Last December 14, three Florida teachers petitioned the blocking of a new state law that bars LGBTQ + educators from using pronouns deemed as one that best applies to their persona. Filed by 3 transgender, non binary K-12 teachers in Florida, the new law threatens to suspend the license or teaching certificate of those who insist on using pronouns that do not correspond to their sex.
The pronoun-ban law further defines sex as an individual’s orientation based on his or reproductive organ at birth.
The plaintiffs are Katie Wood of Hillsborough County High School, AV Schwandes. a former teacher at the Florida Virtual School and a Lee County teacher who goes by the pseudonym “Jane Doe”, filed the lawsuit after being found guilty of violating the State’s anti-pronoun law.
They are being represented by the law firm Altshuler Berzon, by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Southern Legal Counsel.
What Exactly is Florida’s New Anti-Pronoun Law
The 3 teachers say it violates the Civil Rights Act, the First Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause, which protects people from discrimination in education programs or activities based on sex, particularly if the programs receive federal financial funding. assistance.”
The law took effect in July of this year, which since then has violated the rights of educators belonging to the LGBTQ plus sector. The Anti Pronoun Ban is a direct contradiction of the equal protection law that provides protection against discrimination, especially pertaining to education programs and activities that receive federal financial funding.
