Gov. Bill Lee by Tennessee Office of the Governor (Left), Adobe Stock (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // Tennessee’s Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation May 9 protecting public servants, including public school teachers and students, from coerced speech involving others’ “preferred pronouns.”
House Bill 1270 guarantees that students and teachers are not required to use preferred pronouns if they do not correspond with an individual’s sex, and not required to use a preferred name if it is not the individual’s legal name, or a name derived from the legal name.
The legislation protects public schools and local education agencies (LEA) from lawsuits over preferred pronoun and name usage.
The law also states that teachers and public school employees “shall not knowingly address or refer to an unemancipated minor student who is enrolled in the public school or LEA by a name other than the student’s legal name, or a derivative thereof, or by a pronoun or title that is inconsistent with the student’s sex without first obtaining written consent to do so from the unemancipated minor student’s parent or legal guardian.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) celebrated the legislation as a victory for free speech.
“No one should lose their job or face punishment at school or work for declining to say something they believe is false,” said ADF’s senior counsel Matt Sharp, director of the ADF Center for Public Policy. “Words and language carry meaning, and when used properly, they communicate truth about the world. Forcing individuals to say things that are false — such as inaccurate pronouns — imposes real harm on the speaker.”
As CatholicVote previously reported, teachers have been fired in Virginia, Wisconsin, and California for refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns. Each of these cases led to lawsuits, and tall three teachers have received payouts as settlements after the lawsuit ended.
