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A Bold Bluegrass Initiative. Kentucky’s HB 4 will restore meritocracy at public universities.
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | August 13, 2025 | Gary W. Houchens and Aaron Roberts

Posted on 08/18/2025 10:17:05 AM PDT by karpov

Kentucky’s recent passage of House Bill 4, which eliminates “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs at public universities and colleges, represents a crucial step toward restoring meritocracy, academic freedom, and intellectual diversity to higher education in the Bluegrass State.

The bill was passed in the 2025 legislative session over the veto of Democratic governor Andy Beshear, who predictably claimed that its supporters were motivated by “hate.” In fact, HB 4 provides a necessary corrective to years of institutional overreach that has discriminated against students, stifled open inquiry, and punished dissenting voices on campus.

The case of Dr. Allan Josephson exemplifies this troubling trend in Kentucky. Josephson, a nationally recognized child-and-adolescent psychologist, was fired by the University of Louisville in 2017 after speaking in a personal capacity at a Heritage Foundation panel on treatment approaches for gender dysphoria.

Josephson sued the university for violating his First Amendment rights, and the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ordered the university to pay him $1.6 million in damages.

U of L’s treatment of Josephson reveals the extent to which DEI-driven ideological conformity had superseded academic freedom in Kentucky and elsewhere. Rather than engaging with his arguments on their merits, university administrators chose to silence him through demotion and harassment. This pattern of behavior—punishing faculty for expressing views that challenge prevailing orthodoxies—has become disturbingly common across American higher education.

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college; dei; education; hb4; kentucky

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1 posted on 08/18/2025 10:17:05 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

Oh no, that can’t be allowed.


2 posted on 08/18/2025 10:18:51 AM PDT by dljordan (The Rewards of Tolerance are Treachery and Betrayal)
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To: karpov

Passed over Beshear’s veto. So tired of him. He’s running for President. Pushes abortion as a way to climb the rat Party but always adds, oh, but I love Jesus! Weird, the attempt to reconcile liberal ideology with Christianity and the natural law. Ky needs a Republican Governor.


3 posted on 08/18/2025 10:36:32 AM PDT by MDLION ("Trust in the Lord with all your heart" -Proverbs 3:5)
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To: MDLION

Red state. what took so long?


4 posted on 08/18/2025 10:53:19 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: karpov

To those without merit, merit is hateful.


5 posted on 08/18/2025 11:21:46 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Finish the damned WALL! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH! )
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