A 2023 Florida legislation that limits the pronouns transgender instructors can use to identify themselves is unconstitutional under federal human rights law, according to a U.S. district judge on Wednesday. However, the success of the lawsuit may ultimately depend on an appeals court decision in a Georgia case.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker sided with Katie Wood, a teacher in Hillsborough County, and Jane Doe, a teacher in Lee County, who argued that the state statute violates Section VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating. Discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin is prohibited by that clause.
Teachers are required by Florida law to use pronouns that correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth. For instance, according to Walker, the rule forced Wood, a transgender woman, to change her title and pronouns on a classroom whiteboard and start referring to her students as Teachers rather than Ms.
Walker stated that the terms and conditions of the plaintiff’s employment are changed by state legislation. Transgender teachers who are plaintiffs are prohibited from using their preferred pronouns and titles with students due to compliance. The plaintiff’s teaching certificates may be suspended, revoked, or terminated as a result of disciplinary offenses resulting from noncompliance.
Therefore, Walker concluded, “the law violates Title VII because it discriminates based on sex with respect to the terms and conditions of plaintiffs’ employment, and compliance with the law is a condition of plaintiffs’ employment.”
Walker, however, halted further proceedings in the case while concluding that there was illegal discrimination. This is because the entire 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is currently considering a case from Georgia called Lange v. Houston County.
Walker stated that the Florida teacher case may be decided by the verdict in the Georgia case, which concerns a transgender employee of a sheriff’s office who is accused of violating Title VII.
Using a word for a rehearing by the full appeals court, he stated, “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.”
Walker claimed that the pronoun rule infringed on Wood’s First Amendment rights and last year ordered a preliminary injunction to prevent its implementation. On July 2, however, the order was overturned by a divided panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court.
According to the panel’s majority, Wood is unable to demonstrate that, in relation to the phrase in question, she was interacting with kids in her classroom as a private person rather than a government official. It came to the conclusion that her right to free speech was not infringed by the state’s limits.
The action, which includes the Florida Department of Education, other state education officials and agencies, the Hillsborough County School Board, and the Lee County School Board as defendants, did not stop after the preliminary injunction was overturned.
Motions for summary judgment, which deal with matters that can be settled without a trial, were decided by Walker on Wednesday. With the appeals court’s ruling from last month in hand, Walker dismissed the plaintiffs’ First Amendment claims, but left open the question of whether the teachers’ equal protection rights were infringed.
In recent years, Republican lawmakers and Governor Ron DeSantis have adopted a number of contentious legislation that target transgender individuals and have been challenged in court, including the pronoun restrictions. For instance, they enacted legislation to prohibit the use of hormone therapy and puberty blockers to address gender dysphoria in children.
Jim Saunders, Florida News Service
