{"id":136748,"date":"2018-06-12T23:17:31","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T05:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=136748"},"modified":"2018-06-15T23:10:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T05:10:50","slug":"whats-in-a-name-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/12\/whats-in-a-name-2.html","title":{"rendered":"What’s in a name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
\nBy any other name would smell as sweet.”
\n— Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet,<\/i> Act 2, sc. 2<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A teacher claims he was forced to resign when he refused to call a transgender student by their preferred name, because he (of course) says it goes against his religion.<\/p>\n

Now, I grant that I respect freedom of religion, and being compelled to do something against one’s conscience is a hard thing. And I respect freedom of speech, and being compelled to certain speech by the state is a non-trivial burden.<\/p>\n

But. Dude.<\/p>\n

What if Mr. Kluge decided to refer to a student who was an unwed mother as “Harlot,” because he felt religiously obliged to do so?<\/p>\n

What if he refused to call a student named Muhammed (by birth or through conversion) by his name because he felt the name honored someone who blasphemed against Jesus?<\/p>\n

What if he refused to call a student by a new last name due to their mother remarrying, because divorce is a sin against God and to use the stepfather’s last name would be to support such a sinful and destructive action?<\/p>\n

What if he refused to allow female students to play in his orchestra because women should keep silent? Or refused to allow them to play the cello because his religious beliefs made him think that it was immodest for women to do so?<\/p>\n

Would we even be having this as a serious discussion right now?<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m being compelled to encourage students in what I believe is something that’s a dangerous lifestyle,” Kluge told the Indy Star last week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, if you felt that playing high school football was dangerous (something that legitimate medical evidence indicates), and you refused to allow students an excused absence from class for participating in that sport, even against school policy, would that be okay?<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m fine to teach students with other beliefs, but the fact that teachers are being compelled to speak a certain way is the scary thing.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, you are being asked to follow school district policy<\/a>, which allows for a change of name (for transgender purposes) with approval of the parents and a health care professional.<\/p>\n

Using their registered preferred name is not a religious burden. It’s, frankly, none of your business what name is registered in the school database, or why.<\/p>\n

I’m sorry, Mr Kluge — your religious identity doesn’t get to trump a student’s personal identity (esp. as affirmed by their parents). That’s part of the respect that a teacher owes their students, even beyond district policy.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

UPDATE: This newspaper article<\/a>\u00a0gives a bit more info According to it, Kluge had been referring to all students by their last name this year, to avoid having to say the particular student’s changed first name. It seems<\/i> the district decided that wasn’t an adequate solution to the situation, but it’s also not clear we have all the facts here.<\/p>\n

Things are further muddled by religious conservative groups swarming to Kluge’s defense, asserting, “”It appears that the real intolerance at Brownsburg High School lies in the hands of the administration against teachers who hold a sincere faith and a sacrificial love for their student.” It’s not clear in what way Mr. Kluge’s approach to this has resembled “sacrificial love.”<\/p>\n

The religious groups have also stirred up trouble (of course) over the parts of the district policy that say a transgender student — again, this is after a parent and a health care professional have signed off on this — can use the restroom of their identified gender. Cue parents clutching their pearls and worried that some nefarious teen rapist will somehow go through the process of convincing his parents and doctor that he is actually a transwoman and to submit paperwork to the school district, solely to sneak into the girls’ bathroom. Because of course that would happen.<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nDistrict approves resignation of Brownsburg teacher who refused to call trans students by preferred names<\/a><\/span>
\nBROWNSBURG, Ind. \u2013 The Brownsburg Community School Corporation says the resignation of an orchestra teacher who refused to call transgender students by their preferred name has been approved.<\/p>\n

The announcement was made at Monday night\u2019s school board meeting, which teacher John Kluge was in attendance to try and rescind his resignation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Original Post<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” — Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, sc. 2 A teacher claims he was forced to resign when he refused to call a transgender student by their preferred name, because he (of course) says it goes against … Continue reading “What’s in a name?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,109,15,378,110],"tags":[1670,1671,1362],"class_list":["post-136748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-church-state","category-media","category-intolerance-persecution","category-religious-zanies","tag-freedom","tag-names","tag-trans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/unnamed-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26939,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/08\/religious-freedom-for-me-but-not-necessarily-for-thee.html","url_meta":{"origin":136748,"position":0},"title":"Religious freedom for me, but not necessarily for thee","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Mar-12 9:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"See, I remember a time (maybe it was my upbringing) when religion was all about \"law & order\" -- there were religious commandments and rules and you had to obey them, and that was just like civil and social commandments and rules you had to follow.But somewhere along the line,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134986,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/07\/political-speech-cannot-compelled-state.html","url_meta":{"origin":136748,"position":1},"title":"Political speech cannot be compelled by the state","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 7-Oct-17 5:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And that includes some publc school districts levying punishment to student athletes who take a knee during the national anthem. 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Harsh language?”","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Mar-05 9:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"Not if you're in Australia and you feel the need to criticize a particular religion or religious group. Under Australia's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act of 2001, \"A person must...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29859,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/16\/more-religious-assault-twaddle-from-rick-santorum.html","url_meta":{"origin":136748,"position":5},"title":"More "religious assault" twaddle from Rick Santorum","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Aug-12 11:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"\"We have a president who, for the first time in American history, is directly assaulting the First Amendment and freedom of religion. He is going to tell you what to do in the practice of your faith. 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