The Religious Rights of Teachers are Often at the Forefront of Pronoun Cases

Articles | August 26, 2025 | by Catholics for Catholics

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Teachers often clash with the imposition of pronoun names, an expert lawyer says.

By Catholics for Catholics

As it turns out, court cases involving teachers are now at the forefront of the transgender wars.

The cases of teachers who refuse to use transgender pronouns, citing religious concerns, have become lawsuits across the country in recent years, according to Newsmax.

Take for example the case of Cameron Atkinson, who defends clients for We The Patriots USA. He is currently defending Mirella Ramirez, a former California kindergarten teacher who mentioned her religious beliefs, she is Catholic, for her negation to call a Five-year-old transgender student by preferred pronouns.

Yes, a five-year-old child. Let that sink in. Ramirez sued the Oakland Unified School District in 2024, saying it intruded upon her First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.

“As with any lawsuit, the specific facts, arguments, and legal precedents can make seemingly similar cases extremely different,” reported Newsmax.

BREAKING: Today we filed a federal lawsuit with @dhillonlaw on behalf of Mirella Ramirez, an Oakland, CA kindergarten teacher fired for refusing to participate in the gender transition of her five year-old student. Read our complete press release here: https://t.co/8vE2xuKQoS… pic.twitter.com/nuZU6yf36i

— We The Patriots USA (@WTPatriotsUSA) December 19, 2024

“Everybody’s got a different situation, so a lot of times in these cases everything is highly fact-dependent,” Atkinson said. “I think where most of the lawyers who are doing these cases across the country are focusing is the compelled speech angle, the Title VII religious discrimination angle and then whatever else arises during the course of the accommodation negotiations.”

Regarding Ramirez’s case, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler of the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California dismissed her lawsuit, saying the teacher’s speech was “not protected.” Still, Atkinson held off on an appeal and sought leave to amend the complaint, adding a Title VII claim.

If a District Court decision refuses Ramirez’s Title VII claims, it will without a doubt result in an appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco.

“We’re way too far away to suggest that this ultimately will go to the Supreme Court,” Atkinson said. “Candidly, at this point, the 9th Circuit depends on what draw you get. Because right now, [President Donald] Trump’s flipped enough seats up there that you can conceivably get a 2-to-1 panel like it’s happened in a lot of Second Amendment cases out there.”