Teacher Fights Florida Anti-LGBTQ+ Law, Says ‘State Can’t Deny My Existence’
When Katie Wood interviewed for the position of math teacher at Lennard High School in Hillsborough County, Florida, in 2021, she told the principal that she was a transgender woman and wanted to work only in a school that would make her feel welcome.
“I told her that as a transgender woman, it’s really important that I work at a school that affirms me,” Wood said.
The principal assured Wood that Lennard was that kind of school, and in August 2021, Wood, now 25, began her first paid teaching job out of college.
On her first day of class, she wrote “Ms. Wood” on the blackboard. She used “she” and “her” as pronouns consistent with her gender identity, and her students called her “Ms. Wood.” For the next two years, her fellow teachers, superiors and all other school staff called her “Ms. Wood.”
But the acceptance ended in the summer of 2023.
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Source: The Southern Poverty Law Center
Image source: Freepik.com