A transphobic court decision was made today where a judge ruled that a teacher in Virginia who was suspended for refusing to address transgender students with their preferred names and pronouns should return to work immediately:
Judge: Loudoun schools must reinstate teacher against transgender pronouns - The Washington Post
Judge: Loudoun schools must reinstate teacher against transgender pronouns - The Washington Post
June 8, 2021
A Virginia judge said Tuesday that a Loudoun County teacher suspended for refusing to address transgender students with their preferred names and pronouns should return to work immediately.
In a seven-page ruling, 20th Circuit Judge James E. Plowman Jr. sharply rebuked the Loudoun County Public Schools system for its treatment of the teacher, Tanner Cross. Plowman called Loudoun's attempts to discipline Cross "an unconstitutional action … which has silenced others from speaking publicly on the issue."
Per Virginia law, Loudoun County Public Schools can petition for a review of the judge's ruling within 15 days of its issuance.
School officials had barred Cross from performing his job as a physical education instructor at Leesburg Elementary School — and from setting foot on campus — after he declared at a late-May school board meeting that he would never "affirm that a biological boy can be a girl, and vice versa." Cross said his Christian faith and determination to always tell the truth meant he could not use a transgender child's selected name and pronoun if it did not agree with their biological sex as determined at birth.
Cross was speaking against a draft proposal being circulated by Loudoun officials that would require teachers to use transgender students' preferred pronouns and names. In the speech, he also referenced a recent "60 Minutes" segment on transgender health care that included an interview with a child who began transitioning but came to regret the process.
Officials with the Northern Virginia school system placed Cross on paid administrative leave starting May 27, and forbade him from setting foot on Loudoun school grounds and from speaking at school board meetings.
On June 1, Cross sued the school system's top administrators, alleging their actions violated his rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion. He requested a preliminary injunction forcing his reinstatement and ending his banishment from school grounds and school board meetings.
Cross "does not believe that every student or teacher in [Loudoun County] should have to accept his view," the suit states. "But he also believes that teachers should not be compelled to say things that they do not believe to be true."
In his Tuesday ruling, Judge Plowman ordered that Loudoun County Public Schools "immediately reinstate" Cross to his position as a physical education teacher and rescind its ban barring him from school grounds while Cross's lawsuit goes forward. Plowman also critiqued several aspects of the school system's legal case, disputing in particular the idea that Cross's speech had caused "disruption to school operations," and wrote that the school's decision to put him on administrative leave seemed "an unnecessary and vindictive act given the end of the school year was so close."
In a statement, Michael Farris, president and chief executive of the Alliance Defending Freedom — the conservative legal group representing Cross — hailed the decision as a victory for free speech. The alliance has a history of taking on lawsuits that call into question the rights of transgender people.
"Educators are just like everybody else — they have ideas and opinions that they should be free to express," Farris said. "Advocating for solutions they believe in should not cost them their jobs."
