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.

  • frezik@midwest.social
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    7 months ago

    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@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

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