As you may have heard, Florida recently passed a bill called the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, in an attempt to halt conversations in schools around LGBTQ+ topics, including history and health. Many people have voiced concern for this bill, and for good reason. While it may be masked as a good thing because this bill will “protect children”, it will instead be harming many children struggling to figure out their identities in a society that is ashamed they even exist.
As of now, the bill is designed primarily for kindergarten through third grade – only stating that LGBTQ+ topics talked about in schools after that age have to be vague and “age appropriate”. Many supporters of the bill say this is good, because young children shouldn’t be learning about sex – although there is so much more to LGBTQ+ topics than just sex, and having those people overly sexualized and boiled down to just their sexual relationships to fuel further hatred is honestly just gross and dehumanizing. But, what really qualifies as age appropriate? Of course young children do not need to be exposed to the graphics of sexual experiences, but they are exposed to heterosexual romance at even younger ages. From the moment kids are born, they are placed into very strict gender roles, and shown countless Disney movies with a beautiful princess and strong prince that always kiss at the end. So, is it that parents don’t want their children exposed to sexual or romantic content, or is it only okay when that content is heterosexual, because anything else makes the parents uncomfortable? After all, children are not born knowing how to hate – that is taught.
Learning the history of different groups is very important, I would argue especially with children, as they are young and often impressionable based upon their parent’s beliefs. It is critical that kids are taught a wide variety of topics and histories of people, even if those people vary from themselves, so they can grow and enter society as open-minded, compassionate adults.
Lastly, many parents fail to realize that their child has the same possibility of being queer whether they are allowed to talk about it in school or not. Being queer is not a choice, or a phase, or something to be solved as long as they are never told the truths of things they may be feeling. All that does it hurt them. And LGBTQ+ youth, especially transgender youth, already have a much higher suicide rate than their heterosexual, cisgender counterparts. So, remind me again how this is protecting children?
Many schools across the country have staged walk-outs to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. This is why it is so important to have these conversations in school, even if they can be uncomfortable at times. For children, queer or not, to learn about the sometimes devastating past of the LGBTQ+ community, the history of the riots and pride parades, and to include queer couples in conversations within sex education and health classes, can make such a huge impact on their lives. It can mean the difference on if a queer kid will feel comfortable in school surrounded by peers that accept them. It can mean the difference on if a queer kid will open up to their family members and have the courage to come out, knowing that their family won’t disown or disgrace them. It can mean the difference on if a queer kid commits suicide before they even reach adulthood and have the opportunity to live their lives free of shame or fear. That is way more important than “protecting” children from history, and that is why it is so important to continue to say gay.