In 2018, medical doctor David Mackereth was not hired by the United Kingdom
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) because he refused to use PGPs for transgender individuals, saying they went against his Christian faith. An employment panel in 2019 ruled that his views were "incompatible with human dignity" and that the DWP had not violated the
Equality Act. Mackereth opposed the ruling, as did the
Christian Legal Centre (a project of
Christian Concern), while the DWP welcomed the ruling. In November 2018, the
European Commission recommended guidelines emphasizing the "desirability" of using PGPs and gender pronouns that individuals prefer, including by teachers and students in accordance with
non-discrimination policies. The report also noted that only schools in
Greece,
Malta, and
Norway were required to respect people's name and PGPs, and stated this appears to be the case in
Finland and some regions of
Spain. Asaf Orr, the director of the Transgender Youth Project for the
National Center for Lesbian Rights, which represented the student in the case, said that the decision "opens the door to discrimination generally".
Andrew M. Koppelman, a
Northwestern University Professor of Law, had a similar opinion. John K. Wilson, an editor of the blog of the
American Association of University Professors, called the ruling good "for protecting faculty rights" but stated that the religious beliefs of a professor "should not give them special rights to mistreat students" and that professors do not have "full latitude" to determine which students get "respectful pronouns and which will not". In May 2021, in a written court statement appealing a decision in the case of
Forstater v Center for Global Development Europe,
Maya Forstater wrote: "I reserve the right to use he and him pronouns for male people. No one has the right to compel others to make statements they don't believe."
PinkNews described Forstater as "
gender-critical" and as claiming a "right to misgender trans women". The
Employment Appeal Tribunal judge
Akhlaq Choudhury overturned Tayler's judgement, finding that the gender-critical belief that biological sex is real, important and immutable is indeed protected under the
Equality Act; still, Choudhury made clear that the ruling did not mean "that those with gender-critical beliefs can 'misgender' trans persons with impunity". In October 2021, the
British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal judge Devyn Cousineau ruled that for those who are non-binary, trans, and not
cisgender, "using the correct pronouns validates and affirms they are a person equally deserving of respect and dignity." The December 2021 update of the
Equal Treatment Bench Book advised judges that the use of preferred gender pronouns is "common courtesy". The guidance states that there might be situations in which a witness might refer to a transgender person with "pronouns matching their gender assigned at birth" and that judges should be alert to "how someone prefers to be addressed". The
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also suggested that even though misusing the PGPs and name of a transgender employee does not violate
Title VII, doing so intentionally and repeatedly "could contribute to an unlawful
hostile work environment." EEOC decisions in ''Lusardi v. Dep't of the Army
(2013), Jameson v. U.S. Postal Serv.
(2015), and Jamal v. Saks & Co.'' (2015) concluded that intentional misuse of PGPs created a hostile work environment. The commission also said gender identity harassment may include repeated, and intentional, misuse of PGPs. The practice was revealed by
Freedom of Information requests made by campaign group Fair Play for Women. In October 2024, a Virginia school board settled with Peter Vlaming, a former high school French teacher who was fired for refusing to use a transgender student's preferred pronouns. Vlaming had used the student's preferred name but avoided third-person pronouns, citing religious reasons. In January 2025, the U.S. EEOC filed with courts to withdraw six of its own cases on behalf of workers alleging gender identity discrimination, after President Trump's
Executive Order 14168 which states that it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. The executive order specifically mentioned the April 2024 EEOC guidance on pronouns as one of the documents that should be taken down for promoting "gender ideology". In the same statement, the EEOC noted that they removed an internal app that displayed the user's pronouns to others. In January 2026, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling and held that a
Maryland school board's policy requiring staff to use transgender students' preferred names and pronouns did not violate a Christian teacher's
First Amendment rights to free speech or religion. == Feminist debate ==