HRC Blog

Post submitted by Mitchell Scuzzarella, HRC Digital Media Intern 

Professor Adam Ackley of Azusa Pacific University says that coming out as transgender may soon cost him his job. Ackley has been a professor of systematic theology at the private Christian college for 15 years, and recently told the university of his plans to pursue a legal name change and live openly as a transgender man.

According to Ackley, the university is concerned about whether his transition will become a distraction in the classroom that would affect admissions and donations to the university in the coming years. Ackley says that despite years of service, the school is forcing him out.

In a statement released by Azusa Pacific, the school says that it was speaking with Ackley to “treat all parties with dignity and respect while upholding the values of the university.”

Ackley, who is in his third year of a five-year contract, currently has agreed to leave the university and continue receiving pay through the academic year. Some of the university students, who Ackley says were sad to hear he may be replaced, have formed an online petition to change the university’s policy to protect transgender students and faculty.