A former Pinellas County schools transgender teacher claims he was forced to resign due to the school district’s implementation of Florida’s 2023 law that restricts the use of preferred pronouns.
Toby Tobin filed a federal lawsuit this week, alleging that the district discriminated against him based on his gender, in violation of a recent Supreme Court decision on federal Title VII standards. The lawsuit follows prior administrative procedures to determine if the district violated Tobin’s rights by refusing to refer to him as Mr. Tobin after the law went into force.
The US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division received a complaint from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as part of these actions. The department expressed interest in the matter, according to Gabe Roberts, Tobin’s lawyer at the Scott Law Team. “However, after the election (of President Donald Trump), that interest went away.”
The department granted Tobin the ability to file a civil suit. Despite living with his family outside of Florida and working without such restrictions, Tobin said he felt driven to oppose the law.
“I can either just stay quiet and just let it happen, or I can show my son there’s always another way, there’s always another option,” said Tobin, who worked as a fifth-grade math and science teacher at Cross Bayou Elementary for two years. “You don’t just give up.”
A representative for the school system stated that the district does not comment on pending litigation. Other entities named as defendants, such as the Florida Department of Education, did not reply to requests for comment.
Tobin’s case is the latest in a long line of legal problems stemming from the contentious legislation. A Brevard County teacher made headlines earlier this month when she was laid off for using a student’s chosen pronouns without parental consent.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is currently fighting the law in federal court.
When Tobin started working for the school system in 2021, he was forthright about his identity as a transgender male.
“I was hired as Mr. Tobin,” he said. “They had no problem with it.”
Only after the legislature passed the pronoun law did issues occur. The law stated that in public schools, a person’s gender is an “immutable biological trait” and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex”.
Teachers could not ask students to use such pronouns, and students were not required to comply. The State Board of Education then amended its regulations to make violations of that legislation punishable under the educators’ Principles of Professional Conduct.
Tobin anticipated how the school district would react and took many measures to avoid using “Mr.” while not being forced to misgender himself as “Ms.”
He bought a parcel of property in Scotland and took on the title of “Lord.” The district declared that they could not address him as Lord Tobin. He became a Universal Life Church preacher and donated to the Principality of Sealand in order to become a count.
Tobin, 30, had expected to settle down in the community where he had so many personal contacts, with his son attending Cross Bayou Elementary School in Pinellas Park and having just purchased a home a year prior. But it became evident, he claimed, that state rules had created a situation in which he couldn’t be himself while keeping his work.
“I teach math and science, and I’d be Count Tobin,” he said. “The district said, ‘This is not appropriate. You have to be Ms. Tobin.'”
Roberts said he expected the district and state to ask the judge to dismiss the case on the grounds that the legislation is valid.
“Effectively I was forced out,” said Tobin, who worked until July 1, 2023 – the day the pronoun rule became law. “As sole provider for my family, we wound up having to flee Florida.”
“Obviously we disagree with that,” he said. “We expect to prevail on the litigation for the simple reason that what schools are doing to teachers like Toby is against federal law.”
He cited the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bostock vs. Clayton County, in which a six-justice majority led by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, decided that it is a violation of Title VII if an employer “intentionally penalizes an employee for being homosexual or transgender.”
Roberts also said that the law violated free speech and privacy rights.
Tobin wrote “Call Me Mr. Tobin,” a self-published children’s book, to explain why he left his job to his students. He stated that he did not place a strong emphasis on gender issues but rather encouraged the children to use their problem-solving talents and to be themselves.
That was all he said he was doing in class.
“Transgender people such as myself are not teaching gender ideology in the classroom,” Tobin said.
