Safe and Supportive Learning

Bills that limit classroom discussion or lessons which include LGBTQ+ literature, history, or culture are sometimes referred to as “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” bills. While not all bills that censor classroom discussion of LGBTQ+ topics are the same, they all have negative effects for LGBTQ+ students.

LGBTQ-inclusive curriculums are important for LGBTQ students’ health, well-being, and academic success. Research by GLSEN indicates that teaching LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum means that LGBTQ+ students are less likely to hear homophobic remarks, are less likely to hear negative remarks about gender expression, perform better academically in school, and are more likely to plan on pursuing post-secondary education. Furthermore, the majority of LGBTQ+ students who receive an LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum at school report that their classmates are somewhat or very accepting of LGBTQ+ people, as compared to a minority of LGBTQ+ students who said the same thing when they were not taught an inclusive curriculum.

Curriculum censorship bills can include a wide variety of provisions and differ from state to state in terms of their scope. “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” legislation explicitly censors discussions of LGBTQ people or issues throughout all school curricula. The grade levels to which this censorship applies varies from state to state, but can include all K-12 education. School censorship legislation also tends to include bans on inclusive books from schools and public libraries, or new processes by which parents can challenge books with LGBTQ+ content and remove them from the shelves. These efforts also often include provisions to remove signals of inclusion, like Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, classroom safe space agreements, or even contact information for inclusive resources for support.

These bills compel school employees to “out” students to their parents if that child discloses their identity to a school employee. These bills do not take into account whether the child is ready to disclose their identity to their parents or whether the child is in a safe and affirming environment where their identity will be accepted.

The strictest forced outing bills force school employees to out youth to their parents if the student specifically discloses that they are LGBTQ+ to the employee or asks the employee to refer to them by a different name or pronouns than what is on their school records. Other forced outing bills only require that a child’s trans status be given to parents if that information is requested by the parents. Another form these bills can take is that school staff must ask parent permission to use a new name or new pronouns for a student, but that the mere request to use this new name and new pronouns from the student does not require forced outing.

In any form, these bills are harmful. As PFLAGers, we know how intensely personal the decision to come out is for a child, or, indeed, for a person of any age. No one should be outed, to parents or anyone else, before they are ready. And no child should be put into a potentially dangerous situation by an educator.

Anti-equality forces have attacked transgender athletes relentlessly for several years. Under the guise of “protecting women’s sports,” lawmakers and activists have pursued their anti-trans agenda. And, unfortunately, 29 states have enacted some kind of anti-trans athlete ban. These bills deny trans youth the ability to be themselves, to play sports with their peers just like any other kid. It’s harmful, it’s meanspirited, and it does nothing to protect women and girls’ sports.

Most athlete bans specifically ban trans girls from competing on women’s and girl’s sports teams, practices, and/or competitions. Some details of these bills and laws do vary. For example, some anti-trans athlete bans apply from kindergarten through 8th grade, some apply from grades 6-12, some apply K-12, and some apply from K- college. Recently, some anti-trans athlete bans have also been paired with anti-trans facilities bans, which further isolate and humiliate trans people.