South Carolina Bill Would Make Schools Say "It Is False" To Use Trans People's Pronouns

The bill's sponsor, Representative Jordan Pace, called for those criticizing a bill that would require schools to declare transgender people's pronouns to be false as official school policy.

A new bill in South Carolina would mandate schools to make it official policy that using a transgender person’s pronouns is “false.” The bill would also mandate that teachers could not go by their preferred pronouns or gendered honorifics if they do not match their assigned sex at birth. Lastly, it would allow parents to more easily remove books from the classroom. When confronted with the effects this legislation would cause, Dr. Michael O’Brien, a pediatrician in the state, the bill’s sponsor, Representative Jordan Pace, responded, telling Dr. O’Brien to “repent.”

The bill is House Bill 4707, and it is the latest in a slew of "Don't Say Gay or Trans" laws. It closely mirrors other laws such as Florida’s most recent "Don't Say Gay" expansion. That law also has a provision barring transgender teachers from going by their preferred pronouns. This resulted in at least one transgender teacher being fired in the state for using their honorific, and another transgender teacher being told she could no longer go by “Ms. Doe” and instead would have to go by “Mr. Doe” or “Teacher Doe.”

However, House Bill 4707 extends beyond Florida’s legislation. It requires every school to adopt the stance that “the sex of a person 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.” Essentially, it compels schools in South Carolina to teach or assert that disregarding a transgender person’s pronouns is the “appropriate” action and that using a transgender person’s pronouns is “wrong” or “false.”

See the provisions here:

HB4707 provision mandating schools to make it official policy that it is “false” to use a transgender person’s pronouns.

HB4707 provision making it against the law to share one’s pronouns if they differ from one’s assigned sex at birth.

The implications of this bill for transgender teachers and students in South Carolina are profound. Teachers would be forced to change their titles to those of their assigned sex at birth. Likewise, teachers would be forced to “out” themselves as transgender if they wished to stay in compliance with the law. Moreover, students would receive instruction portraying transgender identity as “incorrect” or “false,” severely impacting transgender students' well-being.

When responding to the bill, a local pediatrician, Dr. Michael O’Brien, offered the bill’s sponsor his insight into the bill, stating that it is a “cruel bill designed specifically to harm trans South Carolinians” and offering to discuss the bill with him. Representative Pace responded by telling him that it is “cruel” to affirm transgender people and that instead, he should “repent” and hope that the “lord shows [him] mercy.”

This is not the first time Representative Pace has weaponized the powers of the state against transgender people. Previously, Representative Pace announced that his caucus successfully shut down the Medical University of South Carolina’s gender clinic for trans youth. This came after the South Carolina Freedom Caucus, of which Pace is a member, threatened to strip funding from the hospital unless it shut the clinic down. The hospital acquiesced to legislative pressure and shut the clinic down in December 2022.

Bills like this are likely to proliferate in 2024. Florida’s first Don’t Say Gay law was passed in 16 states in the aftermath of its passage in Florida. Similarly, Florida’s bathroom ban on transgender adults has also been introduced in South Carolina. Already, 89 bills have been filed for the 2023-2024 legislative session across the United States, and state legislatures have not even opened for 2024 yet. Meanwhile, the transgender community continues to endure an escalating series of legislative attacks.