South Carolina’s attorney general is leading a legal battle over gender pronoun rules in the U.S.’s public school districts. 

AG Alan Wilson appeared on “The Faulkner Focus” on Friday to explain how some gender pronoun rules in school districts threaten free speech. 

The case started with a school district outside Columbus, Ohio, that adopted policies requiring everyone to use a student’s preferred pronouns, which parental rights groups challenged and lost in both the district and appeals courts. Now, Ohio and South Carolina are leading 23 states in a legal battle, claiming the action “reflects the unusually egregious government action here” and, “The First Amendment forbids school officials from coercing students to express messages inconsistent with the student’s values.”

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Wilson, who is co-leading the legal fight, said local school districts across the country, like the one in Ohio, are compelling students “to lie to violate their own personal viewpoints.”

“That is something that we cannot abide in Ohio, South Carolina or any state in this country,” he said. “Yes, the lawsuit has gotten struck down, or we have lost at the district court and the court of appeals level, but this is one of those cases that I think is best served by going to the US Supreme Court.” 

Wilson pointed out that in 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that teachers and students don’t shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate, but argues that the school district in Ohio is trying to force all students to say things that many might not believe in.

VIRGINIA TEACHER SAYS ‘A LOT’ OF STAFF DISAGREED, SOME QUIT OVER MANDATE TO USE STUDENTS’ PREFERRED PRONOUNS

“Parental rights groups are doing what I think groups around the country are all doing, and it’s trying to protect their children from being compelled to not only violate their First Amendment rights inside the schoolhouse, but this policy, the one in Ohio in particular, would do the same thing outside of school,” he said.  

“If you were at a mall on a Saturday or you were texting a friend or putting something on X or Twitter or whatever, you could be penalized when you showed up at school on Monday morning for using the wrong pronoun that someone found offensive,” he added. 

Sylvester Stallone is standing down on his initial plan to build an underwater barrier near his Palm Beach home. 

After he angered several neighbors in his affluent, waterfront community, Stallone made a plea during the Town Council meeting in Palm Beach on Thursday. 

Stallone previously addressed concerns about marine life and water quality on the Palm Beach shore near his $35 million mansion. 

SYLVESTER STALLONE ANGERS PALM BEACH NEIGHBORS WITH UNIQUE REQUEST TO PROTECT $35 MILLION MANSION

“We wanted to bring back this, it’s almost a sanctuary,” Stallone, 78, pleaded, according to The Palm Beach Post. 

“You’re great neighbors and you’ve been here a long time… we respect your work and the way you see this,” Stallone said, adding that his plan for the barrier “was not just a vanity thing.”

While the “Rocky” star attended the Town Council meeting with his wife Jennifer Flavin Stallone, neighbors continued to be angered by his message and dismissed his plea. 

Stallone made a plea during a Palm Beach Town Council meeting with his wife, Jennifer Flavin. (Getty Images)

“If you’re out there in the channel … and a big boat comes, you have to get out of the way quickly,” a former U.S. Army major general argued to the council and explained how the barrier would create a safety issue.

“A barrier like this would merely trap the trash and push it farther down the line,” a lifelong resident echoed. 

Council President Bobbie Lindsay joked and told Stallone, “It’s tough being so famous.”

WATCH: SYLVESTER STALLONE SHARES HE HAS ‘TONS OF REGRETS’

“I think today we’re being asked by our residents, and you can see where this is heading, to not support this particular application,” she said. “And I would hope that when we do that … that we also at the same time invite you to please work with us to go after some of these injustices that are happening in our waterway.”

The meeting concluded with Stallone agreeing to withdraw his application. 

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Reps for Stallone did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Stallone’s plans to build the underwater barrier in the Intracostal Waterway near his massive Palm Beach home stemmed from an application he previously submitted that neighbors were reportedly blindsided by, according to the outlet. 

The “Tulsa King” star’s application also included a request for a lease of state land due to the positioning of the barrier which is owned by the state, according to records. (Getty Images)

What appears to be billed as an environmental project needed to keep out debris and seaweed from the waterway, “the overall project purpose is to exclude boaters” from being near the property, a public notice from the Army Corps stated. Seaweed is listed as a secondary concern.

The proposal request from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection stated Stallone’s surrounding neighbors have until 5 p.m. on Christmas Day to comment on the actor’s project, according to the outlet.

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The “Tulsa King” star’s application also included a request for a lease of state land due to the positioning of the barrier which is owned by the state, according to records.

