Peter Vlaming

In little time, radical gender ideology has inundated our culture, our government, our healthcare, and our education system.

Until recently, nearly everyone agreed that sex was binary and immutable—you could only be either male or female, and this couldn’t be changed. But now, proponents of gender ideology insist that you must affirm anyone’s self-proclaimed “gender identity,” even if it goes against your conscience and the truth.

Unfortunately, a French teacher in Virginia had to learn this the hard way. After he expressed to school administrators that he couldn’t violate his beliefs, his school fired him, and he was left without a job. But he continued standing by his conscience, even all the way to the commonwealth’s Supreme Court. And by God’s grace, his stand resulted in a landmark win protecting religious freedom and free speech.

Who is Peter Vlaming?

For six years, Peter Vlaming was a popular and well-respected high school French teacher in West Point, Virginia. He also coached sports, sponsored student clubs, and drove a bus for the school.

He was friendly with students and teachers, and his evaluations were stellar year after year.

“I love French. It’s fascinating and beautiful,” Peter says. “I fell in love with it while in high school. After that and spending 11 years in France after college, I saw more than ever how learning a foreign language opens doors to whole new worlds for people. It’s a passion that I really enjoy sharing with my students.”

Unfortunately, Peter’s teaching career came to an abrupt end when school administrators demanded that he abandon his beliefs—both about language and about fundamental matters of human biology.

The school wanted him to embrace an ideological message about gender identity, leading him to face an unexpected setback in his career.

Why was Peter fired?

Peter couldn’t in good conscience comply with the school superintendent’s demand that he refer to one of his students using pronouns inconsistent with the student’s sex.

When one of Peter’s female students wanted to be referred to using a masculine name and male pronouns in class, Peter agreed to use the student’s preferred new name and went above and beyond to accommodate the student. Students in his French class used French names as part of the lesson on French culture.

“When she announced that she was adopting the new identity … I had the whole class choose new [French] names so that she wouldn’t be singled out,” says Peter. “I wasn’t provoking the student. We had a good rapport.”

But Peter also couldn’t endorse an ideology he didn’t agree with, so he decided to avoid using pronouns altogether when referring to the student. He understood that using biologically incorrect pronouns would be dishonest to his students and his faith, and he wouldn’t violate his conscience.

But when school administrators heard that he had decided not to use pronouns in school, they told him he had to refer to the student using masculine pronouns, even when the student wasn’t present, or else they would fire him.

Unfortunately, when Peter stood his ground, the school followed through on its threat.

“I was wrongfully fired from my teaching job because my religious beliefs put me on a collision course with school administrators who mandated that teachers ascribe to only one perspective on gender identity—their preferred view,” Vlaming said.

“I loved teaching French and gracefully tried to accommodate every student in my class, but I couldn’t say something that directly violated my conscience.”

Peter takes his case for free speech to the Supreme Court of Virginia

Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say. He was fired because his school was trying to compel his speech and force him to violate his conscience.

It wasn’t long before he reached out to attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom for legal assistance. In September 2019, he filed his lawsuit against the West Point School Board.

West Point High School had blatantly disrespected Peter’s free speech and demanded total conformity in utter disregard of Peter’s beliefs—and Virginia law. And the school had done so at the expense of Peter and his family.

“Because [Peter] wasn’t willing to become a mouthpiece for really a radical ideological agenda, the school fired him, and that had an impact, a negative impact, on his ability to get a job teaching French at any of the other schools in the area and ultimately, unfortunately had to lead to a career change,” says ADF Senior Counsel Chris Schandevel.

“So he and his family have suffered quite a bit financially, and just in terms of the disruption to their lives.”

Peter faced continued adversity, but that never stopped him; he fought all the way up to the state Supreme Court.

Peter secures a landmark victory

Thankfully, in December 2023, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that it would reinstate Peter’s lawsuit.

In its opinion, the commonwealth’s high court wrote that the Virginia Constitution “seeks to protect diversity of thought, diversity of speech, diversity of religion, and diversity of opinion.”

The ruling continued, “Absent a truly compelling reason for doing so, no government committed to these principles can lawfully coerce its citizens into pledging verbal allegiance to ideological views that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Virginia’s Supreme Court made it absolutely clear that the Virginia Constitution protects the right to free speech and the right not to be compelled to speak a message you don’t agree with.

This monumental ruling led the school board to settle Peter’s case. As part of the settlement, the West Point School Board agreed to pay $575,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees and to clear Peter’s firing from his record. Separate from the settlement, the school also changed its policies to conform to recently passed Virginia education policies that respect fundamental free speech and parental rights.

“I was formally branded as a harasser and a discriminator, which is just … so absurd,” explains Peter as he recalls his legal journey. “Be courageous … stand your ground, and live truthfully with love, and you’ll give others courage as well. At least that’s what I hope and pray for. Because if people don’t stand up and say, no, we’re not going along with totalitarianism, it just keeps on going.”

What Peter’s stand for free speech means for you

By God’s grace and with the generous help of our Ministry Friends, the case ended in a successful conclusion for Peter.

Thanks to Peter’s stand for his rights, Virginia now has some of the best protections for free speech and free expression in the country.

“I’m so relieved that our basic, fundamental rights of freedom of expression, of freedom of religion, have been upheld,” Peter said of the case afterward.

Are you ready to take a stand like Peter?

One way you can do that today is by supporting the work of ADF. We rely on the generosity of people like you to help fund our legal work. In fact, not one of our clients pays a dime for representation in court.

Today, your gift can help fuel critical cases like this one that protect your right to free speech, religious freedom, and more.