Washington D.C., Jun 2, 2021 / 15:23 pm
A Virginia teacher sued his school district this week, claiming he was unlawfully suspended for opposing the district’s proposed “preferred pronoun” policies.
The law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools on Tuesday on behalf of Tanner Cross, a teacher at Leesburg Elementary School. Cross said he was suspended from his position after objecting to two proposed school policies during the public comment period of a May 25 school board meeting.
The proposed policies would require that students identifying as transgender be addressed by their preferred gender pronouns, rather than by the pronouns corresponding with their biological sex.
Tyson Langhofer, Senior Counsel for ADF and director of its Center for Academic Freedom, said in a statement on Tuesday that public schools “have no business compelling teachers to express ideological beliefs that they don’t hold, nor do they have the right to suspend someone simply for respectfully providing their opinion at a public meeting.”