Genny Beemyn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
In Tennessee, a proposed law would let public school teachers refuse to call transgender students by the pronouns they use for themselves.
At Shawnee State University – a public university in Ohio – a professor got paid US$400,000 to settle a lawsuit that he filed against the school after being disciplined for refusing to refer to a trans woman student as “she” or “her.”
In Loudoun County, Virginia, a public school teacher was suspended for objecting to the use of trans students’ pronouns, but the state’s Supreme Court ordered his reinstatement while the case was pending. As in the Shawnee State professor case, the school district chose to settle. It also agreed to remove the disciplinary action from the teacher’s file.
As a researcher who focuses on the experiences of trans college students, I see all three cases as part of a disquieting trend: The right of trans students to be free from discrimination is tenuous at best and under constant legal attack.
In many ways, the legal attacks are coordinated. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, is behind much of the anti-trans legislation in the U.S. The organization represented the Shawnee State professor and the Virginia schoolteacher in their lawsuits. It is also backing...
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