Three Florida transgender teachers are suing the state following pronoun rules introduced in state schools earlier this year, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
The lawsuit challenges a section from HB-1069, which was signed into law earlier this year. That section reads as follows:
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“An employee or contractor of a public K-12 educational institution may not provide to a student his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her sex.”
HB-1069, Section 2, Subsection 3
According to state statutes, sex is an immutable biological trait, so it is “false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”
Teachers who violate these rules could be subject to disciplinary action like suspension or having their educator certificate revoked.
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However, the lawsuit says that the law applies to any interaction teachers have with students — even off the clock.
It also points to the Supreme Court case “Bostock v. Clayton County,” which maintained that employers may not intentionally treat employees worse due to factors like sex.
“Subsection 3 harms transgender and nonbinary teachers by prohibiting them from using titles and pronouns that express their gender identity,” the lawsuit reads. “Gender identity is an innate, internal sense of one’s sex. Everyone has a gender identity.”
The lawsuit also claims that “misgendering” a person — the act of referring to someone by a pronoun they don’t want to use — “can cause that person psychological distress and feelings of stigma.”
The lawsuit says that the three teachers were forced to be misgendered due to the law, and one had their employment terminated as a result of refusing to comply.
As a result, the teachers in this case are accusing the Florida Department of Education, the State Board of Education and several district school boards of violating their civil rights, including free speech and discrimination protections.
According to the lawsuit, the three teachers are asking for compensatory damages and other relief.
The full lawsuit has been attached and can be read in the media viewer below.
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