Judge Rules Illegal a Florida Law Banning Trans Teachers’ Choice of Pronouns

A U.S. district judge Wednesday said a 2023 Florida law restricting pronouns that transgender teachers can use to identify themselves violates a federal civil-rights law — but the outcome of the issue might ultimately hinge on an appeals-court ruling in a Georgia case.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker sided with Hillsborough County teacher Katie Wood and a Lee County teacher, identified as Jane Doe, in finding that the state law discriminates in violation of what is known as Section VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That section bars employment discrimination because of a person’s “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

The Florida law requires teachers to use pronouns that align with their sex assigned at birth. As an example, Walker wrote, the law led Wood, a transgender woman, to erase her pronouns and title on a classroom whiteboard and begin using the title “Teacher” instead of “Ms.” with her students.

Walker wrote that the state law “alters the terms and conditions of plaintiffs’ employment. Compliance … means plaintiffs, transgender teachers, are forbidden from using their preferred pronouns and titles with students. Noncompliance can result in disciplinary violations, which in turn can lead to suspension or revocation of plaintiffs’ teaching certifications or termination.”

“Therefore, because compliance with (the law) is a condition of plaintiffs’ employment, and because (the law) discriminates based on sex with respect to the terms and conditions of plaintiffs’ employment, it violates Title VII,” Walker wrote.

But while finding improper discrimination, Walker paused further action in the case as the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considers a Georgia case, known as Lange v. Houston County.

Walker wrote that the outcome of the Georgia case, which involves an alleged Title VII violation against a transgender employee of a sheriff’s office, could be “determinative” in the Florida teacher case.

“Judicial economy demands that this court (Walker) decline to issue an injunction or try the issue of damages at this juncture and stay this case pending resolution of the en banc rehearing in Lange,” he wrote, using a term for a rehearing by the full appeals court.

Walker last year issued a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of the pronoun law against Wood because he said it violated her First Amendment rights. But a divided panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court on July 2 overturned the injunction.

The panel’s majority said Wood “cannot show, with respect to the expression at issue here, that she was speaking as a private citizen rather than a government employee” when she interacted with students in her classroom. As a result, it concluded that the state restrictions did not violate her speech rights.

The overturning of the preliminary injunction, however, did not end the lawsuit, which names as defendants the Florida Department of Education, other state education agencies and officials, the Hillsborough County School Board and the Lee County School Board.

Walker on Wednesday ruled on motions for summary judgment, which involve issues that can be resolved without going to trial. Armed with last month’s appeals-court opinion, Walker rejected the plaintiffs’ First Amendment arguments, while leaving unresolved issues about whether the teachers’ equal-protection rights were violated.

The pronoun restrictions were part of a series of controversial measures that Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers have approved in recent years that focus on transgender people — and have drawn legal challenges. For example, they passed a measure aimed at preventing minors from receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria.

–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida