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Florida is not alone – 19 other states eyeing LGBTQ school bills

Florida’s newly enacted Parental Rights in Education Bill – dubbed by critics as “Don’t say gay“The bill – has brought LGBTQ rights to the center of political discussions in recent months.

Leaders of global corporations, the editorial boards of major newspapers and the White House have all weighed in on the new law, with some calling it “deeply disturbing” and others “deeply disturbing” can not control.” The cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” has been many times tear in bills in some of its most recent episodes. At last month’s Oscars, co-host Wanda Sykes take a jab in measure in the opening monologue of the Academy Awards. And last week, officials in New York City and Chicago launched advertising campaigns in Florida to convince LGBTQ Floridians to pack up and move north.

While Florida has no basis for this nationwide debate, 19 other states have enacted similar legislation that will ban how educators can speak or teach about LGBTQ issues in schools this year. according to the Progressive Movement Project, or MAP, an LGBTQ consulting organization that has been tracking bills.

“The truth is, this has never been about Florida,” said Brandon Wolf, press secretary for LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida. to sue DeSantis broke the law last month. “It was never about a state but rather a policy objective from the farthest right of the Republican Party to try to restore civil liberties and progress through fear and manipulation of the base of the Republican Party.” surname.”

He added, “You could, I think, imagine that we were looking at a ‘Don’t say gay’ national debate if we weren’t successful in pushing it back here in Florida. “

Lawmakers in Indiana are pondering law that would require any student under the age of 18 to “get written consent” from a parent before participating in “any instruction about human sexuality.” In Arizona, House lawmakers introduced law In January, that would prohibit schools from allowing students to participate in school clubs or student groups that are “related to sex, gender, or gender identity unless the student’s parent provides provide written permission to the student to participate.”

And Tennessee lawmakers proposed a measure in February that says: “The promotion of LGBT and lifestyle issues in public schools has offended a significant portion of students, parents and Tennessee residents with Christian values.” Receipt, HB 800seeks to ban textbooks or classroom materials that “promote, normalize, support, or address” LGBTQ “way of life” and bring LGBTQ issues to the same restrictions faced by religious teachings in state public schools.

“They differ quite a bit, but what they have in common is that they limit the ability of teachers and schools to provide students with the honest and accurate education they deserve, helping them learn from our past and reflect diversity. Logan Casey, policy researcher and senior advisor at MAP, said.

Advocates of these measures disagree and argue that they will allow parents to have more decision-making power over what their children learn in school and argue that LGBTQ issues are “age inappropriate” for children. with young students.

At the Florida bill Signing CeremonyDeSantis, who is said to be considering running for the GOP presidency in 2024, said the law would ensure “parents can send their children to school to get an education, not an education”.

Tiffany Justice, a mother of four school-age children and co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a national network of about 80,000 parents, says their mission is to protect parents’ rights in schools. , previously told NBC News that the Right of Parents in Education and similar Florida measures mean “regressive parents.”

“They had enough. We’ve seen enough nonsense,” she said. “Kids don’t learn to read in school, and what I’ve said before is ‘Before you activate our children into social justice warriors, can you teach them how to read?’

Since DeSantis Signed Florida law into law on March 28, other conservative lawmakers have signaled that they will step up efforts to push for similar versions of the law in their states.

In a campaign email last Monday, Texas Governor Dan Patrick vowed to make applying the law a “top priority” in his state’s next legislative session. That same day, Ohio Representatives Jean Schmidt and Mike Loychik introduced their own version of the law.

Loychik and Schmidt did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment. On Tuesday, Schmidt declined to answer reporters’ questions about the bill while walking past the state capitol building in Columbus.

At the federal level — a majority absent from Congress or the White House — Republican lawmakers have largely stayed out of the controversy regarding the national version of the law. But last month, while speaking to conspiracy theorist Sandy Hook and AM radio personality Alex Jones, Georgia Representative Majorie Taylor Greene announced she would introduce a federal version of the law.

“I’m going to meet my team right after this interview, and we’re going to work on it,” Greene told the host, “because I’m going to do whatever I can to protect the kids.” .

LGBTQ advocates note that the new LGBTQ program bill is not entirely new. They say the measures resemble legislation from the 1980s and ’90s that activists call “no homo ads“The law, which explicitly prohibits the positive portrayal of homosexuality in schools. Most of those laws have since been repealed, but they remain in force in four states in the South, according to the national LGBTQ youth advocacy group GLSEN.

Casey said that unlike today’s bills, the “disincentive” law focuses on limiting what educators can or cannot say in health classrooms.

At least they pretended to limit censorship to sex-themed classes, says Casey. “Today’s bills have eliminated all pretense. They just put it bluntly: “You can’t talk about these issues in any classroom, in any instructional materials.”

Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, chief executive officer of GLSEN, says another difference is that today’s measures – despite being dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill – are aimed at preventing the teaching of sexual problems. about gender identity and transgenderism, and in some cases. was even discussed, at school.

“What we are seeing now is because it is no longer politically feasible to discredit someone because of their gender, the most isolated, the most marginalized, the most affected. Most of the LGBTQ+ community, who are transgender and non-binary people, are under attack. with the same political book,” said Willingham-Jaggers, who is not a binary. “It’s absurd, the idea that transgender people are a threat.”

Supporters of these education bills have also suggested that they are aimed at transgender Americans. Justice previously told NBC News that the so-called “No Gay Saying” law is needed to combat the “transgender contagion” sweeping across the country.

The proportion of anti-LGBTQ state bills that specifically target transgender people has increased dramatically over the past few years, a NBC News analysis data from the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom for All Americans found.

For example, 22 of the 60 anti-LGBTQ bills proposed in 2019, or 37%, were anti-transgender bills, compared with 153, or 80%, of the 191 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2021. Today, approximately 65% ​​of Anti-LGBTQ Bills filed since March 15, 154 – target transgender people.

Although most, if not all, of these measures have been introduced by Republicans, not all GOP lawmakers have adopted them. At least five Republican governors have vetoed anti-transgender bills in their states since last year (though some of those vetoes have since been omitted), and on Sunday, Governor Republican of Maryland, Larry Hogan, rejected Florida’s LGBTQ program law, calling it “absurd. ”

“I don’t really see the details of the law, but the whole thing just seemed like a crazy fight,” Hogan told CNN.

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