The Wisconsin English teacher, Jordan Cernek, argues in the suit that the district violated his freedom of religion and free speech in mandating the use of the students' preferred names and pronouns.

The Wisconsin English teacher, Jordan Cernek, argues in the suit that the district violated his freedom of religion and free speech in mandating the use of the students’ preferred names and pronouns.

A high school English teacher is suing a Wisconsin school district, alleging it did not renew his contract last year because he refused to use the preferred names of two transgender students.

Jordan Cernek’s federal lawsuit alleges the Argyle School District violated his constitutional and civil rights to be free of religious discrimination and to be able to express himself according to his religious beliefs when it did not renew his contract because he refused to abide by a requirement that teachers use the names or pronouns requested by students.

  • OneMeaningManyNames@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Misgendering someone is an insult like calling someone names, or bad mouthing someone. There is no fundamental right to insult other people, even when you rationalize it with beliefs that happen to be protected.

    For example,

    I might believe whatever I want about my neighbor, eg that he is a fascist cunt, and I am allowed even to say so in private.

    But saying it to his face is like a breach of the rule of law, as is saying so to others. I might think he should be lynched daily, but saying so might well be a crime.

    You might even say that ignoring him in the elevator when it is customary to greet your neighbor, although not illegal, it is considered just rude by society standards.

    So at the very least we have a teacher being systematically rude to his students for religious reasons (or “Gender critical”, all the same), thus making him a dick. See my recent comment on Maya Forstater for some quite similar case, only this asshole is aggravated because he is in a position to scar kids.

    Even if your belief is protected like religion, or you push it to be (TERFism), you have no right to violate another person’s dignity because of your beliefs.

    Bigots are bitter about it, and that is why they want to destroy the constitution and the rule of law to have their way. By extension they are against some basic principles like freedom of religion (of others).

    Plus, there is research that shows that respecting pronouns is a mental health protector for trans and non-binary teenagers, so this make the teacher a perpetrator of demonstrably abusive behavior towards his students. For these reasons I believe he was quite rightly discontinued, and I would believe the same if he were outright terminated.

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      3 months ago

      arguably there is a right to insult people, but people who insult others aren’t a protected class for employment purposes.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Misgendering someone is an insult like calling someone names, or bad mouthing someone. There is no fundamental right to insult other people, even when you rationalize it with beliefs that happen to be protected.

      technically insults are protected under free speech, but there is significant incentive to prevent that from being free speech within the grounds of a school, a state funded one especially.

      Talking professionally, insulting people is just bad, and you shouldn’t do that, it’s a good way to get canned.

      But saying it to his face is like a breach of the rule of law, as is saying so to others. I might think he should be lynched daily, but saying so might well be a crime.

      i feel like it’s also worth including that two parties might have a deep division between them, however that doesn’t stop them from discussing it, at the end of the day we all believe stupid shit, and non of it really matters, the only thing that matters is that we don’t kill each other, and if both parties can manage that while holding opposing beliefs this would be a functional default state for society. Specifically the one that america was founded upon. However it’s also important to remember the consequences of inaction as well.

      even if we go with a religious perspective, Christianity doesn’t tell you to lynch queers. Or people of other religious backgrounds. You can literally just not be an asshole about it. Just because you dont believe queer people are real doesn’t mean you have to vocalize it.