Don't Say Gay Bill

Florida is slowly making their way through the Houses to pass the HB 1557 Bill that would directly impact LGBTQ+ students in the state. Keep reading to find out more information on this case.

The Parental Right In Education Bill

By Deenie Bulyalert

All across the nation, there has been a rise in discussion regarding LGBTQ+ students in school systems. Whether the conversation is good or bad, it is occurring in a way that is harming a lot of LGBTQ+ students, even if they are not directly impacted by it.

Earlier this year, Florida House Committees began discussing two Parental Rights in Education bills. These were Bill CS/CS/HB 1557 and Bill SB 2834. Some also call it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. These bills were recently passed by the House of Representatives, according to CBS news, and are being taken to the Florida Senate for further consideration.

The Parental Rights in Education bill would require School Boards to “adopt procedures that comport to certain provisions of law for notifying student’s parents of specified information,” as stated by the Florida House of Representatives. To simplify this statement, if the bill was passed, it would require school districts to notify parents of information like sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels and if their student participates in health care services. It would also “authorizes parents to bring action against school districts to obtain declaratory judgment; provides for additional award of injunctive relief, damages, & reasonable attorney fees & court costs to certain parents.” These words, stated by the Florida House of Representatives mean that parents have the authority to sue the district if any discussion about gender identity or sexual orientation occurred. These bills would ban discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity issues in school.

passing a bill

In order to pass a bill in Florida, a legislator must sponsor a bill. That bill is then given to one or more committees related to the bill's subject. The “Don’t Say Gay" bill was taken to the House of Education and Employment Committee, along with the Judiciary Committee. After it is taken to those committees, the bill must be passed by them. This bill was passed. When approved, the bill is taken to the full house (The House of Representatives) and is discussed there. The “Don’t Say Gay” bill (Bill HB 1557) passed both the committee and House of Representatives and now must go to the Senate for them to approve. The bill can go back and forth between the houses until a consensus is reached.

The “Don’t Say Gay” bill is hoped to be put into effect by July 1, 2022. This bill will negatively affect LGBTQ+ students because it will no longer give students a place to explore who they are in a way that is safe. For a lot of LGBTQ+ students, home is not a safe place for them to be out. A statistical sheet surveyed by Out Not Down shows that four out of ten LGBTQ+ youth that they surveyed were not accepted in their community. 26% of the surveyed youth stated that their biggest problem was being accepted by their families, bullying, and the fear of coming out.

Teens are already faced with so many problems on a day-to-day basis: attending school, thinking about their future, working, maintaining a social life, extracurriculars, family members, and figuring out what is best for them. With this bill being passed, an already marginalized group of students will be even more marginalized and alone. If school and home cannot be a safe place for students, then they do not have a safe place that is going to benefit them effectively in the long run.

The passing of this bill would not allow groups, like PRIDE clubs or GSAs, to exist. This would remove a lot of kids' only source of support and comfort in schools. It would create a place that would allow even more hostility towards LGBTQ+ youth. The “ Don’t Say Gay” bill, if enacted, would show others around the country that further discrimination towards LGBTQ+ youth is okay when, in reality, it is not.

This bill is currently still being discussed and has not been approved to be implemented into schools, as of yet. Here are more resources that discuss this bill:

This bill is not the only one that targets LGBTQ+ youth. Legislators are attempting to implement these bills, policies, and laws everywhere. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a list of bills that are directly affecting LGBTQ+ students in schools all across the country.

ACLU: Legislation Affecting LGBTQ+ Youth In Schools

In Our District

Grants Pass School District 7 has not been excluded from anti-LGBTQ+ efforts. In 2021,the I Resolve campaign, started by two Grants Pass educators, promoted limiting the rights of LGBTQ+ students. It began as a response to the Equality Act and Senate Bill 52 that was passed in 2021. Previously, in our December (2021) Issue, Liv Akers included the following in her article. "The Equality Act bill would prohibit discrimination based on "sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity" in Oregon public schools and Senate Bill 52 is a student success plan that, in Section 1, claims to be geared towards being "culturally responsive" to LGBTQ+ and other historically [marginalized] populations." The iResolve campaign asked for bathrooms to be labeled as “anatomically male” and “ anatomically female.” It did not require the proper use of pronouns or names, unless parent permission was received, and even if parent permission was received, staff and peers were not required to call students by the correct pronouns or name. This campaign called for other policies that would prohibit LGBTQ+ youth to feel comfortable in their schools, similar to the impacts of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, if it were to be passed.

Additionally, On Dec. 14, 2021. A counseling policy, known as Policy IJ, was supposed to be approved by the Grants Pass District 7 School Board. This policy would give access to student privacy in schools if they wanted to talk to counselors about issues happening in their lives.

During this meeting, community member Katie Medart, who was also a founding member of the iResolve campaign, was concerned about the policy and wanted to modify it by adding the following language: “The district will work closely with parents/guardians by notifying them when their student participates in services and activities associated with the school counseling program.” The discussion of this counseling policy (Policy IJ) was postponed to the following meeting, in order to consider Medart's concern with the policy.

Eventually, Policy IJ was approved on Jan. 11, 2022, despite some additional concern from board member Gary Richardson, due to the following statement in the policy: "The school counseling office will collaborate with the student’s parents/guardians as appropriate." This approved policy continues to allow students to seek counseling on their own terms and conditions and not put them in dangerous situations if sensitive discussions including, but not limited to, personal lives, identity and gender occur.

The potential change requested by Medart would have impacted LGBTQ+ students. If the requirement to notify parents of students' usage of counseling services had passed, it would have potentially outed students to families that may not be supportive of their gender identity or sexual orientation. Our own students' rights are clearly being threatened.

On the other end of the nation, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida is threatening LGBTQ+ students. There are protests and organizations working head-on to prevent this bill from passing. These types of bills and policies have been circulating all throughout the United States and continuing conversations regarding LGBTQ+ individuals are happening all over the world, including our very own home of Grants Pass, Oregon.

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