Bill Would Ban Forcing Government Workers To Use “Preferred” Pronouns Of Coworkers

A bill that would block Wyoming’s government from compelling employees to use a coworker’s preferred pronouns cleared its first committee vote with unanimous approval and now heads to the state Senate floor. 

If it becomes law, Senate File 77 would forbid the state and all its subdivisions — such as towns, counties, and schools — from compelling or requiring government employees to call their coworkers by “preferred pronouns.”

As originally introduced by Sen. Lynn Hutchings, R-Cheyenne, the bill would have let people sue the government for money damages, if they were fired or denied other benefits like grants, loans, contracts or licenses as a consequence for misgendering people.

But the version the Senate Judiciary Committee is now recommending to its legislative chamber does not have that provision. It would still let people sue, but for declaratory or injunctive remedies instead. Meaning, people could ask the courts to make the government stop harming them over their refusal to use certain pronouns. But they couldn’t sue for public dollars, under the new version.

This issue has surfaced multiple times in Wyoming.

A Cheyenne substitute teacher, Gene Clemetson, told Cowboy State Daily last year he was kicked out of school buildings for refusing to use a student’s transgender-identity name.

As of Tuesday, Clemetson had not sued the school district.

In 2023, Ashley Willey, a teacher working for Sweetwater County School District No. 1, sued federally over its policy requiring teachers to use preferred pronouns.

U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl dismissed that part of Willey’s case, saying she doesn’t have a free-speech right to disobey her employer’s speech policies.

“The Court is not persuaded that calling students a preferred name, including one that does not align with a student’s biological sex, forces Mrs. Willey to forgo her First Amendment right to free speech,” wrote Skavdahl. But, the judge added, Willey may still have a viable religious-freedom argument over the same issue.

That case is ongoing.

'Chairwoman'

Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie, told the committee he likes the direction of the bill. But he was unsure whether it would bar state employers from disciplining people who purposely call male coworkers “she,” for example, as a way of bullying them.

Wyoming Education Association government affairs director Tate Mullen said the law would make tension between what people think they can do under state law and what federal courts allow for hostile workplace claims. 

Matt Sharp, senior counsel with social-conservative leaning law group Alliance Defending Freedom, countered, saying the bill doesn’t prevent agencies from disciplining actual bullies. It just bars the government from compelling people to say certain things.  

The bill’s promise is that of the freedom to stay silent, rather than say what someone commands, Sharp added. 

Genital Checks

Wyoming Equality executive director Sara Burlingame, conversely, said the bill does open up tensions between federal harassment actions and state law.

She also said it fosters rudeness.

“In the absence of state mandated genitalia and chromosome testing, all pronouns are ‘preferred,’” said Burlingame.

“So what stops us from referring to you as ‘Chairwoman?’” Burlingame asked of Committee Chair Sen. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, who is a male. “My own good sense does. My sense of civility and good manners stops me from doing that. And all these exist outside a government mandate.”

Burlingame said the bill would continue the “bad faith effort” of calling people by a gender with which they don’t identify, which she said is a form of bullying.

Except, Truth

Nathan Winters, executive director of Wyoming Family Alliance, said the bill actually reinforces a person’s capacity to cling to the truth.

“It’s fine for someone to believe something about themselves, even if it doesn’t line up with the reality – and that’s because it’s between them and their own conscience,” said Winters. “Yet when they compel someone else to acquiesce to their own belief, that is problematic. Because it forces that individual into what they believe would be a lie.”

The bill passed on a 5-0 vote. It must survive three readings in the state Senate and House of Representatives, and the governor’s desk to become law.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.