Good news! I saw an article in the Daily Signal about a teacher in Virginia who was fired for not using a student’s preferred pronouns. Well, the teacher sued the school board, and it went all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court! Finally, after 5 years of litigation, the school board capitulated and agreed to settle the case for $575, 000. Let’s have some happy news for a change!

Here’s the article from Daily Signal:

In 2018, one of Vlaming’s female students at West Point High School began identifying as a transgender male. Although Vlaming consistently used the student’s preferred name, the French teacher carefully avoided using third-person pronouns so as not to violate his own religious beliefs.

That courtesy wasn’t good enough for West Point’s school board and school administrators. When Vlaming refused to use preferred pronouns, they fired the teacher for “creating a hostile learning environment.”

That’s right. Vlaming wasn’t fired for what he said. He was fired for what he didn’t—and couldn’t—say.

Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom and a local attorney, Vlaming sued in state court in 2019, asserting claims under Virginia law and the Virginia Constitution.

[…]The majority decision, written by Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, was a landmark victory for religious freedom and free speech. The state Supreme Court held that the Virginia Constitution protects religious exercise—not just religious speech—unless it threatens the public’s safety or order.

I thought this part was interesting:

In so ruling, the state’s highest court rejected U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s highly criticized majority opinion in Employment Division v. Smith. That decision gutted religious freedom when a challenged law could be considered both neutral and generally applicable to everyone.

A lot of people name Antonin Scalia when asked who the most conservative SCOTUS Justice is, but I always say Clarence Thomas. He’s the best, and I wish we had 9 of him on the Supreme Court. Scalia inconsistent, just like Barrett, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.

More:

The court also ruled for Vlaming on his claim of compelled speech. Merely “objectionable” or “hurtful” speech, it emphasized, poses no threat to public safety or order.

Vlaming’s refusal to use preferred personal pronouns based on his Christian religious beliefs thus was protected even if others subjectively took offense to his silence, Kelsey wrote in the opinion.

[…]“[I]f liberty means anything at all,” Kelsey wrote, “it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. … All the more, it means the right to disagree without speaking at all.”

Seeing the writing on the wall, the West Point School Board finally relented. In a settlement finalized Monday, the board agreed to pay Vlaming $575,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees. It also agreed to expunge Vlaming’s firing from his employment record.

And this part I really liked – the school board changed their policy to match the law of Virginia:

And for good measure, the school board took the initiative and changed its policies to conform to new educational policies from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, which protect free speech and parental rights.

Can you imagine how much it must cost to fight a case like this for 5 years, though? This is why I am so careful about saving money for the case where I get sued. I have to do with a lot less goodies day by day. It’s a real struggle to say yes to a board game here, or a Steam game there. Instead, I like to put money into savings, in the case where someone like this female student decides to sue me like this for not saying the things that she demands that I say.

It’s shocking that I have to live like this in America, but leftists are dangerous people. They have no mercy on those that cause them to feel bad. It doesn’t bother them at all to take someone’s job if that person refuses to play along with their woke delusions. I guess that’s better than using violence, but honestly, leftists are often using violence to get their way as well. It’s quite a scary time to be alive.

What I’ve done, to mitigate the risk, is just avoided talking to people who are likely to be offended. And that’s just people who are in the traditional Democrat voting groups, like the young unmarried female student in the story. They’re just not safe to talk to. Their first instinct when confronted with normal, moral Christian men is to drag them to court, and have the court punish good men for their moral and spiritual convictions.

I don’t like that I have to censor myself and stop doing the things that I want to do, just because leftists are offended. And since society seems to side with them over me – dragging Christians into court because we take the Bible seriously – I’ve learned just not give them the same friendliness and openness that I give to more moral and trustworthy people. I wouldn’t tell Stalin what I really think, and I wouldn’t want to be Stalin’s friend. Stalin is not a good person. Stalin is not safe to make friends with.

I just want to make one general point about this social trend of letting young secular leftists attack Christian men because society is offended by moral leadership and spiritual leadership. Society is fine with Christian men paying taxes. They love when Christian men protect and provide for women. But they DO NOT want those same men to lead anyone morally and spiritually. And I’m going to tell you right now – Christian men are tired of being used by society as ATMs. We are not interested in dating and marriage unless our leadership is respected.

The more that good Christian men see society trashing us for our desire to lead on moral and spiritual issues, the less interested we are in getting married and raising children. We are not interested in just paying the bills, and letting the feelings-oriented people, and their allies in the courts, trample all over us. We will opt out of that.