Transgender professor loses discrimination claim against Kent State University

In a recent court ruling, healthcare professional GPat Patterson, a transgender professor at Kent State University in the United States, experienced a setback in their legal battle against the university concerning alleged discrimination and retaliation. The decision, made by Judge John Nalbandian along with Judges Danny Boggs and Richard Allen Griffin, focuses on a series of comments made by Patterson on social media that were deemed unprotected by the First Amendment, specifically regarding complaints made about colleagues and university administration's handling of academic programming issues. The essence of the court's ruling indicates that claims of retaliation must be grounded in speech that touches upon public concerns. The court differentiated between personal grievances and matters of societal importance, stating that employee complaints do not fall under the umbrella of protected speech. This distinction proved fatal to Patterson's claims, particularly given the vitriolic content of the tweets directed at colleagues, where Patterson labeled administrators in derogatory terms and claimed their actions amounted to