A Mississippi university interim band director and minister who came under fire for criticizing transgenderism while co-hosting a podcast will remain in his job.<\/p>\n
Steven Hugley was hired by Delta State University as its band director in June 2023, but in the weeks that followed a highlight reel of some of his most controversial comments while co-hosting the \u201cAlways Right\u201d podcast circulated and led some faculty to demand his immediate firing.<\/p>\n
However, the university\u2019s president confirmed in early August that Hugley would remain in his position.<\/p>\n
\u201cI acknowledge that this response, which does not include an announcement of a personnel action, will be viewed as insufficient by some and appropriate by others,\u201d DSU President Daniel Ennis reportedly<\/a> wrote in a campuswide email.<\/p>\n \u201cI would not be worthy of my office if I didn\u2019t accept that free expression at Delta State University means I am subject to your assessment and criticism.”<\/p>\n Ennis wrote, according<\/a> to Mississippi Today,<\/em> that the Constitution protects free speech and, in a separate email to marching band students, the university\u2019s \u201cguiding principles\u201d do not allow him to discipline an employee for private comments he made before he was hired.<\/p>\n Delta State University did not respond to The College Fix’s<\/em> request for comment. Hugley declined to comment when contacted by The College Fix. <\/em>He has also deleted the podcast episodes.<\/p>\n During one episode of the \u201cAlways Right\u201d podcast, Hugley remarked that he wished to \u201clock up\u201d parents and doctors involved in the gender transition of minors, Mississippi Today<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you do, not only are we gonna lock you up, we\u2019re also gonna lock up the doctor,\u201d Hugley said.<\/p>\n Hugley also made comments critical of internet personality Dylan Mulvaney and U.S. Assistant Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, referring to Levine as a \u201cdude.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, Hugley called transgenderism a \u201cfantasy,” the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m concerned about these people,\u201d Hugley said. \u201cI know that lying to them and feeding into their fantasy is not going to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n Backlash to Hugley\u2019s remarks began after Delta State library assistant Jonathan Szot, who uses “they\/them” pronouns, put together a series of clips from Hugley\u2019s podcast that was circulated.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine you\u2019re an 18-year-old band kid, probably one of the queerer groups in Mississippi \u2014 not to stereotype the whole group but a lot of band kids end up somewhere in that alphabet \u2014 and now you\u2019re going to college and you\u2019re like \u2018I\u2019m gonna be free for once\u2019 and you wind up with this,\u201d Szot told Mississippi Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Steven wants to govern his own life by those rules, fine by me. It doesn\u2019t affect me; it doesn\u2019t bother me,\u201d Szot added. \u201cBut he should not tell our students how they should behave, and based on his own podcast, I do not feel confident in his ability to separate his role as an educator in a university and as an evangelist.\u201d<\/p>\n In a meeting with marching band students in late July, Ennis said the podcast “preexisted this individual\u2019s hiring at Delta State so in other words, it was up before he was hired here, and now it\u2019s down, so that\u2019s different than if he put it up this week after he was appointed interim,\u201d Mississippi Today<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hugley is not the first university faculty member to come under fire from peers for alleged transphobic remarks.<\/p>\n In August 2021, a Harvard University lecturer was attacked by colleagues after criticizing medical schools for moving away from using \u201cmale\u201d and \u201cfemale,\u201d arguing this was a troubling trend.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can be caring and sensitive to the needs and identities of everyone, while also sticking to biological reality,\u201d Carole Hooven told<\/a> The College Fix<\/em> at the time. \u201cI will continue to speak out when I think it might have some positive effect on science education and, ultimately, human thriving.\u201d<\/p>\n In May, Professor David Richardson was suspended by Madera Community College and accused of transphobia after handing out Jeremy\u2019s Chocolates, sold by the Daily Wire<\/em>, at an open house event on campus.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t support DEI and CRT and even the transgender ideology, you\u2019ll be \u2018taken to the slaughterhouse.\u2019 And it seems like more and more of us are being led to the slaughterhouse than I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Richardson told<\/a> The Fix<\/em> in June.<\/p>\n