Miss Fulnecky’s powerful essay and the assignment rubric provided to graduate assistant Mel Curth which He gave zero Marks for quoting the Bible

COMMENTS ON THE FULNECKY ESSAY

I’ve reviewed this situation closely — including both Miss Fulnecky’s essay and the assignment rubric provided by graduate assistant Mel Curth. My initial reaction is concern: an openly transgender graduate assistant was assigning and grading an essay that appeared to promote a particular ideological viewpoint. That doesn’t strike me as an objective academic exercise, and it’s not surprising a student responded the way she did. What’s ironic is that Miss Fulnecky’s position is actually more aligned with established science than the professor’s assignment might suggest. Traditional views of gender are reflected in the Bible and other religious texts, but they do not rely on them. Biologically, gender is grounded in anatomy, and the data overwhelmingly reflects a binary reality. The modern claim of non-binary gender is, at its core, an anthropological redefinition—shifting the basis of gender from physical characteristics to personal identity. But grounding gender in identity creates contradictions: it is said to be both innate and immutable, yet also fluid. And when physical attributes are excluded, the definition becomes circular with no clear external reference point. It’s also unclear how this assignment would have been graded had the student disagreed with the article on scientific grounds. Students were encouraged to offer “thoughtful reactions,” but does the professor’s own worldview create a climate where disagreement risks a lower grade? And does publicly defending the assignment and grading reinforce that fear? The central issue behind the claim of religious bias is simple: the grade appears to have been based on the student’s viewpoint rather than the quality of her writing. Claims that this is about educational rigor are a red herring. Perhaps the essay wasn’t journal-ready science, but a zero? Would any of Miss Fulnecky’s critics hesitate to allege bias if a cisgender, traditionally minded professor gave a transgender student a zero on an essay about gender, regardless of writing quality? I doubt it. At the end of the day, this is a deeply personal and controversial topic. Unless professors approach it with balance and genuine pluralism, assignments like this probably don’t belong in our public institutions.