In late November 2025, University of Oklahoma student Samantha Fulnecky, 20, accused professor Mel Curth, who has now been fired, of religious discrimination. Fulnecky received a failing grade on an assignment in her psychology class, in which students were asked to write a 650-word response to a study examining whether conformity to societal gender norms was associated with popularity or bullying among students in middle school. 

Within her essay, Fulnecky cited the Bible in order to argue that the “belief in multiple genders” is “demonic.” Fulnecky stated that she disagreed with the notion applied in the article that enforcing gender norms through teasing was unacceptable, writing that she did “not necessarily see this as a problem.” Fulnecky continued to explain that God made women to be a “helper” to a man because “God [said] that it is not good for man to be alone.” 

Fulnecky also expressed her frustration with the article’s assertion that the encouragement and acceptance of diverse gender expressions could improve students’ confidence. Fulnecky stated that society “pushing the lie that there are multiple genders” and that everyone “should be whatever they want to be” is demonic and “severely harms American youth.”

Though the assignment was meant to be worth 3% of Fulnecky’s final grade in the class, the university voided the grade entirely due to her complaints. The school board publicly stated that they do not support any religious discrimination to any degree and take Fulnecky’s word very seriously. 

The professor, Mel Curth, was placed on leave by the university in November. It’s important, in this case, to note that Curth identifies as transgender and uses she/they pronouns. This aspect of Curth’s identity is a key point as to why the university felt that her grading of Fulnecky’s essay was rooted in religious discrimination — that supposedly her part in the LGBTQ+ community might lead her to hold prejudice against Fulnecky for being of Christian faith. 

It’s also important to note the objective quality of Fulnecky’s essay. Fulnecky didn’t follow the rubric, follow the prompt, cite the article, or even cite her quotes from the Bible. Furthermore, Fulnecky used the Bible, a sacred text that many Americans live by, as a way to support her own hatred. She used the Bible to express her frustration with children and teenagers living their lives the way they want to, expressing their identities and truly just being themselves.

Any objective observer might realize that Fulnecky’s essay was poorly written and did not follow the rubric, which is the reason why Curth gave her a failing grade for the assignment. The University of Oklahoma seemed to dismiss this fact, solely basing its decisions off of the half-truth that Fulnecky wrote about the Bible and a transgender professor failed her for it.

Curth graded Fulnecky’s essay based on the rubric she shared with the students, a rubric that Fulnecky did not adhere to. All that follows simply appears to be faulty decision-making by a university favoring the student and denigrating the respect of its transgender faculty.