In December 2024, The Alliance Defending Freedom boasted that it is representing teachers who misgendered students, and Fox News and The Daily Wire promoted the claim. “There are a lot of teachers coming to us,” seeking representation, boasted a representative for Alliance Defending Freedom, recognized as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The ADF is defending some of these teachers, and in December the group took victory laps for settlements that year totaling over $1 million and raising awareness for another ongoing case. Lawsuits like these are a part of the collective $3.2 billion financial burden U.S. schools faced as a result of “cultural conflicts” during the 2023-2024 school year. [SPLC, accessed 4/11/25; Fox News, 12/20/24; The Daily Wire, 12/30/24; EdSource, 12/4/24]

The Daily Wire highlighted one teacher’s $450,000 settlement in January. The outlet quoted the Alliance Defending Freedom’s claims that school policies protecting trans students violate “the foundation of morality and human identity,” and that teachers who call students by a name other than their legal name “participate in the social transition of [their] students.” The outlet also noted that the teacher wanted those trans students removed from her classroom. [The Daily Wire, 1/6/25]

Fox promoted a fired teacher’s endorsement of Trump’s executive order aimed at removing “gender ideology” from schools. A California teacher was fired from her tenured physical education position after making “racist, offensive,” and anti-LGBTQ posts on social media. She also refused to call students by their pronouns. She was eventually awarded a $360,000 settlement. Following Trump’s executive order mandating the defunding of schools with trans-inclusive policies, the teacher told Fox News Digital, “I'm on cloud nine. … Now, it's the teacher who participates in socially transitioning a student that is going to be in trouble.” [Sacramento Bee, 5/15/24; Fox News, 1/31/25]

The Daily Caller promoted a Wisconsin teacher’s settlement. A Wisconsin teacher refused to use the names and pronouns of two trans students and subsequently his contract was allowed to expire. The teacher — who was not represented by ADF — won a $20,000 settlement in March. [The Daily Caller, 3/10/25]

A transgender teacher in north Texas was forced to resign after being targeted by Libs of TikTok. A teacher at Red Oak High School was handed resignation papers after a video she made about her transition caught the attention of anti-LGBTQ provocateur Libs of TikTok, which made a post that garnered over 6 million views and the ire of a local representative. The teacher even privately asked her administrators for consent to transition, and said that “everybody embraced it.” Libs of TikTok is notorious for targeting LGBTQ educators online. Many of the people and entities targeted by the account have subsequently faced bomb threats and harassment. [Twitter/X, 3/26/25; CBS News, 4/3/25; Media Matters, 11/2/23]

The Daily Wire and National Review attacked a Colorado teacher for housing one of her trans students after he left home. In late March, The Daily Wire published what it calls an investigation into a teacher and her trans wife housing a 17-year-old trans student who left home after fighting with his mother. Both The Daily Wire and National Review emphasized factors such as his depression and anxiety diagnoses, neurodivergence, and turbulent home life in their coverage. The Daily Wire quoted the teen’s mother who claimed his teacher “stepped in and took advantage of my kid.” [The Daily Wire, 3/25/25; National Review, 3/25/25]

Right-wing media continue to accuse teachers of “transitioning” students — a claim that has made it all the way to the president. On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump said that schools were medically transitioning students, a blatant falsehood that right-wing media had been previously pushing. According to the National Center for Youth Law, “a parent, legal guardian, or other person with legal custody must authorize health care for a minor, including many of the medical and psychological services that fall in the category of ‘gender-affirming care.’” Just one state allows for 16-year-olds to authorize their own consent for gender-affirming care in “narrow, specified circumstances,” and zero states permit surgical intervention without parental consent. Even though several pundits have openly conceded that the claim is false, right-wing media continue to push this idea and similar ones. One Fox News guest claimed in February that transition begins with “social transition in the classroom with the teacher.” In March, Charlie Kirk insisted that teachers should be fired for not outing a trans student to their parents. Later that month, The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh went a step further, saying trans people “should be legally barred from teaching children.” [Media Matters, 9/10/24; National Center for Youth Law, August 2024; Fox News, Outnumbered, 2/25/25; Rumble, The Charlie Kirk Show, 3/6/25; The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 3/27/25]

The pattern is clear: Right-wing media claim to defend freedom of speech and religion in schools — but only when those freedoms are used to attack trans people. This selective outrage over compelled speech reveals that right-wing media is less concerned with defending educators’ rights, and more concerned with enforcing a rigid, exclusionary understanding of gender in school.