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