RIVERSIDE, Calif. (BP) — California Baptist University is engaged in a legal battle against a transgender former student who is charging expulsion because of discrimination based on gender identity.
Former nursing student Domaine Javier, a male who identifies as female, charges he was kicked out of the Baptist school because he revealed on an episode of MTV’S “True Life” reality show, that he is biologically male, the Press-Enterprise reported. The school counters Javier was expelled for falsely claiming on his application that he is female.
A lawsuit Javier filed after the August 2011 expulsion has survived the university’s attempt to have the case dismissed. The university says that as a private, religious institution, it is not bound by a state law barring discrimination based on gender identity.
Judge Matthew C. Perantoni ruled May 7 that the case can move forward, opting to rule on the civil-rights claim at a later hearing, the Press-Enterprise reported.
Javier had received a $3,500 scholarship to the school that is three blocks from his Riverside home, but is now attending Riverside City College. The student reportedly immigrated to California from the Philippines eight years ago.
U.S. News and World Report ranked Cal Baptist among the top regional universities in 2013. The school boasts on its website that it has more than 6,000 students and a 100 percent Christian faculty and staff offering 150 undergraduate and 33 graduate majors and concentrations.
Transgender refers to people who claim a gender identity different from their biological sex.
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Compiled by Baptist Press staff writer Diana Chandler. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).
