A UK Christian teacher, Glawdys Leger, who claimed that identifying as LGBT is a sin, has lost a High Court challenge against her firing. A professional conduct panel deemed her remarks unprofessional.
High Court Justice Beverly Lang dismissed Leger's appeal on Thursday, asserting that the panel's findings constituted a “justifiable and proportionate sanction for her unacceptable professional conduct.” Lang also concluded that there was “no breach” of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Leger, a modern languages teacher, was dismissed from Bishop Justus Church of England School in Bromley in May 2022 following comments made during a presentation to year-seven students in February 2022.
The lesson, part of a human rights curriculum, included a PowerPoint on LGBT topics and “protected characteristics,” covering gender identities such as pansexual, asexual, intersex, and transgender.
During the lesson, Leger expressed her Christian beliefs and explained why she felt LGBT ideology contradicted those beliefs, stating that identifying as LGBT is “not fine” and a “sin.” She claimed that “God should be before LGBTQ+” and remarked that “people will always be seen by God as having their birth gender,” describing trans-identified individuals as “just confused.”
A complaint was subsequently filed by a student who documented her remarks, leading to Leger's suspension in March 2022 and her eventual dismissal two months later for making “inappropriate comments” to students.
In December 2023, the Teaching Regulation Agency published the panel’s findings, which did not prohibit her from teaching again.
Leger argued in the High Court that her statements required more context and that publishing the results violated her privacy, contending that the school's mandate for a broad curriculum did not apply to her as an individual teacher.
According to the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which represented Glawdys Leger, the teacher objected to the content of year-seven lessons incorporated into religious education classes. The CLC claims these lessons included what they describe as “extreme content on gender identity with themes that begin to suggest to children that humans can be born in the wrong body.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the CLC, remarked that Leger “cared deeply about the children in her care and wanted to teach them about the tolerance and hope that is found in the Christian faith,” adding, “For that, she has been punished and even risked loss of her license to teach.”
