US ACLU of VA sues Liberty University over transgender employee’s firing - The private, evangelical place of education is accused of violating Title VIl of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Taber Andrew Bain
Liberty University

The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court.​

The ACLU of Virginia is suing another education institution over its treatment of people who are transgender. This time, it’s taking aim at the private, evangelical Liberty University in Lynchburg.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of Western District of Virginia on behalf of a former employee who alleges she was fired for being transgender.

Lawyers for Ellenor Zinski, who worked at Liberty’s IT Helpdesk, said she was fired in August 2023 after disclosing she was a transgender woman. According to the complaint, Liberty's human resources department cited Zinski’s transition as the reason for her termination — a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

Liberty officials told Zinski that denying one’s birth sex is in conflict with the school’s Doctrinal Statement, Statement of Professional Ethics, & Harassment and Discrimination Avoidance Policy: “Sinful acts are prohibited by God and include but are not limited to… denial of birth sex by self-identification with a different gender.”

The lawsuit alleges Liberty staff read the termination notice aloud to Zinski, citing the doctrinal statement.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that an employer who fires an employee for being gay or transgender violates Title VIl.

Wyatt Rolla, the ACLU of Virginia’s senior transgender rights attorney, said federal law allows religious schools to give preference to hiring employees of a particular religion. However, it still bars religious schools from discriminating on the basis of other protected statuses like race, national origin or sex.

“Liberty explicitly fired Ellenor, an employee who had previously received glowing evaluations, solely for being transgender,” Rolla said. “That is against the law.”

Zinski is asking for her job back or compensatory damages, in addition to $300,000 in punitive damages, attorneys' fees and court costs.

VPM News reached out to Liberty University for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

The state ACLU recently sued the Virginia Department of Education on behalf of minor students in Hanover and York counties who allege they faced discrimination at school for being transgender.

A Virginia judge threw out the York County lawsuit, siding with attorneys for VDOE who argued the commonwealth is immune from lawsuits. The Hanover case is scheduled for Aug. 20 in Hanover Circuit Court.

The ACLU filed a separate, federal lawsuit against the Hanover County School Board and its former superintendent that is scheduled to be heard Tuesday, Aug. 6 at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond. That lawsuit alleges Hanover School District and its top officials violated an 11-year-old transgender student’s rights when it banned her from playing on the girls tennis team.

The complaint argues that blanket prohibitions on transgender athletes violate Title IX, the federal civil rights law barring sex discrimination in schools and education programs that receive federal funding.

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[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

being tranny isnt race, color, national origin, and it isnt biological sex. nothing here is in violation.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Time for our real constitution (the Civil Rights Act) to destroy that old piece of paper we think is our constitution.

being tranny isnt race, color, national origin, and it isnt biological sex. nothing here is in violation.

Nope, it's been expanded to gender freakery thanks to the Supreme Court. The only thing Liberty U has going for them is that they're a famously conservative Christian college which means they can fire people for going against their doctrine. The ACLU is trying to go for the Bob Jones approach where the Supreme Court forced Bob Jones University (another famously conservative Christian college) to desegregate despite Bob Jones believing segregation was a doctrine established by God.

I'd give them 50-50 if they succeed, honestly, given how fucked this country is now.

 

[Troonos]

Troonism is a choice. You can't enforce anti-discrimination laws on a choice.

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

Time for our real constitution (the Civil Rights Act) to destroy that old piece of paper we think is our constitution.

Nope, it's been expanded to gender freakery thanks to the Supreme Court. The only thing Liberty U has going for them is that they're a famously conservative Christian college which means they can fire people for going against their doctrine. The ACLU is trying to go for the Bob Jones approach where the Supreme Court forced Bob Jones University (another famously conservative Christian college) to desegregate despite Bob Jones believing segregation was a doctrine established by God.

I'd give them 50-50 if they succeed, honestly, given how fucked this country is now.

i know that legally it is expanded for all the LGBTQIAP+ freaks, i was just making an anti tranny point there.

and im not holding out much hope for them. now if it was a muslim school, maybe, but a christian school saying to to trannies? not looking good.

