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Faculty Senate, the Office of the President, and the Office of the Provost Regarding the
Social Media Posting of Hatred Against Trans Persons by Chair of the Political
Philosophy Department, Prof. David Upham
My name is Bethany A. Beeler (UD Class of 1985), and I am a trans woman. All three of my
now-adult children attended UD, with two graduating from there. I met my wife of 33+
years (we’re still joyfully married) at UD, and she is also an alumna (Class of 1987).
Yesterday, I came across the following public Facebook post by Prof. David Upham, Chair
of the UD Political Philosophy Department:
Dr. Rachel Levine was born RIchard [ sic] L evine. He was married and became the father of two
human beings--whom God made in His image, male and female He created them.
Dr. Levine has since, through ingesting various drugs, put on a somewhat convincing hormonal
costume to go along with his conventionally feminine dress. He may also, in addition have surgcially
[sic] mutilated his once functioning organs of generation--powers of procreation given to him by God
Almighty. Dr. Levine is to now to be called a "woman" and to appointed [sic] the Secretary of the
Department of Health and Human Services.1 There, Dr Levine, in concert with the whole Biden
administration, will try to use the powers of the federal government to FORCE others, by their words
and their deeds, including their medical expertise and know-how--to participate in these falsehoods,
these hormonal and surgical harms--these wrongs.
Dissenters will have to say "SHE and "WOMAN" or "HE' and "MAN" even when they know
it's false.
Dissenters will have to pay for and provide hormonal treatments that will materially harm men and
women's capacity to fulfill the command of almighty God to be fruitful and multiply by the mutual
clinging of male and female. Dissenters will have to pay for and personally participate in surgeries
that will mutilate men and women's powers of procreation. I fear that not one member of the United
States Senate--even the supposedly "strong" or "tough" or "courageous," whether cheerleader or
booleaders for Trump--will speak out against the violence to truth, liberty, and the great gift of
fatherhood and motherhood?
Will any member of the United States Senate step up?
I no longer argue such points of view that persons like Prof. Upham here espouses. He
obviously believes, with religious conviction, in what he is saying. I write to ask the Trustees,
the Faculty Senate, the President, and Provost to consider the judgment, character, and
fitness of Prof. Upham in his publicly posting these remarks which he has since scrubbed
from his Facebook page.
Dr. Upham teaches courses on Constitutional Law and Civil Rights, as well as advising UD’s
pre-law students. Given a time period when, two weeks ago, insurrectionists stormed the
U.S. Capitol at the urging of President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, Jr., Steve
Bannon, and other public figures, one might think it prudent to scrutinize one’s remarks as
to their potential to incite hatred and violence.
Prof. Upham, of course, is entitled to free speech. Yet, he possesses a bully pulpit financed
and abetted by UD’s continued employment of him. He teaches young, impressionable
minds. If he feels so free in the currently violent political atmosphere to publicly post such
statements, we can barely imagine what he feels free to say in the classroom or to advisees.
His public post (on Facebook and at UD) is disconcerting because, in 2020 alone, 44 trans
persons (mostly persons of color) were savagely murdered for being who they are. In
1
Point of Fact: Dr. Rachel Levine has been appointed Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and
Human Services.
addition, trans persons are 41 percent more likely to commit suicide in the face of hatred
espoused against them by comments similar to Upham’s. Dr. Upham’s mischaracterization
of trans persons flies in the face of established medical science, psychological science, and
public consensus on the trans experience.2 As such, his inflammatory descriptions of trans
persons only promotes prejudice against, misconceptions about, and violence upon us.
Prof. Upham is free to practice his deeply felt religious convictions. Please know that I
personally do not wish to be in his presence online, in-person, or otherwise, let alone “force”
him to do anything other than to stop inciting hatred of my existence. I pose no threat to his
ability to think as he wishes, nor am I wanting to “force” him or any of his mindset to
“participate in” what he believes to be a falsehood.
