Transgender teacher’s pronouns aren’t protected by First Amendment, Florida says
The Palm Beach Post | By Stephany Matat | June 17, 2025
A former Pinellas County teacher, a transgender man, says he was exercising First Amendment rights by asking teachers and students to use his pronouns of choice.
Attorneys representing state education officials and the Pinellas County school district have asked a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit in which a former teacher said his First Amendment rights were violated after he alleged discrimination because of Florida’s “anti-pronoun” law.
The 56-page motion denied claims by former Pinellas County teacher Toby Tobin, who is a transgender man. In a lawsuit filed in April, Tobin claimed gender discrimination, retaliation and First Amendment violations by being “forced to resign” when administrators wanted Tobin to use pronouns based on his sex at birth.
Tobin claimed he was exercising his First Amendment rights by engaging in “protected speech on a matter of public concern”: Asking teachers and students to use his pronouns of choice, according to the complaint.
On June 12, the state’s lawyers denied all of Tobin’s claims and said being referred to by his choice of pronouns wasn’t protected by the First Amendment.
Moreover, the state said Tobin would have had to show he was speaking as a private citizen, not a public employee, on a matter of public concern, and that he would have to prove he was fired based on speech; Tobin quit.
“Tobin’s usage of biologically incongruous titles and pronouns is not a matter of public concern and thus unprotected,” said the motion submitted by attorney Bryan Weir, who is representing the defendants.
The state also alleged that its interest in having its law followed outweighs Tobin’s desire to be called by his preferred pronouns. The motion cited the state’s 2023 “anti-pronoun” law, which includes a provision that teachers cannot “provide to a student his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her sex.”
This lawsuit names Pinellas County School District, the Florida State Board of Education, the Florida Education Practices Commission and the Florida Department of Education. Comment is pending from Tobin, who released a book called “Call Me Mr. Tobin” days before filing the federal lawsuit.
Tobin’s lawsuit is another development in the legal fight against the anti-pronoun law, which was lauded and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023. Another lawsuit filed in 2023 by three Florida educators said the law was a First Amendment violation and threatened transgender and nonbinary teachers across the state.
The details of Tobin’s lawsuit
Tobin was a fifth grade teacher at Cross Bayou Elementary School in Pinellas Park from April 2021 to July 2023. In his complaint, Tobin said Pinellas County was aware of his gender identity when he was hired. During his time as a teacher, he asked students to call him “Mr. Tobin” and to use either they/them or he/him pronouns.
Tobin’s lawsuit says that in order to comply with Florida’s “anti-pronoun” law, school administrators told him he’d be required to refer to himself as “Ms. Tobin.” Administrators also told Tobin he couldn’t correct students who used the wrong pronouns.
Furthermore, Tobin tried to work with the school district by obtaining “honorific” titles. He bought a tract of land in Scotland so he could go by “Lord” or offered to go by “Coach” since he coached a swim team outside the school.
Tobin’s complaint says he was “subjected to ongoing pressure to comply with the school district’s instructions, which included misgendering himself and denying his own identity.”
He alleged he had no other option but resignation because of the “hostile work enforcement,” that is, “denying him the ability to express his identity in the workplace.”
