A former Northwestern University staff member is suing the school, alleging he was fired and banned from campus in retaliation for opposing new restrictions on LGBTQ+ resources.
Matthew Abtahi, the former director of the university’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC), filed the lawsuit July 17 in Cook County Circuit Court, accusing Northwestern of violating the Illinois Human Rights Act and the Illinois Whistleblower Act after Abtahi resisted university directives to remove LGBTQ+-affirming resources from the GSRC website.
These resources included references to the Trevor Project, Trans Lifeline and information on gender-affirming care.
The GSRC is a long-standing campus hub for LGBTQ+ students that provides health resources, community support and education around gender and sexuality. According to Abtahi’s complaint, the university started scaling back the center’s digital presence and program scope in early 2025, citing legal risk associated with promoting resources not deemed “inclusive of all.”
The lawsuit details how Abtahi was suspended on April 18, four days after he sent an internal email to staff outlining his concerns about the university’s removal of resources and its potential impact on LGBTQ+ students.
At the time, Abtahi was scheduled to transition to a new position as senior associate director of alumni engagement, but that offer was rescinded. He was fired days later and then banned from Northwestern’s campus, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit alleges that Abtahi’s firing and subsequent ban from campus were direct acts of retaliation for refusing to comply with these changes.
In his internal email to staff, Abtahi detailed conversations with Northwestern’s legal counsel and outside attorneys, who instructed him to remove numerous LGBTQ+-focused resources from the GSRC website. They argued that links to services like the Trevor Project and Trans Lifeline posed a legal risk because they could be viewed as “exclusionary” for not serving the general public.
The same reasoning was used to justify removing information about chest-binding, all-gender bathrooms and gender-affirming care, Abtahi said.
“[The] use of civil rights law and discrimination policy to advance these kinds of changes is alarming,” Abtahi wrote in his email.
The complaint includes ten counts, including unlawful retaliation, wrongful termination and retaliatory discharge. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorney’s fees and an injunction lifting Abtahi’s campus ban.
A Northwestern University spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit, stating the school does not comment on pending litigation.
Jerry Bramwell, the attorney representing Abtahi, told Windy City Times his firm is “always disappointed when we are forced into a litigation posture, but the courts provide a wonderful forum to resolve these sorts of disputes, and we are looking forward to resolving this dispute in that forum as efficiently and expeditiously as possible.”