A U.S. District Judge last week dismissed a professor's lawsuit in which the educator claimed his First Amendment rights had been violated after his college directed him to use a student's chosen transgender pronouns.

Nicholas Meriwether had argued that Shawnee State University had infringed upon his religious liberty when it ordered him to refer to a biologically male student using the student's preferred female pronouns. Transgender individuals often choose to go by the pronouns of the sex they identify with rather than that with which they were born.

Meriwether, a Christian, said that using those pronouns would have violated his religious beliefs. The judge in the case ruled against him, dismissing the lawsuit and affirming the university's right to compel professors to adhere to some tenets of LGBT ideology.

Meriwether's counsel, the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, indicated that it may appeal the decision.