“The student approached me after class and said that he wanted to be referred to as a female, and I tried to find an accommodation with the student,” he told Fox News.

“I was willing to use his proper name, female proper name, and initially the administration was willing to go along with that, but then the administration changed course and demanded that I defer to the ideology, that I refer to the student as a female and I simply could not do that,” he added.

The lawsuit was filed on his behalf by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian law firm which regularly litigates on cases involving trans people.

It has supported the re-criminalisation of sexual acts between LGBT adults according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has labelled it an anti-LGBT “hate group”.

Following a three-year legal battle, an appeals court ruled in Mr Meriwether’s favour, finding his right to free speech had been violated.

‘Case used to advance divisive agendas’

Shawnee State has now agreed to pay $400,000 in damages and legal fees.

The small, public university in Portsmouth, Ohio said: “Though we have decided to settle, we adamantly deny that anyone at Shawnee State deprived Dr Meriwether of his free speech rights or his rights to freely exercise his religion.

“We continue to stand behind a student’s right to a discrimination-free learning environment as well as the rights of faculty, visitors, students and employees to freely express their ideas and beliefs,” it added.

“Over the course of this lawsuit, it became clear that the case was being used to advance divisive social and political agendas at a cost to the university and its students.

“That cost is better spent on fulfilling Shawnee State’s mission of service to our students, families and community.”

The settlement agreement reportedly includes an assurance from the university that the academic will never be forced to use pronouns for students “that conflict with his or her biological sex”.

The ADF applauded the settlement agreement.

“This case forced us to defend what used to be a common belief — that nobody should be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep their job,” Travis Barham, senior counsel at the ADF, said in a statement.

“Dr Meriwether went out of his way to accommodate his students and treat them all with dignity and respect, yet his university punished him because he wouldn’t endorse an ideology that he believes is false.”