Description: A Loudoun County Public Schools policy requires all faculty and students, regardless of their beliefs about biological sex and gender, to use the pronouns that students demand regardless of their biological sex.
ADF lawsuit prompts Loudoun County schools to end pronoun mandate
ADF attorneys represented high school teacher in free speech suit against Loudoun County School Board
Friday, Jul 18, 2025
LEESBURG, Va. – A Loudoun County Circuit Court ruling Thursday recognized that Loudoun County School Board no longer interprets its policy to require teachers to use pronouns inconsistent with students’ sex. The ruling was entered in a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys.
ADF attorneys represented Loudoun County High School history teacher Monica Gill in her lawsuit challenging the school district’s policy. The policy, adopted in August of 2021, allows students to choose their names and pronouns. At the time, officials said the policy would require teachers to use them too, regardless of their beliefs about sex and gender.
“Teachers should never be forced to promote ideologies that are harmful to their students and that they believe are false,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom. “We’re pleased Loudoun County Public Schools reversed course on its harmful policy and respects Monica’s, and other teachers’, fundamental right to speak according to their beliefs.”
“I’ve taught in Loudoun County for nearly 25 years, and I treasure all my students,” Gill said. “When Policy 8040 was enacted, the school district threatened to force me to lie to students about the fundamental truth of biological reality, which I could never do. I treat all my students, including those who identify as the opposite sex, with dignity and respect, and I’m pleased the school district has honored my constitutionally protected freedom to speak to my students in love and truth.”
In 2021, Loudoun County Public Schools adopted Policy 8040, which LCPS initially interpreted to require teachers to violate their beliefs by requiring them to address “transgender and gender-expansive” students by gender-identity-based pronouns rather than pronouns consistent with their sex. Then, following ADF attorneys’ free speech legal victory on behalf of another Virginia teacher, Loudoun County School Board changed its position, allowing teachers like Gill to avoid using any pronouns to remain consistent with their beliefs.
The circuit court’s Thursday ruling in Gill v. Loudoun County School Board affirms that position, explaining, “[o]n its face, Policy 8040 does not require teachers or other staff to use a pronoun to refer to a person that a teacher believes is inconsistent with the person’s sex. Instead, Policy 8040 permits staff to refrain from using any pronouns.”
“That’s good news for every teacher in Loudoun County,” Langhofer added.
ADF attorneys favorably settled some of the claims in this case in 2021 on behalf of Leesburg Elementary School teacher Tanner Cross, the teacher who originally challenged Policy 8040.
- Pronunciation guide: Langhofer (LANG’-hoff-uhr)
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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