TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Three teachers on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit alleging a new state law restricting titles and pronouns at schools unconstitutionally discriminates against transgender and nonbinary educators.
The case focuses on a part of a 2023 law that says a K-12 school employee “may not provide to a student his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her sex.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are transgender teachers in Hillsborough and Lee counties and a nonbinary teacher who was fired by Florida Virtual School in October after refusing to drop the title “Mx.” and the pronouns “they/them.”
“Misgendering in its nastiest form is a microaggression,” Cindy Hill-Nobles, president of PFLAG, an organization that supports and advocates for LGBTQ+ people and their families, said.
Hill-Nobles said “to misgender” means to refer to someone using a word or pronoun that doesn’t reflect their gender identity.
The law “discriminates against transgender and nonbinary public-school employees and contractors on the basis of sex, by prohibiting them from using the titles and pronouns that express who they are,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote.
The pronoun and title prohibitions also violate the employees’ First Amendment rights and civil rights laws, the lawsuit said.
The new law “requires plaintiffs to shed their titles and pronouns at the schoolhouse gate because they are not the titles and pronouns that Florida prefers for the sex it deems them to be,” attorneys for the plaintiffs argued.
“It’s very dehumanizing. When someone tells you who they are, believe them. It’s very simple. It takes absolutely nothing to be kind and respectful,” Hill-Nobles said.
The plaintiffs are Hillsborough County high-school teacher Katie Wood; a Lee County teacher identified as “Jane Doe;” and AV Schwandes, a nonbinary Orange County teacher who was fired by Florida Virtual School in October.
Defendants include state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, the Department of Education, the State Board of Education and its seven members, other state education officials and the school boards in Lee and Hillsborough counties.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the teachers by lawyers for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Southern Legal Counsel, Inc., and San Francisco-based Altshuler Berzon LLP.
It alleges the law violates the First Amendment because it prohibits transgender and nonbinary school employees from using the titles and pronouns “that express who they are,” treating them differently from colleagues.
Labor Employment Civil Rights Attorney Jack Webb said he thinks this case is going to be “heavily litigated,” and he does think there were civil rights violated.
“I think to the extent that, especially on the First Amendment issue, I think that the compelled nature of the speech, I mean, clearly, the government doesn’t have a government doesn’t have a place tell me how I can refer to myself,” Webb said.
Webb believes Title Seven — discrimination because of sex — may be dismissed because only one of the employees alleges they were terminated based on the claims.
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The new case only challenges the part of the law restricting the use of titles and pronouns.
Under that part of the law, school superintendents could lose their salaries for a year if they receive complaints about potential violations and do not report it to the Department of Education.
Wood, who has worked as a teacher in Hillsborough County since 2021, transitioned as a woman around 2020, had her name legally changed and lives as a woman, the lawsuit said. The state issued a teaching certificate in her legal name, Katie Wood. According to the lawsuit, county officials initially “were supportive of her transgender status and her female gender identity and expression.”
Since the law went into effect, the principal at Wood’s school and the county school board told her she could no longer be called “Ms.” because “her sex is deemed male.” The officials told Wood she could use the titles “Mr.,” “Teacher,” or “Coach.”
“Going by titles like Mr. and pronouns like he and him would harm Ms. Wood, including emotionally, risk physical harm from others, and disrupt her classroom and ability to do her job. Avoiding titles and pronouns altogether would be impractical, disruptive, and stigmatizing,” the lawsuit said.
Wood adopted the title “Teacher,” but the lawsuit alleged the title has negatively affected her ability to teach and is a distraction to students.
“So, we have LGBTQ+ teachers who have literally put themselves back in the closet, for fear of their jobs and their pensions and their futures, their livelihoods,” Hill-Nobles said. “Everyone is walking on eggshells in their own their skin, no reason for it. There’s no good reason for any of this. This was a solution that didn’t have a problem.”
The three teachers have also filed discrimination complaints with federal labor officials.
The lawsuit, filed in the federal Northern District of Florida, asks Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker to block the law from being enforced and award compensation to the teachers. The amount would be proved at a trial.