When Jace Dulohery started school at Oklahoma Christian University in 2020, no one knew he was transgender. He had already begun to medically and socially transition, and no one questioned him living in male housing his freshman year.
However, when he opened up to a resident assistant about being trans that year, the information made its way up the administrative ladder at the school, which is affiliated with the Churches of Christ.
“There’s just no room for a normal college experience when there’s actual discrimination happening,” Dulohery told ABC News. “This is not Christian behavior. This is not loving. This is not merciful. This is not compassionate. This is not of God. This is harmful.”
Dulohery filed a Title IX complaint about the decision to move his housing, and a Title IX panel agreed that his housing had been moved due to his gender identity. It also found that he was denied entry into a male-only social club for being transgender.
However, nothing has been resolved, Dulohery said. Instead, he said the school offered to pay for therapy.
Dulohery said the university’s legal team cited the religious exemption to Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, as the basis for its actions. It’s just one way that he says the school has become increasingly hostile against LGBTQ people on campus.
