NEW YORK – When Ms Raegan Zelaya and Mr Shua Wilmot decided to include their pronouns at the end of their work e-mails, they thought they were doing a good thing: following what they viewed as an emerging professional standard and also sending a message of inclusivity at the Christian university where they worked.

But their bosses at Houghton University, in upstate New York, saw the matter very differently.

Administrators at Houghton, which was founded and is now owned by a conservative branch of the Methodist Church, asked the two residence hall directors to remove the words “she/her” and “he/him” from their e-mail signatures, saying they violated a new policy.

When they refused to do so, both were fired, just weeks before the end of the semester.

Houghton’s action has dismayed some alumni, nearly 600 of whom signed a petition in protest. And it comes as gender and sexuality have become major fault lines in an increasingly divided nation and after other faith-based organisations, including Yeshiva University in Manhattan, New York, have argued that First Amendment protections of religious freedom allow them to treat gay and transgender people differently than others.

As Republican lawmakers across the country have sought to energise their base by passing laws restricting gender-transition healthcare and banning drag performances and classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, Christian colleges have become staging grounds in these escalating debates.

In particular, institutions like Hillsdale College in Michigan and Liberty University in Virginia have taken central roles, both producing and attracting leaders of the movement.

With fewer than 1,000 students, Houghton is smaller and off the beaten track, but it has made other recent moves that put it in line with its conservative Christian peers.

Since 2021, it has closed a multicultural student centre and an environmental sustainability programme. It rescinded its recognition of an on-campus LGBTQ club after the latter declined to promote more conservative views on sex and gender.

“I think it boils down to: They want to be trans-exclusive, and they want to communicate that to potential students and the parents of potential students,” Mr Wilmot said of his firing.

Ms Zelaya and Mr Wilmot, neither of whom is transgender, said they had professional and pastoral reasons for including their pronouns but also a practical one.

They both have uncommon, gender-neutral names and said they have often been misgendered in e-mail correspondence.

“There’s the professional piece to it and the practical piece, and there’s also an inclusive piece, and I think that’s the piece this institution doesn’t want,” Mr Wilmot, 29, said.

Mr Michael Blankenship, a university spokesman, said Houghton “has never terminated an employment relationship based solely on the use of pronouns in staff e-mail signatures”.

“Over the past years, we’ve required anything extraneous be removed from e-mail signatures, including Scripture quotes,” he added.

In Ms Zelaya’s termination letter, a photo of which was widely shared online, she was told she was fired “as a result of your refusal to remove pronouns in your e-mail signature” as well as for criticising an administration decision linked to the student newspaper.

Houghton University is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church, which teaches that “gender confusion and dysphoria are ultimately the biological, psychological, social and spiritual consequences of the human race’s fallen condition”. It views “adult gender non-conformity as a violation of the sanctity of human life”.

The university maintains a public declaration of its beliefs, describing itself as “solidly Biblical” and saying the teachings of the Wesleyan Church are “central everywhere” on campus.

“Sometimes, this means affirming positions currently called conservative,” Houghton’s statement of belief says. “For example, we privilege the understanding of marriage as between a man and a woman, and the sanctity of life from conception to natural death.”

But Houghton’s statement of belief also expresses some positions that conservatives might disagree with, including an acceptance of women into the priesthood and the belief “that we have significant work to do in healing the scars of racism in America”.

Some alumni said open debate and respect for differing views were what they valued about their time at Houghton. Almost 600 signed an open letter at the end of April protesting the termination of Ms Zelaya and Mr Wilmot, as well as other recent university decisions.

“Our overall concern is that these recent changes demonstrate a concerning pattern of failure on the part of the current administration to respect that faithful and active Christians reasonably hold a range of theological and ethical views,” the letter said.

Earlier this month, the university president, Mr Wayne Lewis Jr, replied to the letter. He said many of the decisions it mentioned, including the closure of the multicultural centre and the sustainability programme, had been budgetary moves meant to combat financial challenges brought about by “many years of enrolment and revenue decline and a significant structural budget deficit”.

And while he did not address the firing of Ms Zelaya and Mr Wilmot, he did reaffirm the university’s commitment to the teachings of the Wesleyan Church.

“Houghton unapologetically privileges an orthodox Christian worldview, rooted in the Wesleyan theological tradition,” he wrote. He also noted that university employees were required to reaffirm their “understanding of and agreement to these commitments” at the start of each year. NYTIMES