Taboo topic: sexual orientation
Florida shakes up with proposed school law
02/18/2022, 10:01 am
After Texas enacted one of the strictest abortion laws, Florida is now also planning a step towards the past: A new school law is intended to determine how teachers talk regarding sexual identity: preferably not at all. Other states are also presenting similar drafts.
Whether history, racism, sexuality or corona masks: Schools in the USA are increasingly the scene of politically charged culture wars. A heated debate is currently raging over how teachers speak regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. In the conservative-governed state of Florida, legislation is being drafted that would ban such topics from elementary schools and also restrict their treatment in classes with older students.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has already signaled that he would sign the law into law once it is passed by the state legislature. Representatives of the LGBTQ community are appalled and have already given the law the name “Don’t Say Gay”. The bill states, “A school district shall not encourage classroom discussions regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school classes or in a manner that is inappropriate for the age or development of students.” Parents can otherwise sue the schools.
The Republicans say they want to protect children from inappropriate topics – and strengthen the rights of parents. But Brandon Wolf of the non-governmental organization Equality Florida warns that such a way of thinking is dangerous. It would suggest to children who are beginning to identify as LGBTQ “that by their very existence they are inadequate”.
More like “a talk to take home”
The husband of gay US Secretary of Transportation and former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, Chasten Buttigieg, recently tweeted to DeSantis that the law would “kill children.” He referred to a study according to which 42 percent of all LGBTQ youth had considered suicide in the past year. “Now you can’t talk to your teachers?” Buttigieg asked in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Tina Descovich, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, which supports the bill, has denied the allegations of discrimination. “It allows parents to educate their children,” she says of the law. Descovich cites the case of a 13-year-old who, unbeknownst to her mother, spoke to school counselors regarding her gender identity. It was also regarding the question of which toilets she might use. “We think that’s wrong,” says Descovich. “I think that’s a conversation for the home and I think there are conversations that are age appropriate.”
The White House also got involved in the debate. “Across the country, we see Republicans wanting to regulate what students can or cannot read, what they can or cannot learn, and — most disturbingly — who they can or cannot be,” President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman said recently , Jen Psaki. She promised the government would protect students from such “harmful” laws.
Memory of 1980
Because similar bills as those in Florida were also presented in other states. In Arizona, teachers will be required to inform parents when their children raise the issue of gender identity. In Indiana, schools should ask parents for their consent if they want to talk regarding sexual orientation or transgender issues. And in Oklahoma, a bill has been introduced to ban books on these subjects from school libraries.
The procedure reminds many of the late 1980s: At that time, states began to stipulate that homosexuality may not be presented positively in sex education classes on HIV/AIDS. The fear was that children would be “recruited” to be homosexual, says University of Utah law professor Clifford Rosky. While many of the laws have been scrapped over the years, Rosky says they are still in effect in six states. In Florida, there are also clear ideas regarding how the lessons should look like. A law says schools must teach “the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage.”
