gender ideology Archives

A court ruled against a social worker who was fired for displaying “transphobic” children’s books that depict a “binary view of gender” in his school offices.

Alliance Defending Freedom filed suit on behalf of Education Specialist Rod Theis in May 2025, alleging that InterMountain Education Service District (IMESD) violated his First Amendment right to freedom of speech by firing him for displaying the books She is She, He is He and Johnny the Walrus in his office.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against Theis’ contention that his free speech was violated by IMESD, a local government agency which provides special education, technology support and administrative services to 17 school districts in Eastern Oregon.

She is She and He is He, by the Radiance Foundation’s Bethany and Ryan Bomberger, explore the goodness of being a girl or a boy. The books also explain what the Bible says about being loved by God and created in His image, and they teach scientific facts about male-female differences and our unchangeable, biological sex.

Johnny the Walrus, by Daily Wire podcaster, theocratic fascist and best-selling children’s author Matt Walsh, is about a boy with a vivid imagination who pretends to be a walrus. Activists try to help him “become” a walrus, but, (spoiler alert) this is impossible.

But IMESD believes that displaying the truth about biological reality, is “a hostile expression of animus toward another person relating to their actual or perceived gender identity.”

The original complaint notes that IMESD staff are allowed to “decorate their offices with personal items conveying a multitude of messages concerning numerous topics.” These include social and political messages, such as posters touting support for gender-neutral pronouns, the black lives matter movement, “activism through art” and President Barack Obama.

IMESD Assistant Superintendent Aimee VanNice told Theis a school employee had filed a “bias incident complaint” against him for displaying the books. As a result, the education service district would “conduct an investigation of the display of the Books’ covers as ‘a potential bias incident relating to another person’s gender identity.’”

During that investigation, VanNice “demanded to know how [Johnny the Walrus] could be used to support a transgender student,” even though the book does not directly depict transgenderism.

She also asked, seemingly in all seriousness, “Why can’t Johnny be a walrus?”

ADF’s lawsuit pointed out that other educators had many books on display, including somefeaturing “violence, suicide, explicit language, domestic abuse, drug and alcohol use, and sexual content.” The complaint also pointed to the fact that schools serviced by IMESD had English and science classes that also teach “a binary view of gender.”

But the agency determined Theis’ display of the children’s books violated its Speech Policy and fired him.

Circuit Judges John B. Owens and Jennifer Sung, appointed by President Brack Obama and President Joe Biden, respectively, ruled against him, arguing there is a “robust body of precedent holding educators speak as government employees when they convey messages to students within the four walls of a school.”

Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, appointed by President Donald Trump, disagreed, saying:

Consistent with what everyone already naturally recognizes, the Supreme Court has made clear that the mere presence of students does not automatically transform all personal speech by government employees into government speech, and that school employees thus retain their rights to free, personal expression behind the schoolhouse gate.

VanDyke said that the books in Theis’ office were not disruptive and the administration had discriminated against his scientific and biblical views. He wrote:

And while not all private speech is protected within the school context, school officials’ distaste for a personal viewpoint can never provide an adequate justification for censorship.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Mathew Hoffmann told the Daily Citizen:

After the decision, we are evaluating our next steps. The government can’t silence a speaker just because it disapproves of what he says, yet InterMountain fired Rod Theis after a single person objected to his views.

Hoffman added, “We will continue to defend Rod’s First Amendment freedom to express his views like other employees.”

The case is Theis v. InterMountain Education Service District.

Related articles and resources:

Austin Fire Chaplain Wins Settlement After Being Fired for Defending Biological Reality

‘Johnny the Walrus’ Loved by Critics – But Makes Some Amazon Employees and Customers Really Sad

YAF Sues University of Minnesota Over Forced ‘Transgender’ Speech Codes

Oregon School District Pays $650,000 for Firing Teachers Opposed to ‘Trans’ Policy

Teacher Wins $650,000 After Being Fired for Refusing to Use ‘Trans’ Pronouns

Teacher Wrongly Fired for Refusing to Use ‘Preferred Pronouns’ Wins $575,000

Transgender Resources

Free Speech Victory for Virginia Teacher Fired Over ‘Transgender’ Pronoun Policy

The University of Minnesota Medical School has created “MyGender Dolls” to help 4- to-10-year-olds “explore and affirm their gender.” Children can “accessorize” the dolls by switching between male and female genitals, reproductive organs, hairstyles and clothing.

