Dive Brief:
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A Florida law requiring transgender teachers to use pronouns aligning with their sex at birth hit a roadblock last week after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction stopping its implementation in the case of one teacher.
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The preliminary injunction came in a lawsuit filed in 2023 by three public school teachers against the Florida Department of Education and several state and district education boards. They challenged the law under the Title IX ban on sex discrimination in education programs, the Title VII ban on employment discrimination, and the First and 14th Amendments.
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However, the injunction applies only to one of the teachers who filed the lawsuit and does not block enforcement of the law statewide, meaning the law will stay in effect as the lawsuit progresses.
Dive Insight:
"Once again, the State of Florida has a First Amendment problem," wrote Mark Walker, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, in the decision issued April 9. "Of late, it has happened so frequently, some might say you can set your clock by it."
In 2023, nearly half of states introduced bills related to the use of pronouns at school, including bills that could make it illegal for schools to use transgender students' preferred pronouns and names for transgender students aligning with their gender identities, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
Just last week, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a law barring teachers from using students' preferred pronouns and names if they don't align with their birth at sex, unless teachers have parental consent.
But Florida's law goes one step further, saying saying public school employees or contractors "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.” Otherwise, teachers may lose their teaching licenses in addition to their jobs. The law went into effect July 1.
As a result of the law, some of the plaintiffs said they were fired and feared the loss of their careers.
Plaintiff Katie Wood said in the lawsuit that "those who support and enforce this law are trying to take my voice away and bury my existence."
Last week, Walker seemed to agree with Wood in his decision.
"In sharing her preferred title and pronouns, Ms. Wood celebrates herself and sings herself—not in a disruptive or coercive way, but in a way that subtly vindicates her identity, her dignity, and her humanity," he wrote. The Florida law, however, "has silenced her and, by silencing her, forced her to inhabit an identity that is not her own."
