Citation From the September 5 edition of Fox News’ Fox News at Night with Shannon Bream:

SHANNON BREAM (HOST): A professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio is suing the school, claiming a violation of First Amendment rights. After being punished for refusing to use a student's preferred gender pronouns. Tonight, a federal magistrate judge is recommending that the suit be dismissed, but the professor is far from giving up. So let’s talk to him. Professor Nicholas Meriweather and his attorney from Alliance Defending Freedom, Tyson Langhofer. Welcome to you both.

TYSON LANGHOFER (ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM): Thanks for having us.

NICHOLAS MERIWETHER (PROFESSOR, SHAWNEE STATE UNIVERSITY): Thank you. Good to be here.

BREAM: OK. So just to give people a little bit of a background, there was a student who was in your class, biologically born male but transitioning to female, asked that you use female pronouns. And professor, I know there were different compromises that you and the school talked about, just using the first name or the last name. Eventually, you could not come to an agreement, and you said, “Using these pronouns is a violation of my religious beliefs.” How so?

MERIWETHER: Well, it's important to remember that the university is to be a marketplace of ideas and not merely an assembly line for one type of thought. And in this particular case, I was being required to endorse an ideology that I do not hold. I don't think that public universities should be in the business of requiring people to endorse or express ideologies that they don't hold.

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LANGHOFER: What happened was professor Meriwether indicated that he would be willing to refer to this student with his last name or his first name and just avoid the use of pronouns. But what the university was requiring was that professor Meriwether change the way he addressed the entire class and that he could not use any pronouns for any other students at all. And he had to not only change the way that he addressed this student, but he changed the way he addressed all students. And that's exactly what the First Amendment forbids. They cannot -- a university cannot force a professor to speak messages that he disagrees with.

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MERIWETHER: I would like to be extended the same respect and dignity that I extend to my students. I don't expect my students or require them to express something that they don't believe or endorse an ideology that they don't hold. And I'm being required to do that.