According to the MyGender Dolls website, the “award winning dolls” offer “a new play-based therapeutic approach for trans and gender diverse children – and the clinicians who support them.”

“We make gender fun!” the website boasts.

Let’s be clear: This is not “fun.” This is the deliberate sexualization and confusion of young children by the University of Minnesota Medical School.

The paper dolls will be available soon for mental health providers, school counselors, educators, pediatricians and “allied” health professionals – who could use the dolls without parents’ knowledge or consent.

As Dr. Quentin Van Meter told The College Fix, “[T]he dolls are ‘just a grooming tool’ and ‘have no place in an ethical medical care world.’”

Dr. Van Meter, a pediatric endocrinologist and past president of the American College of Pediatricians, explained that learning about unchangeable, biological sex is essential to normal child development:

A child will recognize their biological sex by age three. They are able, by age five, to understand that boys grow up to be men, and girls grow up to be women, but until age 7 years, kids don’t really understand the immutability of the sexes: they can wrap their heads around the fact that a girl can be a tomboy but is still a girl and a boy can play female dress-up, but he remains a boy.

Children who are taught they can turn into the opposite sex will become “confused” and “vulnerable to anxiety,” Dr. Van Meter said.

In addition, many of these young children go on to undergo damaging, irreversible medical interventions like puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries.

The dolls were created and developed by University of Minnesota’s Dianne Berg, Ph.D., Rachel Becker Warner, Psy.D., and Ashley Finch, from the National Center for Gender Health, an initiative of the medical school’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health.

Eli Coleman, a sexologist and psychologist, is a past president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). He oversaw the most recent version of the organization’s so-called “Standards of Care.”

Subsequent reviews of social and medical interventions for those with sexual identity confusion have found Coleman’s “Standards of Care, Version 8” to be filled with harmful, unethical, experimental and pseudoscientific treatment recommendations.

Florida and the Federal Trade Commission each filed lawsuits against WPATH for promoting child mutilation and making false and unsubstantiated claims while promoting sex-rejecting procedures for minors.

Berg, Warner and Finch began developing MyGender Dolls in 2020, the medical school’s Discover magazine reported in a since deleted article.

Berg gave her explanation of why children need paper dolls with interchangeable genitalia:

It’s really important to address the belief, “I’m not a ‘real’ boy because I don’t have these private parts,” versus, “I am a real boy, whatever my anatomy looks like.” It’s about helping children develop tools to cope with messages in society that could lead to shame.

She added:

I think everyone should be learning that there’s diversity in gender identity and that what makes you “real” is not what your body parts are but how you think and feel.

In a post on X, the Daily Citizen’s Glenn T. Stanton commented on University of Minnesota’s medical school embracing this gnostic nonsense, instead of scientific truth:

This is a world-class university proudly announcing it no longer believes in the most basic facts of biology and foundations of all other knowledge.

This is a world-class university proudly announcing it no longer believes in the most basic facts of biology and foundations of all other knowledge.

Once you deconstruct what it means to be human as male and female in favor of a contra-scientific ideology, it’s game-over for… https://t.co/kv3Pk0V9Gi
— Glenn T. Stanton (@GlennStanton) July 26, 2026

If you or someone you know is struggling with transgenderism, Focus on the Family offers a one-time complimentary consultation with our ministry’s professionally trained counselors. The consultation is free due to generous donor support.

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Related Articles and Resources:

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

Counseling for Sexual Identity Concerns: A Measured, Careful, and Compassionate Approach.

Florida Sues Medical Groups for Promoting ‘Transgender’ Mutilation of Children

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

HHS Finalizes Report Finding Sex-Rejecting Procedures Harm Minors

HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender’ Medical Interventions for Minors

INVESTIGATION: Taxpayers Fund Transgender Experiments on Children

The Journey Back to My True Identity

New Video Equips Parents and Counselors to Help ‘Gender Dysphoric’ Children

U.K.’s Review of Child Gender Policy Reveals Profound Failures That U.S. Still Defends

‘The WPATH Files’ Exposes ‘Surgical and Hormonal Experiments on Children’