 

[JohnnyG]

I thought when Biden tried to retroactively change the CRA's references to "sex" to mean "gender" (a concept that hadn't even been invented yet lol), he got smacked down in court. Or was that just Title IX or something and not Title VII?

Hilarious that the language game of changing transsexual (people who want to change their biological sex) into "transgender" (which isn't even consistent with their LARP that they were born the other gender and simply need to change everything in the real world to match what's in their head) means they have to rewrite their own subversive laws that haven't kept up.

 

[Breadbassket]

Here is information on the ruling from 2020 where the Supreme Court deemed transgender and gay individuals were protected under Title VII if they were fired by their employer in a "discriminatory" manner:

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the holdings of the 2nd and 6th Circuits and reversed the 11th Circuit in Bostock. Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch explained that “n Title VII, Congress outlawed discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” He framed the question quite simply: “Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender.”

“The answer is clear,” he said. “Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision” to fire an employee for being gay or transgender—“exactly what Title VII forbids.”

Acknowledging that the legislators who adopted the Civil Rights Act likely did not anticipate that the law would extend to protect gay and transgender employees, Justice Gorsuch nonetheless wrote that “the limits of the drafters’ imagination supply no reason to ignore the law’s demands … only the written word is the law, and all persons are entitled to its benefit.”

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined Gorsuch’s decision.

Justice Samuel Alito filed a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Alito said there “is only one word for what the Court has done today: legislation.” He warned that the Supreme Court’s ruling would have far-reaching consequences to other federal laws that ban discrimination “because of sex,” including the Fair Housing Act and Title IX. Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed his own dissenting opinion explaining his view that the ordinary meaning of the phrase “discriminate because of sex” does not extend to discrimination based on sexual orientation.

 

[Vect]

Forget Title VII. Why would a transgender woman go to work at Liberty University?? Does he know the alumni? It's like James Brown making a funk entrance at a Klan meeting.

Anyway, he looks like this,



and to be fair, in the interview with local news, it just passes as a low female voice.

I really want to give this person the benefit of the doubt because it seem like they're trying to pass and be normal, but he waits until his probationary period is finished working at the powerbase of US Christian Fundamentalism before telling anybody he's trans.

 

[fresh pair of socks]

When this trans employee inevitably molests a student, that student should be able to sue the ACLU for enabling sexual predators.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

Forget Title VII. Why would a transgender woman go to work at Liberty University?? Does he know the alumni? It's like James Brown making a funk entrance at a Klan meeting.

Makes sense if you want to start a lawsuit against them. My question is how LU didn't know something was up ahead of time.

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

Ellenor Zinski

Jonathan Lawrence Zinski. 2/12/1994

Legal complaint attached as a pdf. Worth a read, it lays out the timeline. He was hired in 2023 as Jonathan and shortly thereafter announced he was beginning the troonout process.

https://www.facebook.com/Ellenor.Zinski

Now it starts to get funnier.

Prior to trooning out, he was famous for being the "Johnny Appleseed of weed."

link 1 from 2021

His full name is Jonathan Zinski, 27, and he was a fun interview. Zinski still works a day job as a customer-service rep for a major corporation. He also owns a small farm about 20 miles south of Lynchburg, in the area of Campbell County known as Gladys.

On the side, Zinski grows legal hemp. And he has a company called Rezin Botanicals. Soon, he may gain a reputation as Virginia’s Johnny Appleseed of weed. That’s because Zinski has anticipated, planned and prepared for this day.
He’s sought and accepted seed donations from major marijuana producers. We’re talking about some of the biggest names in the legal-weed industry, like Humboldt Seed Co; the Hoku Seed Co.; Nutty North Genetics; Hill Family Genetics; and Mount Zion Seed Cooperative.

Collectively, they’ve sent Zinski thousands of seeds in a variety of different strains. Just from Hoku Seed alone, Zinski wrangled 7,500. He said beginning Thursday, he’s distributing them at selected retailers in the Lynchburg and Roanoke markets.
When I pressed, he declined to name any of the stores. That’s to guard against seed gluttons gobbling all of them up suddenly, Zinski added. He wants a few seeds into as many different hands as possible. If people knew where they could find them, they’d be all gone too soon.

link 2 in which we learn he is a "father of 2"

Some folks aren’t waiting to see how the dust settles on that question. They have higher aspirations, one might say. A good example is Jonathan Zinski of Campbell County, a character you may have read about before. He’s developing a reputation as the Old Dominion’s “Johnny Appleseed of weed.”


