University investigates law student for ‘aggressively pointing’ at trans person
Pace University in New York is investigating Houston Porter, a 28-year-old law student, for Title IX violations after he “aggressively pointed” and “misgendered” a transgender person.
Title IX is a law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in institutions funded by the federal government. Originally established to benefit women, the law is now used to for the benefit of transgenders and allow men into women’s sports.
A civil discussion sparks chaos
Porter was discussing that very topic when he co-moderated a panel discussion at Pace University’s law school last month titled “Saving Women’s Sports.” The Federalist Society, a conservative group of which Porter is a member, had organized the discussion. The Free Press reports that two Republican state senate candidates and a constitutional scholar were brought on the panel to explore Proposition 1, a ballot measure aiming to make transgenders a protected class in the New York Constitution. Voters in New York eventually approved the measure during on November 5th.
When Porter saw dozens of students wearing Pride pins waiting outside, he grew excited that the event was in for some bipartisan, free academic discourse. But when he opened the room to questions, chaos erupted. Civil rights law professor Randolph McLaughlin shouted at the panelists: “You don’t recognize that trans girls are girls!” Attendees said Professor Margot Julia Pollans “rushed the stage” and also shouted at the panelists. A chair was knocked over in the “pandemonium” and the panelists required security to escort them to their vehicles.
“I felt like I was about to get swarmed,” said Porter. “It was surreal.”
Under investigation for ‘aggressively pointing’
Nine days later, Porter received a letter from Bernard Dufresne, the university’s Title IX coordinator, notifying him that he was under investigation for “sex-based discrimination.” The accusation was based on a report that Porter had “aggressively pointed” at a man who claimed to be a woman and “purposefully referred to her as a man in front of classmates, law school faculty and administrators, and guests.”
Porter says he didn’t gesture toward anyone but may have referred to someone as “sir” while trying to bring the room to order.
As part of the investigation, Porter will likely be required to attend a disciplinary hearing. If disciplinary action is taken, he faces expulsion and a permanent ban from practicing law in New York.
“Any type of punishment will be super detrimental to my reputation and to my professional career,” he said. “It feels like my whole world is crumbling down. I feel like everything that I’ve been working toward might get destroyed over a misunderstanding.”
Porter told The Free Press that he is too embarrassed to talk about the investigation with his parents, two immigrants who he says have “sacrificed so much” for him to go to law school. Porter has been paying for his education through a combination of dishwashing jobs, scholarships, and loans.
