A retired general who was serving as a visiting professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia says he’s been fired over his opposition to letting transgender people use opposite-sex bathrooms. But the college disagrees.
During his lengthy Army career, Gen. William Boykin commanded Delta Force and rose to the rank of three-star general. Since retiring, he has been Hampden-Sydney’s Wheat Visiting Professor of Leadership and has also been involved in various conservative Christian causes. Most notably, he is executive vice president of the Family Research Council.
Unsurprisingly, Boykin’s views have made him very critical of the recent push towards allowing transgender individuals unfettered access to opposite-sex restrooms. In March, while speaking at The Awakening 2016 conference, he said “the first man who goes in the restroom with my daughter will not have to worry about surgery.”
Now, two months later and one week after the Obama administration announced a new policy requiring all public schools to respect transgender students’ bathroom wishes, Boykin says his remark cost him his job at Hampden-Sydney.
“[After my Orlando remarks,] the LGBT community once again came after me, claiming that I was calling for violence against transgender people,” Boykin said in a statement released Tuesday night on Facebook. “Well, that is simply not the case and I have never called for violence against anyone … My statement was meant to be humor and not a call for violence, which everyone in my audience understood as humor.”
“Nonetheless, I gave the LGBT community just what they needed to pressure the college leadership to terminate me and they did,” he added. “Too many years in the Army talking to soldiers still impedes my ability and willingness to say things that are not permissible under the PC rules and it has cost me a job.”
Rather than calling for Hampden-Sydney to restore him to his post, Boykins said the school’s decision was just part of a larger problem, and he urged supporters to sign a petition being pushed by the Family Research Council. The petition concerns President Obama’s recent decree that public schools must allow students to use the bathroom of their choice, and doesn’t mention Boykin’s situation at all.
Hampden-Sydney, though, contests Boykin’s description of his departure. The school sent a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation saying that Boykin was not fired and did not get in trouble for his remark. The statement suggested that Boykin was spreading “misinformation” about his departure.
“General Boykin was a part-time adjunct faculty member serving as the Wheat Professor, employed on a year-to-year basis,” the statement says. “Given the rotating nature of the Wheat Professorship, it is inaccurate to suggest that General Boykin was fired. It is also an injustice to General Boykin’s service to Hampden-Sydney and its students. We are grateful for the contributions General Boykin made to our educational mission and the impact he had on our students.”
TheDCNF asked Boykin whether he could offer more evidence that his March remarks were the reason for his departure, but he has not yet responded to this inquiry.
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