Dude. Just Use The Preferred Names Already. WTF.

According to this, there’s a dude right here in a suburb of Indy who used to teach at Brownsburg High School, who was forced to resign because he couldn’t be compelled to use the preferred names of trans students.

Note:  I said preferred NAMES, not preferred pronouns.

According to this, John Kluge, an orchestra teacher, would not comply with a policy that requires teachers to call trans kids by their preferred names rather than their birth names.

He cited religious beliefs, and a violation of his constitutional rights.

Huh?

Listen – if this were about pronouns, I would totally get it.  If I were a teacher and I was asked to refer to someone as “they” or “ze” or some other made up pronoun for a singular person, I would find EVERY POSSIBLE WAY to avoid doing that – even if I ended up sounding completely ridiculous.  (Think:  Zach says Zach wants an apple!)

And I’ve long said that if you’re a trans person who has switched from man to woman or woman to man, I’ll happily refer to you as whichever “he” or “she” pronoun you want, because those are REAL PRONOUNS, and I’m a polite person.  But if you’re fluid or genderqueer or whatever other made-up dumb thing you’ve decided to be that can change at a moment’s notice?  Nope.  Not playing.

But this guy, John Kluge, wouldn’t even use the trans people’s NEW FIRST NAMES, and I find that patently absurd.  Instead, he thought he found a suitable workaround, by simply referring to ALL students by their last names.  So in my case, he’d just call me Weaver.  I don’t necessarily have a problem with that, but it’s a dumb workaround.  If Steve now wants to be called Stephanie because he’s transitioning into a chick, then just call him Stephanie.

I fail to see why this is an issue.

But John says, “I’m being compelled to encourage students in what I believe is something that’s a dangerous lifestyle. I’m fine to teach students with other beliefs, but the fact that teachers are being compelled to speak a certain way is the scary thing.”

This is no different than calling a student by their preferred nickname, if you ask me. Using a preferred first name isn’t “encouraging a dangerous lifestyle.”  If a kid (let’s call him Steve) ends up completely transitioning to Stephanie, I guarantee it’s not because John Kluge called him Stephanie.

If this were a pronoun fight, I’d get it.  But this?  I don’t get.

In case you’re curious, students have to have written consent from a parent and doctor to request the name change, according to policy.

In the meantime, Kluge really wants his job back.

‘They’re acting as if I have (resigned), even though I’m pleading, ‘No,” he said. ‘I’m not dead yet. I still want to work here.’Kluge plans to appeal to the school board to get his job back. He had worked in the district for four years.

Kluge released a public statement saying he enjoyed his time teaching at Brownsburg.’I love serving the kids in the community and would like to continue teaching at Brownsburg. It’s unfortunate that the administration is not letting me come back and that they are unwilling to continue a reasonable accommodation that most people consider to be very common-sense,’ he said.’Again I appreciate teaching at Brownsburg High School and hope the board will reconsider terminating me.’

Anyway, this is where we are. And while I completely disagree with how Kluge is handling this, I blame the fact that it’s even happening on just how completely stupid our entire culture has become.