#kluge

Back in January, an Indiana high school instituted a policy of allowing transgender students to request that teachers use their preferred names and pronouns rather than their birth names, after they submit written consent from both parents and doctors.

Orchestra teacher John Kluge--also the faculty sponsor of “Teens for Christ”--decided that requiring him to use his students’ preferred names violated his First Amendment rights, both his right to freedom of speech and his right to the free exercise of his religion. Kluge complains:

“I’m being compelled to encourage students in what I believe is something that’s a dangerous lifestyle. ... I don’t want to be compelled to speak in such a way that I believe I’ll be encouraging them in something that’s dangerous.”

His transgender students respectfully disagree with him:

“I think that it’s dangerous to have a teacher trying to enforce his religious beliefs under the guise of morality on students. ... 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.”

(In case you’re curious, the students are correct on this point: a recent study at the University of Texas at Austin showed that transgender youth who are able to go by their real names are less likely to have suicidal thoughts and to attempt suicide.)