- Earlier this year, Florida passed a so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which restricts discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary schools.
- Now, LGBTQ youth in many states are facing similar legislation that focuses on classroom discussion of LGBTQ issues and community spaces.
- Students shared with USA TODAY their frustration, confusion and fears for the future as the legislation gains ground.
Ever since legislation targeting conversations about sexuality, gender identity, and LGBTQ-related topics in schools has swept across the country, 15-year-old Jaime Lauriano and his peers in Arizona have felt scared, discouraged, and confused.
As president of his school’s GSA (Student Alliance for Equality), Lauriano said he frequently answers questions about the club’s future, especially amid a recent state bill that would require guardian permission to participate in student groups related to sexuality, gender, or gender identity.
For many, GSA is one of the only spaces where students feel accepted and can fully express their gender and sexuality, he said.
His classmates look to him for guidance, but Lauriano, a gay high school sophomore, is equally concerned about the group’s future.
“We try to promote our club to be a safe haven, a place where students can hang out, talk to each other and feel like they’re with their community,” Lauriano told USA TODAY. “But when things like this happen, it completely destroys that idea and scares the students.”
Across the country, students are staring down the barrel of bills that focus on discussions of sexuality, gender identity, and LGBTQ-related issues in classrooms, made more visible by the recent passage of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida. Even the prospect of these bills passing has stoked frustration, confusion and feelings of hopelessness among LGBTQ youth in the US, several high school students told USA TODAY.
Florida’s bill, formally titled Parental Rights in Education, restricts discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary schools. As being signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis this spring, more than a dozen bills with similar intent restricting conversations about LGBTQ issues have been introduced throughout the country.
The legislation has concerned students for whom schools may be the only place they can speak openly about LGBTQ issues.
In Arizona, the bill requiring permission for students to join sexuality and gender-related groups, HB 2011, is currently assigned to committee. That echoes a previously nullified law, dubbed “no promo homo” by opponents, which prohibited sex education in public schools that promoted a “homosexual lifestyle”.
Legislation makes students ‘feel like they’re alone’
Rayne Duncan, age 17, senior in Arizona, works with a high school leadership development program called the GLSEN SHINE team, which helps students organize GSA and advocacy campaigns in their schools through leadership training. Duncan, who is non-binary, is also president of the GSA at his school.
“I think it’s important that (students) have safe spaces, which is why we have GSAs and leaders who make sure GSAs run smoothly and are a safe place for people to go,” they told USA TODAY. “If there’s a place in their school where they can go after school and have a community, they don’t feel isolated.”
USA TODAY spoke with 10 students who identify with the LGBTQ community in states where similar legislation is being proposed. They shared their feelings of anger and disgust that these spaces are at risk and that their conversations may be monitored. They also said they feared being discriminated against and worried about the difficulties that might arise for them and their peers.
“It makes the students feel lonely,” Lauriano said. “It scares us, it scares us of the future and what it has to offer.”
For LGBTQ youth, especially those who are trans and non-binary, attacks on support systems and resources can be dire. Last year, more than half of transgender and non-binary youth considered a suicide attemptaccording to a 2021 survey by the Trevor Project, which provides crisis and suicide prevention services for those under 25.
But youth in “affirming” schools, such as those with LGBTQ representation in school curricula, was nearly 40% less likely to attempt suicide compared to LGBTQ youth in non-affirmative schools, according to the Trevor Project.
CHANGES IN THE LIFE LINE:LGBTQ advocates hope for ‘culturally competent’ training with suicide prevention lifeline change to 988
Javier Gómez, 18, is one of the many students who organized walkouts in Florida schools protesting the original “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Gomez, who is gay, said experiencing homophobia and discrimination, in addition to working as an activist, made him mature faster than the average high school student.
“It has seriously diminished my mental health,” Gomez said. “I’m understanding a world with a different perspective and it’s really difficult because it raises a lot of anxiety about the future, for me, for my educators and for my peers.”
“There’s not much you can do, especially when you’re a kid”
An Ohio bill, HB 616, is the closest language to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislationand includes a ban on teaching materials and curricula “on sexual orientation or gender identity,” as well as bans on instruction around critical race theorythat is not taught in K-12 schools, and intersectionality.
Ohio student Abby Doench, 17, said she fears for younger students at her high school who may lack the support she received when she came out as gay.
“It’s scary. It makes you really angry and makes you feel really worthless,” Doench said of the legislation. “There’s not much you can do, especially when you’re a kid… It’s all these people who make rules about you where you have no say, and it’s distressing.
Several LGBTQ youth in the affected states, most of whom are too young to vote, shared similar frustration with USA TODAY over elected officials making decisions about their education and school spaces without consulting or considering student perspectives.
“The people in charge don’t care,” Duncan said. “They don’t care about youth. They certainly don’t care about queer youth. They’re just trapped in this little bubble of themselves, so they can’t see that their actions will result in death.”
In Iowa, Senate Bill 2024, currently in subcommittee, prohibits any “instruction related to gender identity” in K-6 classrooms without parental consent. Nadaley Freet, a 16-year-old junior from Iowa, said these “parents’ rights”-focused decisions try to stifle the voices of young people and make them feel ignored.
“I feel like they’re trying to strip us of our opinions,” said Freet, who is bisexual. “They’re trying to trick us and say, ‘Oh no, you’re just young. You don’t know what you’re talking about.'”
Harassment of transgender children ‘is skyrocketing’
As more and more laws gain attention in these states, students also said they have experienced or witnessed bullying at their schools that targets LGBTQ students.
CJ Walden, a 17-year-old high school student in Florida, said he lives in an area that is “liberal and democratic” but experiences homophobia at school every day.
He said he feels lucky to have the support of others to eliminate interactions, but he knows many other students can’t.
In Iowa, Freet said the passage of a bill ban transgender girls from participating in women’s sports has left their trans peers isolated, bullied and suffering, often with nowhere to run to find comfort and support at school. On multiple occasions, he said he has comforted LGBTQ friends and younger students whom he found crying in bathrooms.
“Since the different bills have been passed… bullying for trans kids here has skyrocketed,” Freet said. “It’s making them look marginalized. Like they don’t belong there… they’re being bullied to the point where they don’t like who they are.”
Duncan said lawmakers and the public don’t understand the impact these bills have on the well-being of LGBTQ youth, who are going through a life stage that presents its own challenges.
“Being a teenager is already very difficult. You put all these things on top of it and it just adds more and more weight,” Duncan said. “…Too many children are being crushed.”
Reference-www.usatoday.com