A transgender teacher in Florida cannot refer to herself with female pronouns, according to a federal appeals court.
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A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision issued Wednesday, said Florida’s expanded “don’t say gay” law can legally forbid Katie Wood, a Hillsborough County teacher, from using prefixes like Ms. and female pronouns on the job.
The ruling overturned a 2024 decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, who said the Florida law infringed on Wood’s First Amendment rights and issued a preliminary injunction blocking its enforcement while her lawsuit is heard. Walker said it was clear Wood’s gender identity as a woman was “an identity that remains true to Ms. Wood both inside and outside the classroom.”
But the majority on the appellate bench disagreed.
“Wood’s suit, by her own admission, challenges only the statute’s application to her speech 'in the classroom,'" the majority opinion by U.S. Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom states. That means the state law governs her actions as an employee of the state, and does not infringe on her rights as a private citizen.
“When a public-school teacher addresses her students within the four walls of a classroom whether orally or in writing — she is unquestionably acting “pursuant to [her] official duties.” Interacting with students during class time, quite literally, is a teacher’s “official dut[y],” the opinion reads.
Newsom was appointed to his seat by President Donald Trump in 2017. Another Trump appointee, Andrew Brasher, joined Newsom in the majority opinion.
But U.S. Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, dissented.
“Ms. Wood has substantially demonstrated that her use of her preferred personal title and pronouns constitutes private speech on a matter of public concern rather than government speech,” he wrote.
He also asserted Florida officials have “recently come to believe that the First Amendment does not prevent it from dictating what can and cannot be said. Not surprisingly, its attempts at speech orthodoxy have so far not succeeded.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 signed Florida’s notorious “don’t say gay” law, which originally prohibited instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity in the early grades but was extended through high school in 2023; a 2024 legal settlement clarified that some discussions of the topics are permitted. Also in 2023, the state expanded the law to restrict pronoun usage in public schools.
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