Idaho: New Law Prohibits “Compulsory Gender Language” For Public School Employees

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Idaho on Monday passed a new law that is intended to ensure public school employees cannot be fired if they refuse to refer to trans-identifying students by names and pronouns that do not align with their biological sex and legal identity.

Prohibiting “compulsory gender language,” House Bill 538 was signed into law by Republican Gov. Brad Little after being passed with large majorities by the Republican-led Idaho House of Representatives (in a 58-11 vote) and the Republican-controlled Idaho Senate (in 25-9 vote).

The law is designed to ensure that “no person in the State of Idaho is compelled by any governmental entity in the State of Idaho to communicate statements that such citizen believes to be false.”

Concerning the reasoning which drove the state Legislature to pass it, the law explains: “The United States Supreme Court has long held that no government actor may seek ‘to compel a person to speak its message when he would prefer to remain silent or to force an individual to include other ideas with his own speech that he would prefer not to include.’”

Moreover, the law explains: “There are increasing pressures by state government actors to compel public employees, as well as students in public schools, to communicate certain preferred personal titles and pronouns that many such employees and students do not prefer to communicate.”

Accordingly, the law prohibits any governmental entity in Idaho from “compelling any public employee or public school student to communicate preferred personal titles and pronouns that do not correspond with the biological sex of the individual seeking to be referred to by such titles or pronouns.”

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