A High Court judge in the UK has ruled that Christian teachers must ‘celebrate’ transgender students, upholding a ban on educators who will not use a pupil’s preferred pronouns.
According to Christian Concern, Mr Justice Pepperall ruled last week that Christian maths teacher, Joshua Sutcliffe, should continue to be indefinitely banned from the profession for failing to use the preferred pronouns of a female student who identifies as a boy.
In May 2023, the Teaching Regulatory Authority ruled that Sutcliffe breached “professional conduct ethics” after praising a group of students during a maths lesson by stating, “Well done, girls.”
The student said Sutcliffe’s remark was targeted and deliberate, a claim supported by another teacher who alleged they had previously informed Sutcliffe of the student’s preferred pronouns.
In his judgment, Pepperall said that teachers must use compelled speech and “respect and celebrate the pupil’s personal autonomy,” regardless of the teacher’s religious or philosophical beliefs.
The ruling follows the Conservative government’s draft transgender guidance for schools published in December 2023, which suggests that teachers should not be forced to use preferred pronouns against their conscience.
However, the judge ruled that Sutcliffe’s conscience, based on his Christian beliefs, did not justify referring to a transgender student according to her biological sex.
“The draft guidance, which of course postdated these events and the panel’s decision, envisaged that schools would rarely agree to change a pupil’s pronouns but did not purport to suggest that such course would never be appropriate,” the judge said.
“As the draft made plain, such decisions are complex and are made by schools and not individually by each member of staff according to their own assessment of the merits of the request.”
The judge stated that Sutcliffe did not treat his pupil with “dignity and respect” because she “passed as a male and was known by male pronouns” at the school.
Sutcliffe responded to the ruling, describing himself as a “marked man.”
“I still stand by my Christian convictions that it is harmful and detrimental to affirm gender confused children. This is the belief I am fighting for which is shared by not only Christians but many who do not believe in harmful transgender ideology.
“I have been a marked man ever since I dared to express my Christian beliefs in a school and tell the media about how I was punished for doing so,” he said.
Sutcliffe went on to say, “I refuse to go against my Christian faith and conscience and cause a child harm. I refuse to apologise for that. I do not believe it is any child’s best interest to affirm them in something that is untrue.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “At the Christian Legal Centre we lived this case in real-time alongside Joshua. The way Mr Justice Pepperall describes Joshua in his judgment reads like fiction.
“The picture Mr Justice Pepperall paints of Joshua and his beliefs is a far cry from the caring, kind and brilliant maths teacher we know Joshua to be.
“We create a turbulent environment in schools when facts are turned on their head against the teacher in a context where children are identifying as the opposite sex. Teachers are treading on eggshells for fear of saying the wrong thing.
“The teaching profession is not a safe place to navigate for Christian teachers. Expressing long-held Christian beliefs on marriage and gender can get you suspended, investigated and barred.
“We are looking at the judgment carefully. We will continue to support Joshua for as long as it takes to secure justice.”
