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  "path": "/news/indiana-transgender-settlement-teacher",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-04T17:49:44.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.advocate.com",
  "tags": [
    "Alliance defending freedom",
    "Indiana",
    "transgender",
    "_**LGBTQ**_",
    "_**Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.**_",
    "Indianapolis Star",
    "Indiana Republicans target transgender people in one of new year’s first anti-LGBTQ+ bills",
    "Indiana Republican introduces bill that would erase transgender people and deny marriage equality",
    "GLAAD",
    "importance of simply respecting",
    "statement",
    "Indiana ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth upheld by appeals court",
    "Indiana advances bill that would 'mandate discrimination' against trans people, ACLU warns",
    "Indiana School Reverses Decision to Deadname Trans Teen at Graduation",
    "Groff v. DeJoy"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\n\nAn Indiana school district will pay a teacher $650,000 after he lost his job for refusing to call a transgender student by their name.\n\n**Keep up with the latest in** _**LGBTQ**_**+ news and politics.**_**Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.**_\n\nOrchestra teacher John Kluge sued the Brownsburg Community School Corporation after being fired in 2018 for refusing to comply with the district’s preferred name policy, according to the _Indianapolis Star. _Kluge had refused to comply with a policy, first implemented in 2017, that required teachers to use students’ names in an official school database. The database included preferred names for transgender students.\n\n**Related** : Indiana Republicans target transgender people in one of new year’s first anti-LGBTQ+ bills \n\n\n**Related** : Indiana Republican introduces bill that would erase transgender people and deny marriage equality\n\nInitially, Kluge referred to all students by last name, but when the district said he needed to use their first names, he resigned rather than show that basic level of respect. GLAAD stresses the importance of simply respecting the pronouns people ask one to use and using them as requested, just as a person would strive to pronounce someone’s name correctly.\n\nThe conservative Alliance Defending Freedom took up Kluge’s cause and negotiated the six-figure settlement between the music teacher and his former employer. “After almost five and a half years, common sense has prevailed at Brownsburg,” ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of U.S. Litigation David Cortman said in a statement.\n\n**Related** : Indiana ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth upheld by appeals court\n\n**Related** : Indiana advances bill that would 'mandate discrimination' against trans people, ACLU warns\n\n**Related** : Indiana School Reverses Decision to Deadname Trans Teen at Graduation\n\n“This settlement confirms what the law has always said: Public schools cannot force teachers to violate their religious beliefs. Title VII requires employers to accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs and practices. When they fail to do so—or worse, announce that they will grant no religious accommodations, as Brownsburg did—they can be held accountable. We hope this settlement shows teachers that they do not have to bow the knee to ideological mandates that violate their religious beliefs. And schools should learn that refusing to accommodate religious employees can be illegal and expensive.”\n\nThe ADF claims that Kluge’s case was bolstered after a U.S. Supreme Court decision,_Groff v. DeJoy, _affirmed that employers must accommodate workers’ religious practices.\n\nKluge no longer works in public education, according to the _Star_.",
  "title": "Indiana community settles with transphobic teacher for $650,000"
}