patrick.net

After Vlaming was fired, the West Point schools superintendent, Laura Abel, said: “Discrimination … leads to creating a hostile learning environment. And the student had expressed that. The parent had expressed that. They felt disrespected.”

According to the TV station WWBT, Vlaming’s firing led to student petitions on either side of the issue and a walkout in which around 100 students carried signs that said: “Men are men. Women are women.”

In his lawsuit, Vlaming says his rights to speak freely and exercise his religion were violated. The suit states that Vlaming “sincerely believes that referring to a female as a male by using an objectively male pronoun is telling a lie”.

Among remedies sought by Vlaming are $1m damages, reinstatement in his job and a declaration that his rights were violated.

He is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based group which the Southern Poverty Law Center watchdog has called “one of the most influential groups informing the [Trump] administration’s attack on LGBTQ rights”.