The Florida “Parental Rights in Education Bill” bars Kindergarten through third grade teachers from addressing sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom. The bill was signed into law on March 28th. And as Jocelyn Stone reports, it’s part of a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the United States.
According to Bloomberg, so far in 2022, there are nearly 325 anti LGBTQ bills, with about 130 bills targeting trans people specifically.
Just last week, Alabama house of reps voted to make it a felony with up to 10 year prison sentence for doctor to prescribe puberty blockers to anyone under 19.
For many LGBTQ+ youth, their house is not a home. At school, many are given more of an opportunity to openly be themselves. But legislation like Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill threatens to take away this second home.
Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, also dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by opponents, bans educators in Kindergarten through third grade settings from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation. Other states including Texas, Ohio, Louisiana, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee have proposed similar legislation.
Policy expert at Equality Ohio, Kathryn Poe, say these bills try to erase LGBTQ and marginalized people from the classroom.
“If you’re an LGBTQ young person, if you are a family member of an LGBTQ young person or you simply love someone that’s LGBTQ, having those identities removed from the classroom can make people feel like they don’t exist. We are alienating an entire group of young people who desperately need our affirmation and support and their loved ones and family members, and we are denying them their existence in the classroom, which is really upsetting, especially because LGBTQ people are at higher risk for suicide depression.”
In Los Angeles, ninth grade teacher, Gen Valladao, believes this bill will have a strong negative impact on younger generations.
“If the kids are hearing about this bill being passed and the rhetoric around it, it’s automatically telling them that anything outside of, you know, straight gender is wrong.”
For Valladao, the legislation hits home on two fronts. As a gay woman, she notes how the bill impedes on queer teachers’ ability to openly mention their personal lives. And sometimes that honesty allows the students to openly share in return with her.
“A lot of times they’ll be like, Well, my sister is gay and like you talking about, this is really helped me to just be more accepting of my sister, like kind of feel support. So I would be put in a really tough position if I was, like legally not allowed to talk about my relationship with my students. And I feel like that’s if you’re going to ban that from teachers, then maybe all teachers should be able to talk about their relationships and then it gets into like a tricky situation.”
USC Sophomore Health and Human Sciences major, Kayla Parayno, says allowing teachers to talk about LGBTQ topics isn’t only important to those kids, but also to all younger generations.
“You know, I feel like teaching them teaching kids about different communities and like people who even like for non-queer students for like teaching them about like queer identities is really important just because it fosters like a more welcoming environment and just education of people other than like people who aren’t like you.”
Other than Florida, 19 other states are also looking at implementing anti LGBTQ school bills. Proponents of these bills say these bills are protecting children, religious freedom, and parental rights. On the other hand opponents say they are discriminatory and are more about gaining political status with conservative voters than protecting the LGBTQ community.
While last year was historically bad, it looks like this year is shaping up to be even worse.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Jocelyn Stone.