Even this limited preliminary injunction record contains evidence of the substantial disruption that repeated, intentional use of non-preferred pronouns to refer to transgender students can cause. The PDE [Parents Defending Education, plaintiffs] parent-members themselves “understand[]” that use of nonpreferred pronouns “will be considered ‘insulting,’ ‘humiliating,’ ‘dehumanizing,’ ‘derogatory,’ and ‘unwanted’ to those who want to go by different pronouns.” R. 7-3, Parent A Decl., PageID 364; R. 7-4, Parent B Decl., PageID 371; R. 7-6, Parent D Decl., PageID 385.3 PDE also attached to its preliminary injunction motion an article containing a therapist’s explanation that students who “have been misgendered all day” often become “traumatized,” “humiliated,” and “cry after school.” R. 7-1, PageID 329. This evidence dovetails with a study, cited by the district court, collecting literature on the “measurable psychological and physiological harms” that can be caused by use of non-preferred pronouns. R. 28, PageID 836 (quoting Chan Tov McNamarah, Misgendering as Misconduct, 68 UCLA L. Rev. Discourse 40, 43 (2020)). And it supports the conclusion that transgender students experience the use of non-preferred pronouns as dehumanizing and that, as a result, the repeated use of such pronouns can have severely negative effects on children and young adults.4This is all nonsense. No one has ever been harmed by a pronoun. Declaring a child to be transgender is dehumanizing, but the school is doing that.
The dissent explains:
As I understand it, the plaintiffs’ position—based on their scientific (biology, physiology, and genetics) and religious beliefs—is that biological gender is immutable, people are either male or female, and there is no such thing as “gender transition”; that is a made-up thing, imaginary or make believe, and a public school cannot force their children to pretend it is a real thing. Agree or disagree, but that is their position.It therefore should be free speech, under the controlling precedent
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court that recognized the First Amendment rights of students in U.S. public schools. The Tinker test, also known as the "substantial disruption" test, is still used by courts today to determine whether a school's interest to prevent disruption infringes upon students' First Amendment rights. The Court famously opined, "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."[1][2]
5 comments:
I can not be compelled (legally or otherwise) to address a human as an imaginary construct that has nothing to do with reality.
I can also not be compelled (legally or otherwise) to 'see' Harvey the invisible pink rabbit standing in the corner, or 'hear' the voices in someone's head telling them to hurt people.
Go figure.
If words are considered grounds for being hurt, then I can also play that game and claim it pains me tremendously to be forced to address people by made up pronouns.
I will not comply.
My preferred pronouns for any, and every, male is HIM and HIS.
My preferred pronouns for any, and every, female is HER and HERS.
Full stop; nothing more.
I will use somebody's preferred pronouns because it doesn't cost me anything and because I am not a jerk.
Mike,
The point you seem to be very casually driving around is, pronouns aren't something arbitrary that you choose for yourself like a silly nickname or stagename, they are part of language and have a very specific meaning that allows for the correct identification of people by others.
You don't get to destroy the meaning of language just because you are mentally ill or politically motivated. Please try out your inability to determine gender correctly in some country with a Latin derived language (French, Spanish, Italian) and just watch how folks react your using the wrong determiner for ordinary objects, much less people. I can guarantee it will be a 'learning' experience.
CFT
Language changes and we change with it or we get left behind. You are suggesting that the meaning of those pronouns will not change and that users of preferred pronouns are flogging a dead horse. You might be right although my best guess at this time is that you are not. I guess we'll see.
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