Florida can’t ban teacher from asking students to use her preferred pronouns, judge rules

Students protest after Florida education officials voted to ban classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation, in Tampa, Florida, on 21 April 2023. Photograph: Octavio Jones/Reuters

Florida cannot prohibit a 10th-grade math teacher from asking her students to call her by her preferred pronouns, a federal judge has ruled.

The decision from Mark Walker, the US district judge, is a blow to an anti-LGBTQ law championed by Ron DeSantis, the state’s governor, which prohibits discussion of sexuality in public schools. A 2023 expansion of the measure, widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, prohibits teachers and students from using pronouns that align with their gender identity.