Indiana Professor Claims She Was Denied Tenure For Being Gay

Professor Claims She Was Denied Tenure For Being Gay

A professor at Indiana University Northwest filed federal complaints this week claiming she was denied tenure, resulting in her termination, for being openly gay.

Anne Balay, an assistant professor in IUN's English department, filed the complaints through her attorneys Sunday with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Council.

Balay's complaints state that colleagues who are heterosexual and male were treated more favorably, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana.

A university spokesperson told The Huffington Post the administration had no comment. They declined to say whether the university has attempted any mediation in response to the complaint.

Balay presented her case to a review board Wednesday, where she explained that her department chair and dean rejected two different unanimous recommendations to offer tenure and a promotion to her, according to the Indiana Daily Student. Balay, an IUN faculty member for eight years, applied for the promotion in the fall 2012 semester and was notified of her rejection this spring.

Indiana law does not protect members of the LGBT community from employment discrimination, Windy City Times notes, but the federal rules prevent colleges from bias based on sexual orientation.

Balay said there was a minority of students who complained because she is a lesbian and a feminist.

"When you're in a targeted minority and people are angry, that's where they go," Balay told the Windy City Times. "So students will say 'all she does is talk about sexuality.' That's not true. I talk about sexuality as much as anybody else. ... If you've never had an out professor before, and a professor says that they're a lesbian, you hear nothing else all semester. Those are the only words that you retain."

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