Eighteen Republican state attorneys general are supporting a former high school teacher from Indiana who refused to comply with his school district’s trans student guidelines and lost his job because of it.
The Republican coalition, which is co-led by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, filed an amicus brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, asking the judges to rule that the teacher’s religious freedom was violated.
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John Kluge, a former music teacher at Brownsburg High School, was told that he must use the correct name and pronouns for trans and nonbinary students. He requested a religious accommodation, claiming that it was against his religion as a Christian to use the correct name and pronouns of trans students.
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Kluge asked to be allowed to use last names—not first names or pronouns—for all students as an accommodation. But trans students noticed that he avoided talking to them altogether.
According to one filing in the case, a trans student said Kluge’s behavior made him “feel alienated, upset, and dehumanized. It made me dread going to orchestra class each day.”
Kluge resigned in 2018.
Aidyn Sucec, one of Kluge’s former students, spoke out against him after the resignation in 2018.
“He started calling us by our last names, it was one of those things where he was technically treating all the students the same, but everybody was aware of why he was doing it,” Sucec said. “We all knew that it was because of the three trans students.”
Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group, helped Kluge sue, and they’re trying to get the appeals court to look at the case again in flight of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling in another case.
“Brownsburg squandered an opportunity to showcase to students respect for people with different religious beliefs and practices. In this case, Kluge, a public school teacher, could not refer to transgender students by their preferred (non-natal) first names consistent with his religious beliefs,” the amicus brief stated.
“By addressing all students by their last names, this teacher conscientiously worked to treat everyone equally and respectfully while also staying faithful to his own religious convictions,” Rokita said in a press release. “But no concession short of full surrender will placate the powerful forces devoted to making sure we all march in lockstep with the transanity agenda.”
Sucec said that Kluge said he was concerned about the high suicide rates for trans people. Sucec said he misunderstands the problem, and tranpshobia is what kills trans people, not being trans.
“He said that he doesn’t want to condone students going down a path where 20 percent of trans people try to kill themselves but I don’t think he recognizes the people like him and doing things like this are the reason that 20 percent of trans people try to kill themselves,” Sucec said.
“I know he thinks he’s doing the right thing but he’s not listening to the actual people this affects.”
“School will be a more comfortable environment” without him, Sucec said.
81% of trans adults have considered suicide, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
lan H. Meyer, one of the study’s authors, said, “A lack of societal recognition and acceptance of gender identities outside of the binary of cisgender man or woman and increasing politically motivated attacks on transgender individuals increase stigma and prejudice and related exposure to minority stress, which contributes to the high rates of substance use and suicidality we see among transgender people.”
The brief was signed by the attorneys general of Indiana, Kansas, West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota.
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
