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.”
Elon Musk has waded into the Virginia governor's race to attack Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, accusing her of "trying to weasel out" of a question about transgender students accessing bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. Musk shared a post on X highlighting Spanberger's response to WJLA reporter Nick Minock, who asked whether she supports "biological males who say they're women using women's locker rooms and bathrooms and competing in women's sports."
Spanberger stumbled in her response, noting that any attempt by a future Virginia governor or the Trump administration to impose a bathroom ban could run afoul of a 2020 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision allowing transgender students in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
For the second time, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from University of Wyoming sorority members who challenged the admission of a transgender woman, arguing that she did not meet the definition of the word "woman."
"Having considered the issues presented (again), we find that the majority of the claims must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with the sorority's contractually valid interpretation of its own bylaws," U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson wrote in his ruling.
The case began in 2023, when six members of the University of Wyoming’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter sued the sorority for admitting Artemis Langford, a transgender woman, and allowing her to use the campus house’s common areas -- though not live there -- according to Wyoming Public Media.
Two pharmacists are suing Walgreens and the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, alleging they were punished for refusing to dispense gender-affirming medications. They are seeking a religious exemption that would allow them to decline filling such prescriptions on moral grounds.
Minnesota law classifies it as unprofessional conduct for a pharmacist to refuse to dispense a valid prescription. Exceptions exist, but only for non-religious reasons, such as doubts about a drug's effectiveness.
State law also permits pharmacists to refuse prescriptions for abortion-inducing drugs. The plaintiffs argue the state should likewise clarify whether pharmacists can decline to dispense gender-affirming medications if doing so conflicts with their belief that gender is binary and fixed at birth, reports Minnesota Lawyer.
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