Records indicated the barrier application was submitted in January 2023, with plans received by the Army Corps in August. A month-long public comment period began on Oct. 24, where one question was submitted regarding manatees becoming entangled, and the proposed project’s effects on seagrasses.

In 2021, Stallone was confirmed as the buyer of a sprawling $35 million home, which sits on approximately 1.5 lakefront acres, facing over 250 feet of beach with a dock. (Amy Sussman)

“He bought a beautiful property,” Stallone’s neighbor Bradford Gary told the outlet, calling the home “one of the nicest West Indies houses” in the North End. “I can see why you’d want to protect it. But you can’t just kind of stake your claim and think you own the water.”

In 2021, Stallone was confirmed as the buyer of a sprawling $35 million home, which sits on approximately 1.5 lakefront acres, facing over 250 feet of beach with a dock.

The total living space – including a main house, a guest house and a pool pavilion near the keyhole-shaped pool in the backyard – is over 13,000 square feet. Between the main and guest spaces, the property has seven bedrooms and 12 baths.

Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright contributed to this report.

Former porn star turned pastor Brittni De La Mora is calling on age verification laws to become “mandatory” to “protect children” as Florida is set to effectuate legislation on the matter in January. 

Pornhub will soon no longer be available to Florida users after the Sunshine State instituted a new age verification rule for access to adult sites. Taking effect Jan. 1, 2025, the age verification rule is tied to the state’s HB 3, a measure that aims to protect minors online.

Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, emphasized to Fox News Digital that it favors implementing effective age verification, just not specifically in the way Florida’s law was designed, saying other outlets have incorrectly reported it doesn’t support age verification at all. 

“They’re deflecting accountability by saying that they don’t want to follow a simple law, which is age verification for pornography,” De La Mora said on “The Ingraham Angle.” “I don’t know exactly what they’re doing with their money, but I do believe that they are not out to protect young children.”

“Fifty-eight percent of minors that have watched pornography for their very first time — they watched it by stumbling upon it through a pop-up ad and so forth. And they weren’t looking for porn — porn was looking for them,” De La Mora said.

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Per the bill, a website or application that “contains a substantial portion of material that is harmful to minors” will be required to verify the age of the user. Through an “anonymous or standard age verification method,” it must confirm the user is 18 or older to proceed with engagement. 

In response to the specifications of the measure, Aylo elected to halt access to the adult site in Florida, saying in a statement that collecting “highly sensitive personal information” puts “user safety in jeopardy.” 

“First, to be clear, Aylo has publicly supported age verification of users for years, but we believe that any law to this effect must preserve user safety and privacy, and must effectively protect children from accessing content intended for adults. Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy. Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws,” Aylo told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

The statement later continued: “The best solution to make the internet safer, preserve user privacy, and prevent children from accessing adult content is performing age verification at the source: on the device. The technology to accomplish this exists today. What is required is the political and social will to make it happen. We are eager to be part of this solution and are happy to collaborate with government, civil society and tech partners to arrive at an effective device-based age verification solution. In addition, many devices already offer free and easy-to-use parental control features that can prevent children from accessing adult content without risking the disclosure of sensitive user data.”

Florida residents still using the app ahead of the deadline are met with a countdown pop-up of how many more days they have access to the site. 

“Did you know that your government wants you to give your driver’s license before you can access PORNHUB?” the pop-up reads. “As crazy as that sounds, it’s true. You’ll be required to prove you are 18 years or older such as by uploading your government ID for every adult content website you’d like to access.”

ADULT FILMMAKERS IN UTAH SEEK TO DELAY PORN SITE AGE VERIFICATION LAW

The pop-up also addressed how it supports minors not having access to the site, and said that preventing use is a “good thing.” It directed readers to alternative methods of blocking minor access, such as “Device-Based Age Verification.”

In this photo illustration, a PornHub logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen in Athens, Greece on March 16, 2022. (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

De La Mora continued: “I was in the porn industry for seven years, and I would be paid extra money to do aggressive, abusive scenes.”

She expanded on how the “pulling hair, spitting and choking” acts often used in porn clips have become “sexual education” for young people. 

After speaking with some young girls, De La Mora said many expressed not wanting to have sex again after their first sexual experience.

“I don’t blame the young boys. They are watching pornography, and this is what’s filling their minds, and this is what’s teaching them how to have sex,” she said.

“Protecting children is not a violation of your First Amendment rights in any way. I believe that our government has an obligation to protect children,” De La Mora said, arguing that adult content is “not created with children in mind.” “It is created for adults, and yet there has been no accountability for porn companies.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ communications office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.