If her writing is any indication of her thought processes, it's clear that University of Toledo administrator Crystal Dixon is a bigot, a kook, and an intellectually deficient human being. However, I have worked at two other northwest Ohio institutions of higher education, and I can say pretty confidently that if being a bigot, a kook and an intellectually deficient human being were grounds for termination, the faculties and staffs of both would be decimated.
Dixon, however, was recently fired from her post as an "interim associate vice president of human resources" at UT for writing a letter to the editor of the Toledo Free Press in which she laid her bigotry, kookiness and intellectual deficiency out for all to see:
As a Black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are "civil rights victims." Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a Black woman. I am genetically and biologically a Black woman and very pleased to be so as my Creator intended. Daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle evidenced by the growing population of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex Gays) and Exodus International just to name a few. Frequently, the individuals report that the impetus to their change of heart and lifestyle was a transformative experience with God; a realization that their choice of same-sex practices wreaked havoc in their psychological and physical lives.
Following publication of her letter, she was fired--for doing nothing more than writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper and expressing her views.
If Dixon can be fired from a public university for expressing her anti-gay opinion, then any other employee could be sacked for expressing pro-gay sentiments--or for that matter, for expressing anything at all. Things would be different, perhaps, if Dixon was an employee at will at a private institution. However, if the First Amendment means anything, it means that agents of the state (such as the University of Toledo) are not allowed to punish employees for holding and expressing unpopular views.
It's uncomfortable for me to be on the same side of this matter as Rush Limbaugh, but this is not a liberal or conservative issue--it's a civil liberties issue. Dixon plans to file suit against UT; I hope she succeeds.
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