VA Supreme Court Sides With Teacher on Refusing Pronoun Policy

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The Virginia Supreme Court ruled yesterday to reinstate a lawsuit that alleges a high school teacher’s free speech and free exercise of religion rights were violated when he was fired for declining to refer to one his female student by male pronouns. The ruling reverses a circuit court’s decision to dismiss the case before evidence was heard and mandates it move forward to trial back in the circuit court.

In 2018, the West Point School Board fired Peter Vlaming, a French teacher, after he could not in “good conscience” with his religious beliefs comply with the school district’s demand that he refer to a gender-confused female student with masculine pronouns. Vlaming attempted to avoid the use of pronouns altogether and accommodate the student by using the student’s new preferred masculine name. However, school officials directed him to stop avoiding the use of pronouns and to refer to the student using the pronouns inconsistent with her biological sex. The school board ultimately fired Vlaming after he “accidentally” used a feminine pronoun when referring to the student in class.

According to Virginia’s Supreme Court ruling, Vlaming “cannot in good conscience ‘use pronouns that express an objectively untrue ideological message.’” Vlaming stated in his lawsuit that his religion “prohibits him from intentionally lying” and that he “sincerely believes that referring to a female as a male by using an objectively male pronoun is telling a lie.”

By ooddballz on 2023 12 19

Great news.

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