<\/p>\n
Public school teachers in Los Angeles, California, are no longer required to affirm the gender identity of trans-identified or nonbinary students as part of a mandatory training, according to an advocacy organization.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a\u00a0statement\u00a0Friday, the conservative Christian legal organization Liberty Counsel announced that the Los Angeles Unified School District had agreed to amend a requirement that teachers in the second-largest school district in the United States answer in the affirmative when filling out a questionnaire declaring, \u201cI am aware that LAUSD policy requires me to affirm and respect the identities of all students, including those who identify as LGBTQ+.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Filling out the questionnaire is part of the district\u2019s mandatory LGBTQ+ cultural training.\n<\/p>\n
Liberty Counsel sent the school district a\u00a0demand letter\u00a0on June 8 on behalf of \u201cChristian educators at LAUSD who wish to exempt themselves from LAUSD\u2019s mandatory LGBTQ+ Cultural Training Certification\u201d due to their \u201ctraditional religious beliefs regarding sexuality, marriage, and God\u2019s design for humankind.\u201d According to Liberty Counsel, \u201cA mandatory certification that requires affirmation of views contrary to those beliefs directly conflicts with their sincerely held religious convictions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Liberty Counsel warned the school district that the requirement that teachers affirm LGBT students likely violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees\u2019 religious beliefs. The letter noted that teachers were required to complete the training and certification and that failure to do so by the end of the school year could affect their employment.\n<\/p>\n
The law firm requested a response by June 12 confirming that \u201cthe District will accept and fairly consider requests for religious accommodation from the mandatory certification requirement based upon sincerely held religious beliefs, consistent with the requirements of Title VII\u201d and threatened legal action if it did not receive one.\n<\/p>\n
On June 10, the district changed the\u00a0language\u00a0in the questionnaire so that teachers only had to agree to the statement, \u201cI am aware of LAUSD nondiscrimination policies, including those regarding students who identify as or are perceived as LGBTQ+.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Los Angeles Unified School District did the right thing in changing its training certification language,\u201d Liberty Counsel Chairman and Founder Mat Staver said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFederal law is clear that teachers cannot be required to \u2018affirm\u2019 a student\u2019s perceived gender identity or use inconsistent pronouns against their personal religious convictions,\u201d he added. \u201cTitle VII ensures that people cannot be forced to choose between their faith and their livelihood.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
A sixth-grade teacher in the district said in a statement shared by Liberty Counsel that she feared losing her job after the district implemented the mandatory training.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI feared losing my job, yet I knew I had to stand firm in my faith and conviction,\u201d the unnamed teacher said. \u201cWhat a victory for religious liberty! Thank you, Liberty Counsel, for courageously defending the rights of believers and helping ensure that people of faith can remain true to their convictions in the workplace.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Another sixth-grade teacher thanked Liberty Counsel for \u201cadvocating for me as a Christian Educator not to have to agree with the LGBTQ lifestyle.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir support brought peace, strength, and protection for our religious convictions, ensuring public schools respect Christian employees,\u201d an 11th-grade teacher said.\n<\/p>\n
Even after the language was amended, the questionnaire still requires teachers to agree that \u201cinclusive education means creating a learning environment where all students, regardless of identity or background, feel respected and supported\u201d and to acknowledge understanding of \u201cLAUSD policies and procedures regarding how to address behavior that may constitute discrimination against a student, including a student who identifies as or is perceived as LGBTQ+.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
This article was originally published at The Christian Post. Photo Credit: Monkey Business Images\/Canva.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Public school teachers in Los Angeles, California, are no longer required to affirm the gender identity of trans-identified or nonbinary students as part of a mandatory training, according to an advocacy organization. Pray for your fellow intercessor. \u00a0 In a\u00a0statement\u00a0Friday, the conservative Christian legal organization Liberty Counsel announced that the Los Angeles Unified School District<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3764,367,2656,3247,91,202],"class_list":["post-30087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-backs","tag-challenge","tag-district","tag-liberty","tag-religious","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}