Students at the University of Southern Maine are demanding that a professor be fired after she allegedly said there are only two sexes. According to TheBlaze, Christy Hammer is an associate professor of education at the University of Southern Maine.
Hammer – who earned her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of New Hampshire – teaches the “Creating Positive Learning Environments.” The course is required to be completed for the graduate-level Extended Teacher Education Program and is necessary to become a certified teacher in Maine. The course is intended to prepare college students for teaching K-12 pupils.
The course “emphasizes creating, building, and sustaining a positive classroom environment as a foundation for learning.” During Hammer’s class on Sept. 7, the atmosphere allegedly became explosive after the professor said there were only two sexes, according to students.
“During the session at Bailey Hall on the Gorham campus, a free-for-all discussion erupted over both social gender and biological sex identifications, with one student and Hammer saying they believed only male and female biological sexes exist,” the Bangor Daily News reported. “The rest of the class maintained both biological sexes and social genders are on a spectrum.”
Others attending the class say most agreed that a spectrum exists for both gender and biological sex. The point was first made during class on September 7, but was repeated a week later after student Elizabeth Leibiger, who is non-binary and was absent the previous week, brought up the topic again.
She then said she felt ‘under personal attack’ after the professor again said only two sexes exist. ‘I asked [Hammer] how many sexes there were,’ Leibiger said. ‘She said, ‘Two.’ I felt under personal attack.’ Biologically, there are only two sexes. Men have XY chromosomes, while women have XX chromosomes. Progressives say gender can have a broader spectrum than sex.
But anti-woke campaigners warn that the fixation on denying the biological reality that only two sexes exist is absurd, and potentially puts people’s health at risk. Almost the entire class of 22 students walked out, all except one demanding a meeting to be held with the university’s School of Education and Human Development.
‘I let her know I didn’t think she was qualified to teach a class about positive learning environments. It’s the ultimate irony,’ Leibiger said to Fox News. A restorative justice meeting was held, but Professor Hammer’s position didn’t change.
Two dozen graduate students in the class continued to demand that the university replace Hammer, believing her to be transphobic. Students are now refusing to return to the classroom in which she teaches and will only attend class if a new educator be appointed. The class is a requirement to complete the graduate-level Extended Teacher Education Program and become a certified teacher in Maine.
