1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to recognize and oppose the coordinated campaign targeting transgender people in public employment, particularly in education. This is not a grassroots movement responding to legitimate concerns. It is a well-funded industry designed to make trans people unemployable in public-facing roles. The case of Mel Curth at the University of Oklahoma illustrates this pattern clearly. Curth, a graduate instructor who had recently received an Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, gave a student a zero for failing to complete an assignment. The student, Samantha Fulnecky, was asked to write a 650-word reaction paper to an article about gender typicality. Instead, she mentioned the article once and delivered a sermon calling the idea of multiple genders demonic and her classmates cowardly. Another instructor independently agreed with the grade. Yet conservative media manufactured this into a religious persecution story, and the university placed Curth on administrative leave. The true agenda became clear when Fulnecky's mother, Kristi Fulnecky, retweeted posts calling for trans people to be banned from teaching entirely, replying "Agreed! Proud of my daughter!" This was never about one grade. It was about removing a trans person from their position. This campaign has infrastructure and funding. Riley Gaines earned over $126,000 in five months through her center funded by the Charles Koch Foundation and the Dick & Betsy DeVos Family Foundation. The Independent Council on Women's Sports grew from $100,000 in revenue in 2022 to over $1 million by 2024. These organizations use accounts like Libs of TikTok as targeting systems, leading to bomb threats, resignations, and death threats. Oklahoma has become a laboratory for this agenda under Governor Kevin Stitt, who has signed bills restricting bathroom access and banning gender-affirming care. Sixteen-year-old Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student, died by suicide one day after being beaten in a school bathroom. I urge you to publicly oppose employment discrimination against trans people and to support legislation protecting them from coordinated harassment campaigns. Our constituents deserve workplaces free from manufactured controversies designed to purge qualified professionals based on their identity.