Instructor Asks Court to Restore Suit on Trans Student Pronouns

West Point Virginia high school instructor, Peter Vlaming, speaks to lawyer’s after his case was argued prior to the Supreme Court of Virginia outside the court Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, in Richmond. Va. Vlaming who was fired for declining to utilize a transgender trainee’s favored pronouns took legal action against West Point Public Schools. Vlaming states his rights to speak easily and exercise his faith were breached and is appealing a judgment dismissing his suit. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) The Associated Press By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer RICHMOND, Va. (AP)– Lawyers for a high school French instructor who was fired after he declined to utilize a transgender trainee’s pronouns argued prior to the Supreme Court of Virginia Friday that the school broke his constitutional right to speak easily and exercise his faith. A lawyer for the school stated the instructor broke the school’s anti-discrimination policy. Peter Vlaming took legal action against the school board and administrators at West Point High School after he was fired in2018 Vlaming appealed a lower court’s judgment dismissing the claim and asked the Supreme Court to renew it. Vlaming’s suit was brought by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group that has actually submitted 6 comparable suits– 3 in Virginia, and one each in Ohio, Kansas and Indiana. ADF lawyer Christopher Schandevel informed the high court that Vlaming was not fired for something he stated, however “for something that he could not state.” Political Cartoons “This is a case about obliged speech,” he stated. Schandevel informed the justices that Vlaming attempted to accommodate the trainee by utilizing his manly name and preventing using pronouns, however the trainee, his moms and dads and the school informed him he was needed to utilize the trainee’s male pronouns. In his claim, Vlaming stated he might not utilize the trainee’s pronouns due to the fact that of his “genuinely held spiritual and philosophical” beliefs “that everyone’s sex is biologically repaired and can not be altered.” Vlaming likewise stated he would be lying if he utilized the trainee’s pronouns.
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