Zinski’s a hemp consultant, farmer and father of two who caused great excitement early in July by staging a wildly successful statewide cannabis seed giveaway, on the day Virginia formally legalized weed.
Since then, Zinski has been planning an even bigger seed giveaway. And earlier this week, he shared the details with yours truly.

It’ll happen Nov. 13, a week from Saturday. Zinski said he’s going to give away more than 100,000 cannabis seeds at 11 locations in 10 different Virginia localities. All the seeds have been donated, mostly by out-of-state pot seed distributors.

link 3

Jonathan before trooning out:

Wife's name is Shalynn.

Magnolia Nih’eeno’ Zinski was born 10/16/2021 in Lynchburg, VA to Shalynn Zinski and Jonathan Zinski. This #little was 8lbs 6oz and measured 20 inches long.
Congratulations to the family of this new #little!
Submit your own Birth Announcement to County 10 for SageWest Health Care’s series #Littles by using this form.

 

[jertzog]

If you want to reliably fire an LGBT with no fear of retaliation, you have to plant drugs in their workspace. That's all there is to it.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Why would you want to work for a university known for being super conservative Christian if you're not a super conservative Christian yourself?

 

[William Murderface]

Why would you want to work for a university known for being super conservative Christian if you're not a super conservative Christian yourself?

Grifting comes to mind.

 

[Marvin]

If you have two employees that call themselves women and you fire one because they're male, that's sex discrimination. That's the logic the supreme court ultimately went with with that title VII case awhile ago. Troons celebrated that case without actually reading the specific reasoning in the ruling.

If the troons had their way, this couldn't be a violation because transwomen are female under their logic.

Cases like these are cringy and will suck in the immediate, but maintaining the legal relevance of biological sex will be essential to burying the much more serious troon excesses going forward.

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

We really need freedom of unassociation in this country

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

Why would you want to work for a university known for being super conservative Christian if you're not a super conservative Christian yourself?

1. Part of the fetish is forcing it on people who are extremely uncomfortable with it.
2. The various ACLU write-ups I saw state that he considers himself a "devout" Christian and attends church. He's just one of those who thinks the church is silly and wrong and needs to "get up to speed" with LGBT issues. See this FB post:



3. The tantalizing opportunity for lawfare and revenge (and more forcing people to play along with the fetish) via the legal system.

While we're here, some more social media archives:

He is very active in the Lynchburg Facebook group, sperging about covid, ghost stories, EVs...:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/rGeGvCj2KAP4wodM/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LivingInLynchburg/permalink/2313129272279540/

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/WSPG5MsBbTg1sp5P/

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/T2EHLGczqf5QdJJR/

Wedding photos posted by his mother in law:

https://www.facebook.com/chanda.whiteman/posts/1049031971793725

His wife is an Arapaho Indian.

Make that ex wife- looks as though they parted ways just prior to the trooning out and she is now back home in the prairie lands.

 

[Snack Cracker]

Any church that accepts the LGBT is not God filled, it’s terrifying to think there are places that profess to be houses of God but are really full of demons.

Goes without saying- if a church doesn’t expressly talk about biblical marriage and doesn’t say trooning is against the Bible, find a new one because eventually you’ll see drag queens sitting in the congregation.

It’s forbidden, absolutely forbidden to try to change the sex God made someone to be.
Whether he’s Christian or not, he needs to understand that by indulging his deviant lifestyle he’s going against Christian doctrine.

 

[KiwiFuzz2]

If you want to reliably fire an LGBT with no fear of retaliation, you have to plant drugs in their workspace. That's all there is to it.

If I had drugs, why would I give them away to some troon?

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

The weed thing is interesting, getting caught with pot was grounds for immediate expulsion for students, at least when I was there. Three of the guys in my dorms were expelled one year for it, I can't imagine the standards of employees is different. I have no doubt this guy got a job there just to gotcha them later and force this on them.