Florida can’t ban teacher from asking students to use her preferred pronouns, judge rules

Katie Wood, a transgender algebra teacher, has long gone by ‘Ms Wood’ but the law required students to say ‘Teacher Wood’

Florida cannot prohibit a 10th-grade math teacher from asking her students to call her by her preferred pronouns, a federal judge has ruled.

The decision from Mark Walker, the US district judge, is a blow to an anti-LGBTQ law championed by Ron DeSantis, the state’s governor, which prohibits discussion of sexuality in public schools. A 2023 expansion of the measure, widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, prohibits teachers and students from using pronouns that align with their gender identity.

The Tuesday decision, a preliminary injunction, blocks Florida from enforcing the law against Katie Wood, a transgender 10th-grade algebra teacher in Hillsborough county. Wood has long gone by “Ms Wood” in school, but the law has made her require her students to call her “Teacher Wood” – a title no one else at the school uses.

Deeziss25,

That’s one of my teachers!!! I’m so proud. WAY TO GO MS WOOD!!!

ImADifferentBird,
@ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It’s insane that the self-proclaimed guardians of free speech expect the law to intervene in the words one uses to refer to themself.

Of course, that always seems to be the way with conservatives. They would like to believe, and would like others to believe, that they love individual freedom even as they demand conformity.

acetanilide,

Also the whole small government thing…really cracks me up. No politician actually wants a small government. It’s all garbage.

Silentiea,
@Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It’s sad, because they honestly believe that no one would ever want to gender a trans person correctly, therefore requiring that they not be is “protecting” the rights of all to speak the way they must really want to, right?

The world would be better if fewer people were sure everyone else agreed with them and investigated that claim instead.

Cryophilia,

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I’ve always been partial to the royal “we”.

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

Why not just get rid of gender altogether? No Mr or Ms/Mrs. What is the point of gendered pronouns. We don’t have pronouns or prefixes for other parts of our identity like race or age. Just call people the same thing and if you must have formalities like Sir or Mrs, just make them non-gendered.

MrVilliam,

Agreed. I don’t really understand the point of them. Similarly, I’ve never understood the point of gendered professions (actor/actress, waiter/waitress, etc). It seems like it only exists to divide.

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

Totally. I can understand preferring a specific gender for a doctor, but we don’t have gendered terms for that for some reason.

MrVilliam,

Why would that matter?

TheLowestStone,
@TheLowestStone@lemmy.world avatar

Some people feel more comfortable talking to or being touched by a person of a specific gender. Sometimes that’s for a bigoted reason but sometimes it’s not. For example, I’ve always had an easier time opening up about emotional stuff with women so I would prefer speaking to a female counselor or therapist. This isn’t because I dislike or distrust men, I just had more conversations like that with my female friends growing up so it feels more natural.

Cuberoot,

There’s doctrix and doctress, but wiktionary lists one as archaic and the other as obsolete.

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

Woah never heard of that haha. Sounds kinky.

TheLowestStone,
@TheLowestStone@lemmy.world avatar

Using gendered professions mostly fell out of style years ago. Waiter/waitress became server. Steward/stewardess became flight attendant. Actor/actress is still used but I hear “actor” used for all genders more frequently these days.

Gork,

My favorite is the replacement of Chairman/chairwoman with either Chairperson or just “Chair” , like the sit-table object 🪑.

Silentiea,
@Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I prefer network administratrix, actually.

/s

refurbishedrefurbisher,

“Professor”

Although I think there are a certain set of requirements to be called that legally.

blackluster117,
@blackluster117@possumpat.io avatar

“Instructor”

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

We can go cool 90’s kid and call teachers “teach”.

ExfilBravo,

The only thing conservatives hate more than women are men that think and look like women.

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah. Anything that makes them question their sexuality even the slightest. Lots of straight gay dudes who are so afraid to be gay.

alilbee,

This is like commenting on a story about an innocent man being released from jail and saying “why can’t we just abolish all prisons?”. Like, everyone here likely agrees but you’re also commenting on a story about why we can’t. This woman barely, barely got the right to have others be able to use her basic pronouns. Why do you think they would be willing to jump right to eliminating gender altogether for her sake or those like her? People in power love gender and they love the rules it lets them impose, that’s why.

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

Didn’t think we had to tip-toe on Lemmy. Let’s talk about the real problems and solutions.

alilbee,

That’s not an objective thing to decide. I’m sure this particular teacher would love for us to consider her day to day life a real problem. Work on abolishing gender, sure, but I don’t expect it within my lifetime and we all have stuff to do to make life better in the interim.

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

Fair enough. Just feels like the deeper we go towards ensuring everybody gets the gender they want, the further we are from fixing the actual problem.

alilbee,

I would argue the opposite is true. The entire idea of “abolishing gender” is to remove the forced expectations and norms, not to force everyone to be androgynous or uniform. Freeing this woman to have her gender expression respected by the state is a small, concrete step towards that end.

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

But what does it mean to be a woman or a man? To wear dresses? To be tough and never cry? Aside from our biological differences, gender is just defined by societal norms. Without gender distinction, there would be no need to fight for people to recognize you as one or the other.

I agree that it would be best to just expand what it means to be a man or a woman, but in order for it to be really effective you’d have to go so far that really only the biological differences matter.

Cryophilia,

What’s the solution then?

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

We can’t start to erase gender until we solve sexism, but it might be a chicken or egg thing. Can’t protect women against men if we erase gender, but a lot of toxicity comes from the gendering of men and grooming of men in our society. Idk the answer, but it’s not to be afraid to talk about it.

frezik,

In the long run, getting rid of gender in our society would be a good thing. However, that has to be a real change, not “we call everyone ‘they’ now and pretend gender doesn’t exist”.

Same with racism. Pretending it doesn’t exist by refusing to talk about it doesn’t solve anything.

venusaur,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

Totally. Existing generations would have to die off and new gens would have to be raised without gender.

CameronDev,

is a blow to an anti-LGBTQ law

Not really, the point of the law is to stir up the voter base, they wont ever hear about this ruling, and they have already forgotten/moved on to the next outrage.

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