COLUMBUS, OHIO — A divided federal appeals court in Ohio ruled against the state’s fourth-largest school district on Thursday, in a case that pitted its gender pronoun policies against the rights of students who believe there are only two genders.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the suburban Olentangy Local School District could not prevent students from using gender-related language that others find offensive, siding with parent education advocates, who argued that the policies were unconstitutional.
National Membership Organization The lawsuit was filed for the first time v. Olentangy in 2023, saying district policies requiring the use of “preferred pronouns” for peers constitute a violation of students’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The district said the rules are intended to prevent bullying and discrimination.
The lawsuit has captured widespread national attention, with a number of conservative political groups, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu rights organizations lining up against the policy and leading gay rights groups and schools generally lining up in its defense.
The court found that the district “failed substantially” to meet the standard that allowing such speech would “substantially and materially 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 offensive — just as it continues to debate many other issues surrounding transgender rights,” Circuit Judge Eric Murphy wrote for the majority. “A school district may not distort this debate by forcing one side to change the way it communicates its message or by forcing a party to express a different point of view.”
Circuit Judge Jane Stranch responded with a dissent written entirely without the use of third-person pronouns for individuals.
“While it may be a new phenomenon for many to use new pronouns or avoid using pronouns, it is certainly possible,” Stranch wrote, adding that “social norms around pronouns have changed over the course of American history, and these changing norms have not suddenly rendered people speechless.”
It is not clear how widespread this ruling will be. One Ohio teachers union told the court that Olentangy’s policies are very similar to those used by districts across the state.
A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit ruled against the organization in July 2024, ruling that the school district had sufficiently shown that the speech it sought to ban would disrupt classroom instruction. This earlier decision also stated that these policies did not force students and families represented by the parent group to use any particular pronouns to address LGBTQ+ students or suppress alternative viewpoints.
Thursday’s ruling overturned that decision and sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Alginon Marbley in Columbus to issue a preliminary injunction against Olentangy, which enforces pronoun policies.
At issue in this case were overlapping district policies prohibiting the use of gender-related language that other students might consider degrading, dehumanizing, objectionable, or offensive and calling for the use of “preferred pronouns” for peers.
The district’s electronic devices policy — which applies both inside and outside of school hours — prohibits the transmission of “disruptive” material or material that could be considered harassing or disparaging of 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 school’s authority. The policy prohibits offensive comments, jokes or slurs based on a range of factors, including gender identity.
The district’s Code of Conduct reflects many of the same themes for a third time.