Transgender woman wins $1M in discrimination case
A jury Monday awarded a transgender woman more than $1 million after finding Southeastern Oklahoma State University wrongfully denied her tenure.
The former English professor, Rachel Tudor, 54, alleged the school in Durant and the Regional University System of Oklahoma had violated her civil rights. She was terminated in 2011 and now lives in Plano, Texas.
The jury of six women and two men chose to award Tudor $1,165,000 in damages after a weeklong trial in Oklahoma City federal court.
The jury determined she had been denied tenure because of her gender.
“I want to thank the jury for being fair, impartial and deciding the case on its merits," Tudor said Monday.
A judge later will determine whether Tudor will be reinstated at the university.
Tudor's attorney, Ezra Young, said she was "punished because she was different."
"She is a different kind of woman. She's transgender," Young told the jury at the start of the trial. "It's not fair to punish someone because they're different."
Tudor claimed she was subjected to unfair rules related to where she could use the bathroom and what she was allowed to wear on campus.
The defendants contended there was no evidence of discrimination and Tudor was "crying wolf."
"Dr. Tudor simply did not want to earn her tenure," attorney Dixie Coffey told jurors during opening statements last week. Coffey denied comment Monday.
Jurors found the defendants discriminated against Tudor when she was denied tenure during the 2009-2010 application cycle and when she was denied the opportunity to reapply in the following cycle. The jury also found the defendants retaliated against Tudor by denying her the opportunity to reapply.
"Defendants treated Tudor differently than similarly situated nontransgender professors whom conformed to traditional gender stereotypes," according to the lawsuit.
Defendants also "took actions which indicated that they did not want Dr. Tudor to obtain tenure or promotion because of her gender identity," according to the lawsuit.
Jurors ruled in the university's favor on one claim, rejecting Tudor's complaint that she had been subjected to a hostile work environment.
Trial testimony
During the trial, Tudor testified the lawsuit was never about vengeance.
"It's about doing the right thing. It's about fairness and justice," she told jurors.
Tudor began working at the university in 2004 as a tenure-track assistant professor. In 2007, Tudor transitioned from male to female.
"I tried not to make a big deal of it. I just wanted to do my job," Tudor testified.
After the transition, human resources told her that she wouldn't be fired as long as she followed certain rules, Tudor testified.
“It was frightening. I had no idea I could lose my job just being who I am,” Tudor testified.
She was told not to use the women's restroom, not to wear short skirts and not to wear makeup that would be deemed harassing to male colleagues, she alleged. She had to use a single-occupant restroom, she testified.
"She pushed on and followed those rules daily," her attorney told the jury.
In 2009, the tenure committee voted in favor of giving Tudor tenure but administrators didn't follow the committee's decision, she testified.
The administrators told Tudor they wanted to give her more time to strengthen her tenure portfolio, the defendants contended.
“Nobody told her she would never get tenure. She was told she needed more time,” Coffey told the jurors.
Coffey said the administrators told Tudor to withdraw her application before denial so she wouldn't be barred from reapplying later. Tudor didn't withdraw her portfolio, was denied tenure and was later not allowed to reapply, according to testimony.
Since Tudor failed to attain tenure before the end of her seventh year, the university terminated her employmentin 2011.
The federal government initially filed the civil rights lawsuit, alleging the defendants subjected Tudor to unlawful sex discrimination. It has since settled, records show.