Anti-LGBT Legislation Spreading Across America
These past few months, across America, mostly in conservative states, there has been a flood of anti-LGBT ideologies making their way into legislation. This began with the continuous debate over what should be taught in school, with parents wanting to ban critical race theory and books that talk about racism. Florida will go one further and was actually able to pass what they call the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The legislation is actually called the Parental Rights in Education bill. Still, the Internet has deemed it the Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibits classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in primary schools. State representative Joe Harding and his band of Republicans have passed this bill in the name of parental empowerment. Many people argue that discussing sexual or gender orientation in the classroom at a very young age can be confusing for children. Therefore, they opted to remove it all tother. I firmly disagree with this, especially when there are statistics to prove that LGBT youth have higher rates of depression and suicide, and having safe spaces has been proven to be beneficial. All this will do is further stigmatize LGBT youth in their own schools, creating a more hostile and hateful environment. If you think this is bad, Texas will do something even worse.
Texas has recently passed a multitude of anti-trans bills, such as one where trans girls cannot compete on girls’ sports teams because it provides a so-called “unfair physical advantage.” However, the most recent one they are attempting to pass has left many families wondering if they need to leave their homes. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Governor Greg Abbott wish to treat gender transitioning as child abuse and can therefore prosecute parents. Ultimately, this would also mean that if a teacher was aware that one of their students were trans, by law, they would have to publicly out this student, which can put them in a multitude of danger. This also means that trans kids cannot speak to doctors, psychologists, etc., about this aspect of their lives since, by law, those people would also be required to out them or face legal persecution.
This has just been one of the most recent examples of how Texas is travelling backwards in time. From this to the abortion ban, I can’t understand how a state government can be so backwards in their thinking to believe that abortion is murder, but no safe gun laws aren’t. Or that a child can be “abused” through a surgery that can save their lives but not when they’re in an environment where they are exposed to firearms every day. These people are using child safety to actually justify disgusting ignorance.
By Isabella Del Grosso
