Plaintiff in Liberty discrimination case speaks out

ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — Liberty University is at the center of a federal lawsuit after allegedly firing a woman because she’s transgender. The suit was filed by ACLU Virginia and Butler Curwood on behalf of the former employee.

Ellenor Zinski says she was fired from her I.T. job with Liberty roughly a month after telling them she was legally changing her name because she’s transgender.

“A month went by and I hear nothing,” she said. “By that point, I was a pressure cooker of anxiety and had to follow up.”

After following up with the university, Zinski says she was called for a meeting where she was read and given a letter of termination. Wyatt Rolla, senior trans rights attorney with ACLU Virginia, says the school was explicit.

“They cited her quote ‘denying biological and chromosomal sex assigned at birth’ as the basis for her termination,” they said.

That letter is not a public record.

Title VII prohibits employers from firing someone on the basis of sex and in recent years the Supreme Court specified that the rule protects transgender people.

Craig Konnoth is a professor of law at the University of Virginia who specializes in LGBT rights. He says this case is a cut-and-dry application of Title VII, but he does expect arguments for religious exemptions because Liberty identifies as a Christian university.

“The exemptions I’ve mentioned have been expanding exponentially and we can see this case along with other similar cases making new ground, making new precedent,” he said.

Therefore, Konnoth says the case has the potential to be significant.

“While Title VII does allow religious schools and educational institutions like Liberty University to give religious preference in hiring, to choose to hire someone of a certain faith, what it does not allow for is for those religious institutions to discriminate on the basis of other protected statuses,” said Rolla.

Zinksi says she was raised Christian and in adulthood found a home in the Episcopal church. She says her Christian background originally drew her to Liberty, plus the school is one of the largest employers in the area.

“I can’t change that I’m trans, this is how I was born,” she said. “It’s not something I can get better at, it’s not something I can stop doing, so to be denied at a fundamental level of self… I’m hollow.”

Zinski and the ACLU are asking for $300,000 in damages and for Liberty University to declare that they violated Title VII.

A spokesperson with the school says they will not comment on pending legal matters or personnel matters.

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