'Court kicks Florida mom's deceptive anti-trans case to the curb' & other Mon/Tue news briefs

Attention-seeking mom loses anti-trans appeal - The Trump Administration is using Florida mom January Littlejohn's story to justify its attack on the rights of transgender Americans. Florida Gov Ron DeSantis used her story as a justification for his now muted 'Don't Say Gay' law. While Littlejohn was invited to Trump's address before Congress last week, a court ruled against her 

From LGBTQNation: 

 A federal appeals court this week upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit brought by January Littlejohn against her child’s school district in Tallahassee. In 2022, Littlejohn sued the Leon County School District and staff members at Deer Lake Middle School for allowing her 13-year-old child to use they/them pronouns and go by the “masculine” nickname “J” without their express permission. 

 . . . The U.S. District Court dismissed the case for the Northern District of Florida in December 2022. The school officials named in the case “did not force the Littlejohns’ child to do anything at all,” Judge Robin S. Rosenbaum of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in this week’s decision. “And perhaps most importantly, defendants did not act with intent to injure. To the contrary, they sought to help the child.” 

 “Even if the Littlejohns felt that defendants’ efforts to help their child were misguided or wrong, the mere fact that the school officials acted contrary to the Littlejohns’ wishes does not mean that their conduct ‘shocks the conscience’ in a constitutional sense,” Rosenbaum wrote.

 In a concurring opinion, Judge Kevin C. Newsom said he considered the actions taken by the school district officials “shameful.” But the question at hand, he wrote, was “whether it was unconstitutional.” 

 According to a post I published in 2022, the narrative that the school did all of this without Littlejohn's knowledge or permission isn't accurate. The following is from the post: 

CNN did a fact check and discovered, according to emails, that Mrs. Littlejohn knew full well what was going on. In fact, she was the one who notified the school about her trans son:

CNN obtained emails that show Littlejohn wrote the school in 2020 and notified a teacher that her child wanted to change pronouns. Contrary to the governor's portrayal of the story, Littlejohn also wrote that she would not stop her child from using preferred pronouns or name of choice at school. Littlejohn references these emails in her lawsuit against the school and they were reported by the Tallahassee Democrat in November. 

 . . In an August 27, 2020, email to a teacher, Littlejohn stated, in part, "This has been an incredibly difficult situation for our family and her father and I are trying to be as supportive as we can. She is currently identifying as non-binary. She would like to go by the new name [redacted] and prefers the pronouns they/them. We have not changed her name at home yet, but I told her if she wants to go by the name [redacted] with her teachers, I won't stop her." 

The teacher thanked Littlejohn and asked if she should share with other teachers. Littlejohn explained it was difficult and confusing, and went on to write, "Whatever you think is best or [redacted] can handle it herself." In another email the same day, Littlejohn told the teacher, "This gender situation has thrown us for a loop. I sincerely appreciate your support. I'm going to let her take the lead on this."

According to CNN, Littlejohn filed a lawsuit against the school because she claimed that after this email, the school went behind her and her husband's back and created a Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Student Support Plan with the child. She also claimed that she was denied access to information.

However, the school district spokesperson said the following:

"From the moment Mrs. Littlejohn first emailed her child's teacher to inform our staff of the situation, this has been handled together in partnership with clear communication. We understand that outside entities have now become involved, but the family clearly instructed the school staff via email to allow their child to 'take the lead on this' and to do 'whatever you think is the best,' " Chris Petley, Leon County Schools communications coordinator, said in a statement to CNN.

In other news briefs:

BREAKING: Trump administration announces end to gender-affirming care for transgender veterans - An act of animus which I hope will be challenged in the courts. 

How to gird your gay loins for Trump's tariffs - We are also going to be affected by Trump's tariffs.

A new anti-LGBTQ+ bill in Hungary would ban Pride event and allow use of facial recognition software - Some folks in America probably want to follow Hungary's lead.