Loudoun County School Board Will No Longer Require Teachers to Lie About Pronouns

The Loudoun County School Board will no longer require teachers like Monica Gill to lie about students’ pronouns under a “transgender” policy.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represents Gill, a history teacher, filed a lawsuit on her behalf in May. Gill said she taught in the Virginia school district for 25 years.

“When Policy 8040 was enacted, the school district threatened to force me to lie to students about the fundamental truth of biological reality, which I could never do,” she said. “I treat all my students, including those who identify as the opposite sex, with dignity and respect, and I’m pleased the school district has honored my constitutionally protected freedom to speak to my students in love and truth.”

Ruling last week, the court said that Policy 8040 does not require teachers to lie about pronouns. “Instead, Policy 8040 permits staff to refrain from using any pronouns.”

ADF represented a different client who taught in Loudoun County Schools. The district suspended PE teacher Tanner Cross for opposing its “transgender” policy.

Cross told school board members to their faces that biological sex can’t be changed. He sued after the retaliation, and a court ordered that he be reinstated. The Virginia Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling. The school board paid him $20,000 and wiped the suspension from his personnel file.

“Teachers should never be forced to promote ideologies that are harmful to their students and that they believe are false,” said Tyson Langhofer, ADF senior counsel and director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom. “We’re pleased Loudoun County Public Schools reversed course on its harmful policy and respects Monica’s, and other teachers’, fundamental right to speak according to their beliefs.”

Photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom

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