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Student denies allegations he singled out transgender individual at Pace University ‘Save Women’s Sports’ panel

Pace University must stop investigating a law student over allegations of “aggressive” pointing and referring to a transgender student by his biological sex, according to a legal letter from a national free speech group.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told The College Fix it has yet to hear back in the past several weeks from the New York law school over the allegations against Houston Porter.

The controversy stems from a panel Porter and the Federalist Society hosted about men competing in women’s sports. Porter faces expulsion for the allegations.

“Pace has not responded to our letter,” Program Officer Jessie Appleby told The Fix via email in early December. The group also has not posted any further updates on the case in the past month.

The Title IX investigation into Porter comes after the Oct. 15 panel “erupted” in “pandemonium,” according to FIRE’s letter to Pace University.

“Attendees described a chaotic scene in which audience members—many of whom were wearing trans pride pins—jumped out of their seats, pointing and yelling at the panelists, and a professor allegedly rushed the stage,” the letter states.

Attendees were also escorted to their cars by security, according to the national free speech group.

Soon after, the university’s Title IX office opened a “sex-based harassment” investigation into Porter.

The university sent Porter a “Notice of Allegation” which said he “engaged in sex-based harassment” when he “aggressively pointed” at the student and “purposefully referred to her [a biological male] as a man.”

The school will use a single investigator and then Porter will appear before a “panel of Hearing Officers,” according to the letter. Possible sanctions include suspension, expulsion, or being banned from university facilities.

Porter has denied the allegations. “There was so much noise, multiple people talking at once, so maybe someone in the crowd heard me say ‘sir,’ or call some individual ‘a man’ when they don’t identify as that,” he told The Free Press. “But I didn’t say anything along those lines to the alleged person. I did say ‘excuse me’ to them and stood up, but I never made any gestures toward anyone.” The College Fix messaged the Pace Federalist Society Instagram page to try to get in touch with Porter but has not heard back in the past several days.

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But the allegations, even if true, would not be worthy of punishment, according to FIRE. Appleby, the group’s representative, told The Fix:

We do not possess factual evidence beyond what we detailed in the letter. But attendees have described the chaos that erupted at the event, and it is certainly plausible that a person’s words could have been easily misheard or misunderstood in that type of chaotic environment. But again, even if the allegations here were true, misgendering and aggressive pointing would still be protected expression. That means Pace may not investigate or punish a student even if he actually does engage in misgendering or aggressive pointing.

The university’s media relations team did not respond to two emailed requests for comments in the past several weeks on plans to respond to FIRE’s letter and for evidence in support of the allegations against Porter.

Though Pace is a private university, it “commit[s] in their policies to protect free expression cannot restrict or discipline speech simply because it concerns a sensitive topic or offends some listeners,” Appleby told The Fix. This includes a “speaker’s use of pronouns.”

While the school can “restrict discriminatory expression” when it is “actionable harassment” this is not the case here, according to Appleby.

The language “must be so severe, pervasive, and objectionably offensive that it deprives the victim of access to the educational opportunities and benefits the school offers,” according to Appleby.

“That is a very high bar. The allegations of misgendering and aggressive pointing made here fall far short of meeting that standard,” she said.

Porter, in his comments to The Free Press, criticized the allegations against him.

“It’s really scary that the future generation of lawyers who are supposed to hear both sides before they make a decision are basically convicting me without hearing my side of the story,” he told the news outlet. “It makes us all better lawyers when we understand what the other side is saying, even if we may disagree with them.

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