(LifeSiteNews) — A recent graduate of a university in Mexico is facing the potential loss of his psychology degree and license to practice after defending the truth about family and gender in his valedictorian speech.
Christian Cortez Pérez graduated from the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) School of Medicine and Psychology in June. Following a speech in which he opposed radical gender ideology and the “redefinition of the family,” the university formally acted to ban him from practicing psychology post-graduation. Pérez is awaiting the final decision.
“I exercised my fundamental right to free speech to address my classmates about what I believe are the most pressing issues of our time,” Pérez said, according to Alliance Defending Freedom International. “Now, I stand to lose my entire professional career because I expressed views with which some students and faculty disagree. Public universities must respect the free speech rights of all students, and I am committed to obtaining justice not just for myself, but for all Mexicans interested in preserving the right to freely express themselves.”
The commencement speech, given by Pérez in Spanish on June 27, encouraged his peers to reject woke ideologies on family and gender.
“Today we are deep into a real anthropological struggle to redefine the human being, the human person, man, through the implementation of ideologies and fashions of thought that always end up undermining dignity and freedom.”
UPDATE (26th January 2023):
Enoch Burke is facing severe fines of €5000 per week if he backs down in his stand for the truth about gender ideology.
SIGN: We stand with this brave Christian in his defense of the truth
Burke is facing a daily fine of €700 if he does not obey a court order barring him from attending the school he was fired from.
Having spent 108 days in jail last year for his refusal to abide by the court order, he was officially fired last week by the Church of Ireland (Anglican) Wilson’s Hospital School in Co. Westmeath, Ireland.
Responding to High Court Justice Brian O’Moore’s decision to fine the teacher €700 per day from Friday unless purges his contempt of the court order, Burke told reporters that the judge “wants to fine me for the profession of my religious beliefs.”
“What has become of us as a nation, to fine somebody for their religious beliefs?,” Burke asked. “We’re at a time in this country where people are at their wit’s end, with the cost of everything as we know...and Brian O’Moore, a judge of the High Court, has sat down and said to himself that not only will you have to pay for all those things, but you now have to pay for your religious belief.”
“He’ll make you a pauper for the profession of your religious belief,” Burke added.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TODAY
The teacher declined to answer questions on whether he would continue to attend the school and face significant fines, or purge his contempt of court.
An Evangelical Christian who taught German, history and politics at the school for four years, Burke has consistently maintained that to use transgender pronouns would violate his religious beliefs and that his subsequent suspension by the school, and the court orders against him, were therefore unjust.
Jailed on September 5, 2022, Mr. Justice Brian O’Moore released Burke on December 21st, despite the teacher’s unwillingness to purge his contempt of the court order barring him from the school’s property.
Mr. Justice O’Moore said today that he hoped the prospect of paying almost €5000 in fines every week would “end his (Burke’s) utterly pointless attendance at a school which does not want him on its property”.
The judge warned however that the fines could be increased if they do not have the desired effect.
Burke was fired by the school last Friday and has shown up at the school grounds for work each day this week, despite being arrested and released on Tuesday.
He has until 2pm GMT on Friday to officially purge his contempt before the court or the €700 daily fines will begin to be applied.
Mr. Justice O’Moore admitted today that it was not “immediately attractive” to jail the Christian conscientious objector again as he theorized that Burke had exploited media attention surrounding his imprisonment last year for his own ends, while the judge also considered the schools suggestion to sequester the teacher’s assets to be futile.
Prior to his imprisonment, Burke told the High Court that “transgenderism is against my Christian belief.”
“It is contrary to the Scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and of my school,” the teacher added. “I love my school, with its motto Res Non Verba, actions not words, but I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl.”
“It is insanity that I will be led from this courtroom to a place of incarceration, but I will not give up my Christian beliefs,” he insisted.
