Wyoming law will soon protect individuals and groups from being forced to use someone’s transgender, or ‘preferred,’ pronouns. The law is a victory for free speech and religious liberty.
CHEYENNE, Wyoming (LifeSiteNews) -- Public school teachers and other government employees cannot be coerced or forced to use inaccurate transgender pronouns under a new Wyoming law.
"The state and its political subdivisions shall not compel or require an employee to refer to another employee using that employee's preferred pronouns," according to the legislation. "Preferred pronouns" refers to a demand by a person with gender confusion to use inaccurate pronouns. For example, a man who claims to be a woman would demand people use "she" and "her" pronouns. The list of pronouns has grown over the years and now includes "they/them," "ze/zir," and "ey/em/eir," according to a document compiled by Arizona State University. It lists an entire table of pronoun possibilities.
The Wyoming law also protects the rights of contractors and other entities doing business with the state by forbidding the use of "preferred pronouns" "[a]s a condition of receiving a grant, loan, permit, contract, license or other benefit afforded by the state or a political subdivision."
Republican Gov. Mark Gordon did not sign the law; it went into effect because he did not veto it after three days. Gov. Gordon said he did not see a need for the bill.
"Fortunately, to the best of my knowledge, Wyoming political subdivisions are not engaging in such practices, and any attempt to do so would likely face legal challenges,” Gordon wrote in a letter shared with The Federalist. “I must conclude that this bill, rather than addressing an urgent policy concern, is instead meant to convey a public perspective on gender and the use of preferred pronouns.” He said he supports the "intent" of the bill but worried about "excessive regulation."The governor has a history of siding with social liberals on key cultural issues. "Gordon removed a radiologist from the state board of medicine for opposing child gender mutilation, and he refused to sign a 2023 bill to prevent men who think they are women from competing in women’s sports, calling the measure 'draconian,'" as reported by The Federalist. He signed legislation prohibiting transgender drugs and surgeries for minors but said he had reservations about how it might affect "parental rights," i.e., parents' ability to subject their children to mutilating procedures.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) praised the pronoun bill's passage.
“No one should lose their job or face punishment at work for declining to say something they believe is false. Words and language carry meaning, and when used properly, they communicate truth about the world," Senior Counsel Matt Sharp stated in a news release.
"Forcing individuals to say things that are false – such as inaccurate pronouns – imposes real harm on the speaker," Sharp stated. "In no world is it acceptable for the government to force good educators or other public servants out of a job all for the sake of promoting gender ideology. With this legislation, Wyoming is rightfully stepping into the gap to protect freedom of conscience."The religious liberty nonprofit group thanked Senator Lynn Hutchings for pushing through the legislation.
ADF has successfully represented individuals who have been punished for not endorsing someone's gender confusion by using their made-up pronouns or new names.
Several months ago, it settled a lawsuit for $450,000 against an Ohio school district that tried to force out a teacher for refusing to accept the new "gender identities" of two students, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.
A school district in Virginia similarly agreed to pay $575,000 after it fired Peter Vlaming, a teacher who declined to use a teacher's new transgender pronouns.
As previously reported by ADF:
The West Point School Board fired him after he stated he couldn’t in good conscience comply with the superintendent’s demand that he refer to one of his students using pronouns inconsistent with the student’s sex. Vlaming tried to accommodate the student by consistently using the student’s new preferred name and by avoiding the use of pronouns altogether. But school officials ordered him to stop avoiding the use of pronouns to refer to the student, even when the student wasn’t present, and to start using pronouns inconsistent with the student’s sex.
The Wyoming legislation is the latest action to protect the rights of government employees against compelled speech.
Further protections at the federal level could come from President Donald Trump's executive orders. For example, one executive order on "military excellence and readiness" appears to prohibit the armed forces from recognizing someone's new pronouns.
Another executive order opposes public school employees from facilitating a student's "social transition" to the opposite gender, which can include calling the person by a new pronoun.
