Gavel – Photo: Tingey Injury Law Firm, via Unsplash; Transgender Pride Flag – Photo: Lena Balk, via Unsplash.
A typically conservative-leaning U.S. appeals court has upheld the right of an Ohio school district to enforce policies against bullying transgender students, including prohibitions on cyberbullying and misgendering them.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Olentangy Local School District, finding the district’s policies did not violate the free speech rights of children by forcing them to engage in compelled speech.
The district — which serves more than 23,000 students — had sought to bar bullying of other students, based on a variety of characteristics, including race, sex, disability, and religion, and to prohibit would-be bullies from using cell phones and personal devices — including off-campus — to embarrass, harass, humiliate, intimidate or threaten students, reports Reuters.
As part of its anti-bullying policies, the district also prohibits students from misgendering transgender students or using pronouns that don’t align with their gender identity.
Parents Defending Education, a Virginia-based conservative nonprofit, sought an injunction to block the district from enforcing the policies. The group argued that the prohibition on misgendering violated the First Amendment rights of students who were raised to believe that people cannot transition from one sex to another.
In July 2023, a federal judge ruled that the pronoun policy fells within a series of exceptions outlined in a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows schools to regulate speech that might be disruptive to the overall learning environment in schools. Parents Defending Education subsequently appealed the decision to the 6th Circuit.
On July 29, 2024, a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit split 2-1 in favor of the district. The two justices in the majority found that the anti-bullying policies didn’t compel certain speech, as those who deny transgender existence could simply choose not to use pronouns when referring to transgender classmates, according to the Courthouse News Service.
Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Jane Stranch, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled that the district could impose restrictions if they believed that misgendering of transgender students might spark confrontations between students. Comparing the pronoun policy to the district’s other prohibitions on discrimination or harassment, Stranch said that blocking the anti-bullying policy would create “an immediate risk of harm” to all students by opening them up to verbal abuse and harassment.
“These and similar rules are commonly and constitutionally imposed, regardless of the extent to which they restrict students’ preferred messages, to protect the basic educational mission of public schools,” Stranch wrote. She was joined in her opinion by Circuit Judge Stephanie Davis, a Biden appointee.
She also drew a distinction between voicing opinions about gender as fixed and binary, and directly misgendering someone, writing: “Sharing controversial religious beliefs is different from describing a Mormon student as not a real Christian. By the same token, discussing sex and gender identity is different from using non-preferred pronouns to state that one’s transgender classmate is not really a girl. The district is entitled to recognize that speech about students’ identities is particularly harmful.”
Circuit Judge Alice Batchelder, a George H.W. Bush appointee, dissented, claiming that the district was turning students into “captive subjects” and requiring them to accept transgender identity as valid. She likened being transgender to a political viewpoint to which cisgender students have a right to object, and argued that the district had failed to show how using biological pronouns to refer to fellow students would be disruptive to the classroom or school environment.
“The First Amendment forbids the district from compelling students to use speech that conveys a message with which they disagree, namely that biology does not determine gender. The district court, like the district itself, chose to accept, adopt, and then enforce this viewpoint — thereby rejecting and prohibiting any student from expressing a contrary viewpoint,” she wrote.
A spokesperson for the Olentangy Local School District told NBC affiliate WCMH-TV said the district is “committed to facilitating maximum learning for every student.”
“The district’s policies on harassment and bullying prohibit the intentional and repeated targeting of another student when it causes an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment,” the spokesperson said. “We are pleased that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirmed the constitutionality of our policies, and we remain committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment for all of our students.”
After removing all references to transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument website earlier this year, the National Park Service has now scrubbed mentions of bisexual people as well.
As first reported by transgender journalist Erin Reed on her Erin in the Morning Substack, the change occurred on July 10, when the homepage was updated to read, "Before the 1960s, almost everything about living authentically as a gay or lesbian person was illegal."
Subsequent pages, including the site's "History and Culture" section, were also altered to remove broader LGBTQ references. One now reads: "Stonewall was a milestone for gay and lesbian civil rights," whereas it previously noted that living "openly as a member of the Stonewall comunity was a violation of law."
Luke Ash, a Baptist pastor who worked at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, says he was fired after refusing to use a trans co-worker's preferred pronouns.
Luke Ash, lead pastor of Stevendale Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, says he was fired from his job as a library technician at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library after refusing to use a co-worker's preferred pronouns. He was reportedly dismissed after referring to the colleague by female pronouns during a July 7 conversation with another library employee.
"That co-worker corrected me, said that the person she was training preferred to be called 'he,' and I refused to use those preferred pronouns," Ash told anti-LGBTQ activist and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins during an interview on the conservative Christian political show Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.
Judi Fike, a Republican councilwoman in Groveland, Florida, has been reinstated to her seat after fellow council members suspended her over offensive social media posts targeting Black and LGBTQ communities. Fike, who was appointed in October 2024 to represent the city’s District 4, has filed a lawsuit challenging the suspension.
Fike’s attorney, Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini -- a two-time congressional candidate with a history of pushing anti-LGBTQ legislation -- told the Orlando Sentinel that Fike was reinstated following a preliminary hearing on July 16.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.