In what the plaintiff’s attorneys have dubbed “a major win for LGBTQ rights on college campuses,” the state of Georgia’s Board of Regents and Georgia Southern University’s Vice President of Student Affairs Shay Little have agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Gemma Skuraton, GSU’s former director of health and wellness.
Skuraton was fired in 2025 for opposing the school’s decision to rollback rights of transgender and nonbinary students, according to a press release from HKM Employment Attorneys. Artur Davis and Meagan Rafferty, both HKM attorneys, represent Skuraton, the press release noted.
According to the press release, Skuraton already had “a long history” both in student health and wellness and as an advocate for victims of domestic violence when she was hired in 2016 as health promotion coordinator for GSU, primarily at the school’s Savannah campus. In 2020, she was promoted to the position of director of Student Health and Wellness Promotion.
“At the time, GSU leadership championed LGBTQ outreach initiatives, and Skuraton was tasked with, among other things, engaging with LGBTQ groups and students on campus,” the press release notes. Then came the 2024 election cycle, which ushered in “a more conservative direction” among the GSU administration, it continued.
Skuraton’s lawsuit details this shift by the Pride flag was removed from the student counseling center, how gender-affirming healthcare posters on university buildings were removed and more “as administrators increasingly feared that over endorsement of the LGBTQ programs could imperil federal funding.”
Then last year, just after the Georgia State Assembly passed Senate Bill 1 which bans transgender athletes in the state from competing in gendered sports on teams that did not match their gender assigned at birth, “Little told Skuraton the university had decided to reject a grant application Little had previously endorsed to provide access to free chest binders, often use by gender transitioning individuals experience gender dysphoria, for students,” the press released explained.
“From there matters escalated, with students protesting and reaching out to local media to voice their concern about the new anti-LGBTQ environment at GSU,” the HKM press release continued. “Angry at the unwanted scrutiny, Little accused Skuraton of instigating the protests and even threatened to rescind a job offer made to a transgender graduate student who had publicy criticized the growing LGBTQ backlash on campus.
“Less than a month later, Little abruptly fired Skuraton despite her glowing evaluations in 2023 and 2025, [Skuraton] filed a lawsuit und the First Amendment and Title IX.”
Artur Davis said, “Gemma Skuraton lost a job, but she kept her moral compass. This result is a reminder that while political tides change, the Constitution and the federal legal protections for vulnerable students and their advocates are still standing. And those laws aren’t cheap; they exact a cost when they are violated.
— Tammye Nash