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A bill currently being discussed in the Florida House and Senate would limit discussions in schools about sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition, the legislation would also allow schools or teachers to be sued for participating in this type of discussion.
Several organizations that defend the rights of the LGBTQ community fear that this bill, which they have baptized with the name “Don’t say gay”, they believe that this law would serve to systematically prohibit the disclosure of the history of the oppression of this collective or the discussions on the subject.
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According to the American network ABC, the executive director of the national group for the defense of LGBTQ youth, Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, declared that “this erase LGBTQ+ history and culture from school curricula and send a chilling message to young people it is already the communities” of the collective.
This will kill kids, @RonDeSantisFL. You are purposefully making your state a harder place for LGBTQ kids to survive in. In a national survey (@TrevorProject), 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide last year. Now they can’t talk to their teachers? https://t.co/VtfFLPlsn3
— Chasten Buttigieg (@Chasten) January 20, 2022
Activists say erasing homosexual elements from schools could have consequences for those students who feel identified with the gay community and may come to believe that their gender identity or their sexual orientation is something they can be ashamed of or hide from.
“We have to create a learning environment where they feel safe and healthy, or it will not be an effective learning environment ”, pointed out Heather Wilkie, from the Zebra Coalition, a gay rights advocacy group.
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“When you have laws like these, that directly attack our children for what they are, prevents them from learning . It prevents them from being healthy,” he added.
The two bills HB 1557 and SB 2020 state that a school district “may not encourage discussion in the classroom about sexual orientation or gender identity at the primary grade levels or in a way that is not appropriate for the age or development of the students.”