The Supreme Court of Virginia on Thursday reversed a lower court’s decision by reinstating a lawsuit brought by a former West Point High School teacher after he was fired for refusing to refer to a transgender student by his requested pronouns.

Peter Vlaming, a former high school French teacher, refused to use male pronouns to refer to a student who had recently undergone a gender transition and legal name change. Vlaming said doing so went against his religious beliefs and violated his right to free speech, according to court records.

Vlaming filed a $1 million lawsuit after the school board fired him for violating the school division’s anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies. However, the King William Circuit Court dismissed his case, finding that Vlaming did not provide valid reasons that the law could accept his suit.

In his opinion, Virginia Supreme Court Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote that Vlaming’s rights were violated by the board and that his claim should go forward.

“Compelling an educator’s ‘speech or silence’ on such a divisive issue would cast ‘a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom’ on a topic that has ‘produced a passionate political and social debate,'” Kelsey wrote.

The opinion said the Virginia Constitution “seeks to protect diversity of thought, diversity of speech, diversity of religion, and diversity of opinions.”

The court’s decision was a blow to school leaders and advocates from parts of the commonwealth who urged the Supreme Court of Virginia to uphold the lower court’s dismissal in an amicus brief.

“Equality Virginia and our allies are still analyzing the ruling, but one thing is abundantly clear: Virginia’s students should be treated with dignity, especially in the public school system,” said Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia, in an email to the Mercury. “LGBTQ+ youth deserve safety, respect and the opportunity to thrive. We will keep fighting for them until that goal is a reality for all students, regardless of where they live in the commonwealth.”

Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal organization focused on protecting religious freedoms that represented Vlaming, said a court should hear the former teacher’s case.

“Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say,” said ADF Senior Counsel Chris Schandevel, who argued before the court on behalf of Vlaming. “The Virginia Supreme Court rightly agreed that Peter’s case against the school board for violating his rights under the Virginia Constitution and state law should proceed. As a teacher, Peter was passionate about the subject he taught, was well-liked by his students, and did his best to accommodate their needs and requests. But he couldn’t in good conscience speak messages that he doesn’t believe to be true, and no school board or government official can punish someone for that reason.”

Fluctuating state law

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law requiring local school divisions to adopt model policies on transgender students. The policies adopted by former Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration directed schools to use the names and pronouns identified by students as corresponding with their gender identity, among other requirements.

However, beginning in September 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration overhauled the policies to prioritize parents’ “fundamental rights” in a sharp reversal from the stance the state took under Northam and a Democrat-dominated legislature.

As part of the changes, the new policies require parental approval for any changes to students’ “names, nicknames, and/or pronouns,” direct schools to keep parents “informed about their children’s well-being,” specify that student participation in activities and athletics shall be based on sex and state that “students shall use bathrooms that correspond to his or her sex, except to the extent that federal law otherwise requires.”