It's a small but significant step forward in fighting the woke tyranny that has taken over so many campuses.  A professor who stood up to a transgender bully and was punished by his public university, Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, sued, with support from the great organization Alliance Defending Freedom.  After his suit was dismissed over "lack of standing," he appealed, won the right to a trial, and then settled with the university for a sum sizable enough to change policy and warn other schools not to join the bullies.

Ashe Schow has the story in the Daily Wire:

Shawnee philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether refused to address a male student who identifies as female by the student's preferred pronouns, instead referring to the student as "sir," saying that his evangelical Christian beliefs were behind his actions.

"To accede to these demands would have required Dr. Meriwether to communicate views regarding gender identity that he does not hold, that he does not wish to communicate, and that would contradict (and force him to violate) his sincerely held Christian beliefs," Meriwether wrote in his lawsuit against the school after he was disciplined over the incident. The lawsuit also notes that Meriwether addresses students as "sir" or "Miss" to show respect[.]"

If at first you don't succeed...

In February 2020, a lower court dismissed Meriwether's lawsuit, writing "Plaintiff's refusal to address a student in class in accordance with the student's gender identity does not implicate broader societal concerns and the free speech clause of the First Amendment under the circumstances of this case."

...try, try again (at the appellate level):

But in March 2021, an appeals court revived Meriwether's lawsuit and allowed it to continue.

"A district court previously dismissed Meriwether's lawsuit for lack of standing. Friday's decision by a three-judge panel from the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals revives the lawsuit and sends it back to a lower court where Meriwether can make his argument that his First Amendment rights of free speech and religion and his 14th Amendment right to due process were violated," CNN reported at the time.

Meriwether and SSU have now settled the matter. Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Meriwether, released a statement saying that the university "agreed to pay $400,000 in damages and Meriwether's attorneys' fees. Additionally, considering the 6th Circuit's ruling, the university is rescinding the written warning it issued Meriwether in June 2018." Further, "the university has agreed that Meriwether has the right to choose when to use, or avoid using, titles or pronouns when referring to or addressing students. Significantly, the university agreed Meriwether will never be mandated to use pronouns, including if a student requests pronouns that conflict with his or her biological sex," ADF noted.

Perhaps the university was aware that an Ohio jury was not too sympathetic to another woke institution of higher education, Oberlin College, awarding 30-some million dollars to an aggrieved plaintiff, and decided to cut its losses.

Let's hope the precedent has a chilling effect on other colleges and universities inclined to woke bullying.