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Texas pastor Dr Andrew Fox is fighting an active unfair dismissal case against the Austin Fire Department.

The expat Brit was fired from his volunteer chaplaincy position for defending women’s sports in a personal blog post.

Fox founded and served in Austin’s fire chaplaincy program for eight years.

He was dismissed in 2021 following a complaint from the AFD’s LGBTQ+ liaison officer.

Alliance Defending Freedom’s lawsuit alleges that the department fired Dr Fox without regard to due process, free speech, or religious freedom.

There was no investigation ‘into whether his writing actually disrupted the department’s work.’

Authorities made the decision to dump the pastor allegedly because the LGTBQ+ compliance officer was offended.

Women’s Rights

The article triggering the complaint was titled ‘Competitive Bosh!’

A very British term deployed by Dr Fox to describe the transgender takeover of female-only spaces as nonsense.

The “offending” piece was part 2 of a three-essay series published under the heading Willy Woke and the Chocolate Factory.

Here, Dr Fox defended the rights of biological adult females to compete in their own categories.

The entire article is a well-referenced argument in favour of biological fairness in women’s sports.

Using the Olympic Games as his main example, the preacher and former fire chaplain was neither hostile nor hurtful.

Circumspect

Twice, Fox navigates LGBTQ+ lawfare activism with disclaimers and qualifiers.

For example, he stated, ‘I am not writing about the sexual practices of athletes or how they identify sexually.’

‘I am writing,’ he added, ‘about men who transition to become women and compete in an ancient tradition we call the Olympic Games (Summer, Winter, and Para-Athletics).’

‘The issue is about gender identity and how ridiculous it is becoming.’

‘So let me be clear, this type of ideological bosh is coming straight out of Willy Woke and the Chocolate Factory.’

He even suggests that the ‘International Olympic Committee develop a third category for trans men who want to be women.’

Outside not saying a word, Dr Fox could not have been more diplomatic.

In fact, compared to my own, his blog and social media use is tame.

This didn’t prevent the LGBTQ+ from mobilising its “that’s transphobic” strawman, to kick politically inconvenient biological truths out the door.

Exhibit 1

As usual, the far-left fabric of irony appears to wrap itself around this case.

Noticeably, firing Dr Fox only confirmed his viewpoints in essay 1 of the Woke Wonka series.

As if predicting the LGBTQ+ liaison officer’s demand for dismissal, Dr. Fox warned,

‘Self-regulating halfwits emerge in the room replacing logic and reason, like a tribe of Oompa Loompas.’

‘Woke Loompas’ are ‘half-wits’, he wrote.

They parade self-righteous virtues that inevitably go ‘sideways’ when their virtue-signalling is contradicted by inconsistency.

They sit on social media, and rule from echo chambers.

Worse, their ‘one-dimensional thought process is regressing civil dialogue back to the days of medieval tribes.’

‘Frankly,’ Fox continued,

‘I’m tired of the shrieking woke Oompa Loompas telling me (indirectly from their echo chambers) what to think, say, write, eat, drink, and even laugh at.’

As his 2024 lawsuit against Austin’s Fire Department argues, the supposed crime committed was ‘manufactured.’

None of the defendants have proven that his personal blog post caused any harm to the department beyond ‘hypothetical hardship.’

Spurious Grounds

Alliance Defending Freedom said that one or two employees being offended ‘does not outweigh significant speech rights.’

‘Real, not imagined disruption is required… generally, listeners’ reactions to speech cannot be used to silence speech.’

There is, the lawsuit argues, no ‘heckler’s veto’ in the United States Constitution that would allow the public to use the government to gag ‘unpopular ideas that stir anger.’

Dr Fox’s legal representatives then added,

‘The fire department’s hostility towards Dr Fox because of his religious beliefs was not an adequate basis to terminate him from his chaplaincy position.’

If, they concluded, mere offence is enough to dismiss employees, government officials could fire religious personnel at any time for anything.

Commenting on Instagram about his dismissal, Dr Fox said,

‘All Americans should be able to speak freely without fear of punishment from government and no one should be forced to speak a message they don’t believe.’

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Dr. Andrew K. Fox (@dr.andrewfox)

The fire department chief claimed Dr Fox’s essay had shown he was not inclusive enough to serve as chaplain – “he was no longer able to counsel and relate to all members of the AFD.”

They countered that Dr Fox showing up at emergencies would ‘disrupt’ services because “members were put off by” his views on men who identify as women, participating in women’s sports.

The city’s defence additionally painted the chaplain as someone “who enjoyed cultivating controversy and discord rather than promoting unity.”

Of significance, it appears as though Dr Fox was not solely fired for offending an LGBTQ+ conformity official.

He was also seemingly fired for refusing official demands to ‘recant and apologise.’

Forced speech forced Dr Fox out, not free speech.

In sum, LGBTQ+ safetyism wrote the public safety volunteer off as a threat to public safety.

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Photo: ADF