The city of Austin, Texas, fired a volunteer chaplain at the fire department after he said something that will always be true as long as humans exist: men don’t belong in women’s sports.
City officials fired Andrew K. Fox because he stated facts on his personal blog. Fox, who volunteered to fight fires for eight years, refused to apologize or recant his statements.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Fox’s legal counsel, filed a lawsuit against the city on his behalf in 2022. The Federalist reported that the parties have settled the lawsuit. The city will pay Fox $78,000.
The fire department’s chief sent Fox a letter commending his service. According to The Federalist, Fox won’t return to the fire department. An excerpt:
The ADF attorney added that while Fox has “moved on and started a church plant and is doing other things with his time now,” his “door is always open to firefighters in need of care.”
Hal Frampton, Fox’s ADF lawyer, said that the First Amendment’s rights “don’t stop the minute they step through the doors of the fire station. If we simply allow people to speak freely, that’s what America is all about, and everyone will be better off.”
Fox’s case is similar to that of Kelvin Cochran, who was a fire chief in Atlanta. On his own time, Cochran self-published a book about marriage that criticized homosexuality and other sins. He said he gave copies of his book to co-workers who asked for them. At the time, the city required employees to seek the city’s permission to publish books. Cochran said he obtained that permission.
Kasim Reed, mayor of Atlanta at the time, called Cochran’s actions insubordinate and suspended him for 30 days, eventually firing him. Cochran sued. A federal court upheld the termination but ruled the permission policy unconstitutional.
