching “to continue my work of equipping the next generation of young men to lead this nation,” and praised Hampden-Sydney College as a “fine school.”
He then adds some thoughts on his experience these past few days:
First, there is strength in unified numbers. The radical Left and LGBT activists completely underestimate the impact of freedom-loving Americans banding together to protect our First Amendment freedoms. Many people spoke out on my behalf and I am eternally grateful that they stood with me. Their unified voices allowed me to return to Hampden-Sydney.
Second, never cave in when you know that you are standing for what is right and true, for these are the principles that made this nation great. STAND, even if it means you lose your job. STAND, even if it means you lose your life. The founding principles of this nation are worth defending, even if it costs you.
Third, my reinstatement is a victory for academic freedom and free thought on a college campus. The free exchange of conflicting ideas must be the bedrock of every college campus in America. This essential exchange has been greatly wounded by the PC police, but it can be restored to college campuses around the country if, in unity, freedom-loving Americans speak out. Bottom line: when you stand, freedom prevails.
Finally, I would like to thank the leadership of Hampden-Sydney College for the courage they have demonstrated in reversing their decision and allowing me to remain a part of the Hampden-Sydney community.
The rehiring of General Boykin is a major conservative victory of religious faith and family values over the LGBT agenda, the first of its kind in the new crusade Obama and Clinton have launched to push transgender issues, threatening employers, schools, and even sovereign states that seek to retain the millennia-old definition of sex as a fixed fact determined by biology.
Ken Klukowski is legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.