But just because he believes something to be a falsehood doesn’t make it so (as President
Trump’s denial of the 2020 Presidential Election results shows). In the wake of President
Trump’s purveyance of a lie, five people are now dead, our democracy shaken, and our
history scarred with an attempted overthrow of the rule of law. One can believe something a
falsehood. Believing so doesn’t make it so. Further, publicly insisting that it’s a falsehood is
2
The following articles and studies back up this claim:
Julia Serano. “Transgender People and ‘Biological Sex’ Myths.”
https://juliaserano.medium.com/transgender-people-and-biological-sex-myths-c2a9bcdb4f4a. Medium.com. 17 Jul
2017. Accessed 12 Dec 2020.
Denise Grady. “Anatomy Does Not Determine Gender, Experts Say.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/health/transgender-trump-biology.html. The New York Times. 22 Oct 2018.
Accessed 12 Dec 2020.
Gender Spectrum. “Understanding Gender.” https://www.genderspectrum.org/articles/understanding-gender.
Accessed 12 Dec 2020.
Simón(e) D. Sun. “Stop Using Phoney Science to Justify Transphobia.”
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/stop-using-phony-science-to-justify-transphobia/?fbclid=IwAR1jCPGEtb
Si8fnrfHrAacxBn5GDZGqbMJ1js9oWSOEaTB3tkrRqlyxHJb4. Scientific American. 12 Jun 2019. Accessed 12 Dec 2020.
Katherine J. Wu. “Between (Gender) Lines: the Science of Transgender Identity.”
http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/gender-lines-science-transgender-identity/. SITN: Science in the News. Harvard
University: The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. 25 Oct. 2016. Accessed 12 Dec 2020. Here are three of the NIH
studies on which the Harvard Blog is based:
· https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27255307
· https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21467211
· https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19341803
The upshot of these and other studies is that trans individuals’ brains are aligned to the gender with which they identify,
and not to the shape of their genitalia or arrangement of their chromosomes. Biological sex is not just XX/XY
chromosomes.[i] Gender is not what we have between our legs.
Sara C. “The XX & XY Lie: Our Social Construction of a Sex and Gender Binary.”
https://medium.com/@QSE/the-xx-xy-lie-our-social-construction-of-a-sex-and-gender-binary-4eed1e60e615.
Medium.com. 20 Oct 2017. Accessed 14 Dec 2020.
Prof. Dick F. Swaab. “Sexual Differentiation of the Brain and Behavior.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1521690X07000334. ScienceDirect.com. Elsevier: Best Practice
& Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Vol 21, Issue 3. Sept 2007. Accessed 12 Dec 2020.
so much screaming “Fire!” in a crowded theater, where there is none. In light of recent
events, such behavior harms others, “forcing” them to death or to suffer others’ attempted
tyranny.
Is this the kind of behavior and person UD wants to place in front of children growing into
young adults?
Moreover, why is the existence of persons with variant approaches to their gender and
gender presentation something of such immediacy to Prof. Upham that he goes out of his
way to encourage mockery, revilement, and hatred of them? “Perfect love casteth out all
fear,” says John’s epistle. How does someone with Prof. Upham’s unassailable pulpit fear the
appointment of a trans woman to Assistant Secretary of HHS? Why even bring it up?
Prof. Upham’s is an unreasoning hatred that flies in the face of a University that promotes
the pursuit of Truth. I (and the undersigned) therefore ask the Bishop Chancellor, Board of
Trustees, the Faculty Senate, the President, and the Provost to remove Prof. Upham from a
position in which he feels free to broadcast such hatred that hardly reflects the love of Christ
or the mission of the University of Dallas. Given the presence of Prof. Upham on campus, I
today cannot say I would entrust my children to UD’s care or curriculum. That material was
once taught to me as sacred and worth conforming my life to, without taint of fear and petty
hatred. Yet, now it is in the hands of those who would rip, tear, and sully it.
Reassure our faith in the Western intellectual and theological tradition by providing no haven
or pulpit for those espousing hate out of fear of difference. Be a beacon of Truth, Beauty,
and, most of all, Love.
Bethany A. Beeler
(Class of 1985)
bethanyabeeler@gmail.com
Bethanybeeler.com
And 66 undersigned