Florida Ruling: School Must Temporarily Respect Trans Teacher’s Pronouns

This week, a Florida judge temporarily barred the enforcement of pronoun legislation against a nonbinary and two transgender teachers.

“Once again, the State of Florida has a First Amendment problem,” wrote Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in his temporary order. “Of late, it has happened so frequently, some might say you can set your clock by it.”

“This time, the State of Florida declares that it has the absolute authority to redefine your identity if you choose to teach in a public school,” the ruling, published on Tuesday, added. “So, the question before this Court is whether the First Amendment allows the State to mandate, without limitation, how public school teachers refer to themselves while dealing with children. The response is an emphatic ‘no.'”

Two trans instructors and one nonbinary teacher filed a lawsuit in December challenging the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act, sometimes known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibits teachers and educators from using pronouns that do not correspond to their biological sex.

Walker granted Katie Wood, one of the trans instructors, a temporary injunction, citing the legal judgment that the statute violates the First Amendment. The injunction does not entirely nullify the statute for everyone. Wood will be the only exception to the regulation, as pupils referred to her as “Ms.” before the 2023 law. After the statute went into force, kids addressed Wood as “Teacher Wood,” rather than “Mr.,” which Wood argued was stigmatizing.

“Katie Wood is a transgender lady who is referred to as ‘Ms. Wood.’ Walker said, “She uses she/her pronouns to refer to herself and would prefer that others do the same.” “AV Schwandes is nonbinary and referred to as ‘Mx. Schwandes.’ Mx. Schwandes utilizes they/them pronouns to refer to themselves and would prefer that others do the same.”

The judge did not, however, determine that the other two instructors had “demonstrated a likelihood of success” in their claims that the statute breached their rights. “In short, Mx. Schwandes has not come forward with any evidence showing that they intend to engage in speech in the foreseeable future that would violate” the laws of the United States, Walker said.

Woods claimed in the case that the statute is gender discriminatory and violates the Equal Protection Clause, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

“I am hopeful that this ruling will encourage those who feel powerless to stand up for themselves,” Wood said in a statement. “Where there is pain, there is strength. And when good people unite, anything is possible.” According to the lawyers for the three claimants, the verdict “sends a strong, positive message to trans and nonbinary educators that their title and identity are not mutually exclusive.”

At the time, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis amended a 2022 school law that restricted LGBTQ+ curricula to include a restriction on teachers and students using pronouns that do not correspond to their gender, declaring that the Sunshine State will not participate in “the pronoun Olympics.”

DeSantis stated that instructors and kids in Florida will “never be forced to declare pronouns in school or to use pronouns not based on biological sex.”