Dustin Jones, a former Greensboro Fire captain, appealed to the City Manager Tai Jaiyoba about his dismissal. His appeal was denied.
The denial of Jones’ appeal by Jaiyeoba is a good indication of why the state House voted to establish a Civil Service Review Board for Greensboro to give employees another option to appeal employment actions such as termination.
You would expect the letter from Jaiyeoba confirming Jones’ termination. Jones was fired for continuing to express his conservative political views in his Facebook page despite being warned by his superiors to do so.
According to the letter the termination of Jones was due solely to his social media postings. Only one of those had to do with work and, that was posting photos Jones took of a “structure fire” and posted to his “social media platform” in 2021.
The letter states that Jones received warnings and counseling regarding his Facebook posts, but he continued to post his opinions, even when they were in conflict with the political views expressed by city leaders.
The City of Greensboro does not deny the right of freedom of expression to American citizens who accept employment.
The First Amendment acknowledges that people are entitled to express their views, even if those views are out of the mainstream or, as in this instance, contradictory to the administration.
Jaiyeoba cites Jones’ posting memes to his Facebook page, which indicated that he didn’t believe that a male born could become female.
This is in keeping with the beliefs expressed by the North Carolina Republican state House members in voting for House Bill 574, “The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” and in direct opposition to the views expressed by the Democratic House members voting against the bill.
The NC House approved HB 574. All 73 Republicans voted for it and 39 Democrats voted against. One Democrat voted in favor of the Republican majority.
The bill states that in middle school, high school and community college, only females may participate on women’s or girls’ teams. The bill states, “For the purposes of this sub-subdivision, a student’s sex shall be recognized based solely on the student’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
In other words, someone who was born male cannot become a woman and participate in women’s sports regardless of surgery or hormone treatment.
If in fact, a male can become a female then it stands to reason that they should be able to participate on women’s and girls’ teams.
This is an issue that is hotly debated across the country. States with Republican-controlled legislatures pass bills similar to HB574. Texas recently became the 19th State to ban gender affirming surgery and medication for children under 18. States with Democratic legislatures are establishing laws that allow biological males to participate in women’s or girls’ sports if they identify as women.
This is a highly contested issue, with the votes generally following along party lines.
The NC state House vote is indicative of how far apart the two major political parties are in this country on this issue.
Eight of the nine Greensboro City Council members are Democrats. Mayor Nancy Vaughan is the former executive director of the Guilford Green Foundation, which according to its website is an organization to “advance LGBTQ persons and issues.”
Jaiyeoba claims that Jones was advised to keep his opinions on this highly contested political topic, which run contrary to the views of Greensboro’s leadership, to himself. According to the city manager’s letter, Jones refused to do so and therefore his termination was justified.