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A divided federal appeals court in Ohio ruled Thursday against the state’s fourth-largest school district in a case that pitted its gender pronoun policies against the rights of students who believe there are only two genders.
The full Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the suburban Olentangy Local School District cannot bar students from using gender-related language that is considered offensive, siding with parents defending education who argued that the policies were unconstitutional.
The national membership organization first filed suit against Olentangy in 2023, saying that the district’s policies requiring the use of peers’ “preferred pronouns” were a violation of students’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The district argued that the purpose of the rules was to prevent bullying and discrimination.
The trial attracted widespread national attention with many conservative policy groups American Civil Liberties Union and Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindu Rights organizations have come out against this policy, leading LGBTQ+ rights and school groups in general to defend it.
The court found that the district “fell well short” of meeting the standard that allowing such speech would “materially and substantially disrupt” school activities or violate the legal “rights of others” in the school community.
“Our society continues to debate whether biological pronouns are appropriate or objectionable – just as it continues to debate many other issues related to transgender rights,” Circuit Judge Eric Murphy wrote for the majority. “The school district cannot distort this debate by forcing one side to change the way it delivers its message or by forcing it to express a different viewpoint.”
Circuit Judge Jane Stranch responded in a dissent written entirely without the use of gendered, third-person pronouns for individuals.
While “using new pronouns or refraining from using pronouns may be a new phenomenon for many people, it is certainly possible,” Stranch wrote, “social customs surrounding pronouns have changed over the course of American history, and these changing customs have not suddenly made people unable to speak.”
It is not clear how far-reaching the impact of this decision could be. The Ohio Teachers Union told the court that Olentangy’s policies are largely similar to those used by districts across the state.
A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit found against the organization in July 2024, ruling that the school district had adequately shown that the speech it sought to ban would disrupt classroom instruction. That earlier decision also said those policies did not force students and families represented by the parent group to use a certain pronoun to address LGBTQ+ students nor suppress alternative viewpoints.
Thursday’s ruling overturns that decision and sends the case back to U.S. District Judge Algenan Marbley COLUMBUS to issue a preliminary injunction against Olentangy enforcing pronoun policies, which they did.
At issue in this case were overlapping district policies that prohibited the use of gender-related language that other students might consider derogatory, demeaning, unwanted or offensive and the use of peers’ “preferred pronouns.”
The district’s electronic device policy – which applies both during and outside of school hours – prohibits transmitting “disruptive” material or material that could be viewed as harassing or insulting other students based on their gender identity or sexual orientation, among other categories.
A separate anti-discrimination policy prohibits students from saying or writing “discriminatory language” when under the authority of the school. This policy prohibits offensive comments, jokes or profanity based on several factors, including gender identity.
Marbley’s order did not prevent the district from enforcing its anti-discrimination policy.
The district’s code of conduct echoes similar themes for the third time.