Contrary to what proponents claim, policies that support the social transition of children are not “kind.” Nor are they aimed at “what’s best for the kids.” Rather, these policies enable and protect practices that cause irreversible harm. This includes policies about pronouns. A pronoun matters because language matters. Language should match reality, not distort it. This is true for everyone everywhere, but especially for those who teach our children. Educators should not lie about reality, nor should the state force them to do so. 

Late last month, Virginia teacher Peter Vlaming won an important legal battle against the high school that fired him. Back in 2018, the well-liked French teacher was placed on administrative leave by West Point High School for failing to comply with the school district’s policy concerning preferred pronouns. Though Vlaming was willing to accommodate a request by a female student to use her chosen male name, he refused to refer to the student with the pronouns “he” or “him.”  

To be clear, Vlaming did not use female pronouns either. Rather, he chose to avoid using any pronouns to refer to the student. The school superintendent, however, told Vlaming that he could not avoid using the male pronouns, even when the student wasn’t present. Vlaming refused these demands, and within a few short weeks, was fired.  

In other words, Vlaming was fired for what he did not say, or as Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer put it, “what he couldn’t say … in good conscience.”  

Vlaming filed a lawsuit against the school in 2019. A lower court threw out the case, but, in 2023, the Supreme Court of Virginia reinstated the lawsuit, stating: 

Absent a truly compelling reason for doing so, no government committed to these principles [of free speech and freedom of religion] can lawfully coerce its citizens into pledging verbal allegiance to ideological views that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. 

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