A high school orchestra teacher refused to call his transgender students by their first names and was forced to resign rather than be fired. John Kluge, who taught at Browsnburg High School in Indiana, is a Christian who felt the school’s policy on referring to transgender students by their preferred pronouns went against his religious beliefs.
The Indianapolis Star reported that the school had threatened to fire Kluge if he did not start to refer to his transgender students by their first names – he had resorted to calling them by their last names – and so, under pressure, he resigned. After thinking about it further, Kluge attempted to withdraw his resignation but officials had already started processing it and refused to stop.
“I’m being compelled to encourage students in what I believe is something that’s a dangerous lifestyle,” he told the Star. “I’m fine to teach students with other beliefs, but the fact that teachers are being compelled to speak a certain way is the scary thing.”
Aidyn Sucec, a sophomore at the high school, said LGBT students believe that Kluge’s decision not to refer to them by their preferred pronouns denied them “personhood.” “I think that Mr. Kluge’s religious beliefs have absolutely no place in a public high school. I think that everybody advocating in support for Kluge needs to think about what it is like to be a transgender person and what it is like to live your life knowing that there are people who would say that you are not an actual human being and actively disrespect you,” Sucec told reporters.
Last Monday, school officials held a school board meeting with this topic was addressed. Some spoke in favor of Kluge’s resignation and others thought the school had been too hard on him, advocating “reverse bullying” and “free-speech restrictions.” Some parents at the meeting even spoke up against the school’s transgender naming policy in general.
Advocates of these kinds of policies believe Title IX allows school officials and students to enforce their naming policy while opponents think it infringes on free speech rights of Christians and other students who don’t want to be compelled to speak in a certain way. Title IX, when interpreted accurately, has nothing to do with gender issues in the context with which it’s now utilized to force speech, nor does it have anything to do with transgenders who are choosing to opposite of their gender at birth. Instances like this are a gross abuse of Title IX and a violation of the free speech rights of anyone who wishes to speak freely.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