Burke also promised Mr. Justice Max Barrett on September 7th that he would “never leave Mountjoy Prison if in leaving that prison I must violate my well-informed conscience and my religious beliefs and deny my God. I consider it commendable that I chose to obey God rather than man.”
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Irish teacher Enoch Burke has been arrested and jailed after refusing to use a transgender student's preferred pronoun, "they", in the classroom.
This insane step by Irish authorities must be called out for what it is: the unhinged intimidation of an educator by demented ideologues.
Please add your name to our urgent message to the High Court today.
SIGN: Enoch Burke must be freed immediately as an educator who upheld the truth
Burke was suspended by his school for refusing to use the transgender pronouns of a student, even confronting his principal about the irrationality of the situation, and defying a subsequent court injunction barring him from performing his teaching duties.
He is now in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin after being brought before a judge on 5 September who found Burke to be in contempt of the injunction by attending work after his suspension.
Burke, who told the High Court “I am here today because I would not call a boy a girl”, made clear that he would not abide by the injunction because it would violate his conscience as a Christian.
“Were I to obey the order of the board of management and the order of the court, I would have to accept that sticking by my belief in male and female is wrong,” he said. “It is not something I will do. It is in violation of my conscience."
“Were I to go into the school and bow to something I know to be manifestly wrong, it would be a shame and a disgrace on my part,” he added.
You can identify as a parrot if want but why should people like Enoch Burke be forced to play along with it?
— IrishConservative (@RealIrishCONS) September 2, 2022
This defiant attitude has now prompted Burke's arrest and imprisonment in an Orwellian debacle that should send warning signals to the watching world.
Mr. Justice Burke ordered Burke be "committed to Mountjoy Prison and remain therein until he purges his contempt or until further order of this court.”
Defending himself, Burke replied: “I cannot purge my contempt by holding my Christian beliefs in contempt."
Burke hugged his father and brother before being taken away by Gardaí to Mountjoy Prison.
Please share this petition with as many people as possible - it's clear that leftists will not tolerate dissent on this absurd issue unless we all push back.
SIGN: Enoch Burke must be freed immediately as an educator who upheld the truth
Thank you.
MORE INFORMATION:
Irish teacher jailed after refusing to use transgender pronouns - LifeSiteNews
“To attack life and the family is to self-destruct,” he added. “It is an attack on civilization itself.” Pérez continued to quote G.K. Chesterton on this issue, saying, “People do not know what they are doing because they do not know what they are undoing.”
During the speech, students and faculty protested aloud and some even left the room. Following the graduation ceremony, Pérez “has been the subject of a silencing and sanctioning campaign initiated by the school’s professors,” according to ADF International.
The faith-based legal group, which is supporting Pérez in his battle, explained that professors joined forces and issued “a ‘manifesto’ calling on the university to sanction Christian’s so-called ‘hate speech’.’”
According to the ADF International case summary, the professors’ demands include “withholding his academic degree and professional license, withdrawing his merit award, and alerting psychology associations across Mexico regarding his actions.” Pérez “was informed on August 4 that the university has initiated proceedings against him and has submitted a counterclaim to protect his rightful interests.”
“Students and professors all over the world find themselves subject to censorship campaigns, often accompanied by legal proceedings, which threaten severe harm to both their reputations and careers,” the ADF stated.
A professor from the University of Louisville was fired for a speech about gender dysphoria, leading to a 2019 lawsuit filed by ADF on Dr. Alan Josephson’s behalf. The legal battle is ongoing.
In June 2022, a five-year litigation between a student and the Georgia university he attended was settled, siding with the student whose proclamation of the Gospel was illegally censored by the school.
“Public universities must respect the free speech rights of all students, and I am committed to obtaining justice not just for myself, but for all Mexicans interested in preserving the right to freely express themselves,” Pérez said. “To be clear, I recognize that some may not agree with the content of my speech, but that’s what free speech is all about. Everyone should be able to peacefully share their views at university, without fear of punishment or retaliation.”
The university’s decision is expected to be released on September 18.
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