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An unnamed male student who has twice been investigated for sexual assault is suing his institution, the University Of Chicago, for “anti-male bias.”


Buzzfeed reports that John Doe—as he is identified in the lawsuit—accuses the university of “creating a gender biased, hostile environment against males.” Doe’s lawsuit was filed on August 24, 2016 with a demand for $175,000 in damages.

From Buzzfeed:

“The complaint stated that the school violated Title IX ‘by creating a gender-biased, hostile environment against males, like John Doe, based in part on UC’s pattern and practice of investigating and disciplining male students who accept physical contact initiated by female students, retaliating against male students, and providing female students preferential treatment under its Title IX policies.’ It also said that the university was ‘motivated by pro-female, anti-male bias’ adopted partly after it was criticized for ‘turning a blind eye to female complaints of sexual assault.’”




For the most part, Title IX lawsuits filed by men haven’t been successful. But in August, a lawsuit filed by a male student at Columbia was revisited by a federal appeals court. Like John Doe, this student alleges that his university demonstrated bias in their investigation of the sexual assault accusations levied against him.

John Doe, who was first accused of sexual assault in 2014, claims that his accuser—known as Jane Roe—harbors a “vendetta” against him. He was found innocent of the crime but argues that the university turned a blind eye to Roe’s “sexual harassment and retaliation against John Doe” after the hearings. He also found it unfair that, despite being exonerated, he was switched out of the physics lab in which Roe was also enrolled.

In 2016, Roe’s friend Doe allegedly posted tweets accusing John Doe of assaulting her in December 2013 . Her statement inspired students to boycott the play Doe had directed as part of his work in Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS). She received a cease and desist letter from John Doe, but as of August 20, 2016 had not deleted the tweets. John Doe also filed a Title IX complaint against her, but the university did not take disciplinary action.

John Doe argues that Jane Doe also seeks vengeance because she is upset over his sexual involvement with Jane Roe and that he has been subjected to disciplinary proceedings simply because he is a man.


The University Of Chicago, Doe argues, maintains “archaic assumptions that female students do not sexually assault or harass their fellow male students because females are less sexually promiscuous than men.”

You can read the complaint in full here.