Gay-wgs: 1 fn

Contents:

• GAYWGS
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• GAY-WGS: 1 FN
• WHAT IS "GAY-WGS"

GAYWGS

Crics ll a “Don’t Say ‘Gay’” bill, argug that s vaguens and reliance on lawsus for enforcement will renr tors aaid of mentng the mere fact of gay or trans law is now at the center of the culture wars. Here’s Christa Phaw, a spokperson for DeSantis, wrg on Twter:The bill that liberals accurately ll “Don’t Say Gay” would be more accurately scribed as an Anti-Groomg Bill.

Democrats sometim exprs ncern about the ia of rporatns g their clout to tervene polics, but this ntroversy they had the oppose plat, as my lleague Ronald Brownste explaed last month:The refal of the Walt Disney Company, one of Florida’s most powerful employers, to publicly cricize Florida’s “Don’t Say ‘Gay’” bill as moved through the legislature has quickly e to symbolize a retreat om the loud public opposn that many pani exprsed to earlier state iativ rtrictg civil liberti, such as the “bathroom bill” North Carola Republins approved 2016. Overall, 61% of people said they supported the “don’t say gay” law, wh 26% opposed.

But then, my experience was bafflgly the oppose of what I had heard … my learship has been so welg to my not-at-all-secret gay agenda … Then all that momentum that I felt, that sense of I don’t have to be aaid to have the two characters kiss the background, I was jt, wherever I uld jt basilly addg queerns––if you see anythg queer, I was basilly jt like, no one would stop me and no one was tryg to stop me.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

” We have many, many, many LGBTQIA characters our stori, and yet we don’t have enough leads and narrativ which gay characters jt get to be characters and not have to be about gay stori. The show’s ma character, Penny Proud, has a flamboyant gay iend who has to al wh bullyg, and another character has gay dads. ”I’ll rea om cludg many more opns here, sce this week’s qutn is about this same ntroversy––do email your thoughts om any perspective so I n air them the next edn––but I did thk this historil ntext om The Advote was worth cludg:“Don’t say gay” bills have gotten much publicy this year, but they’re really nothg new.

Stacey Campfield troduced a bill that would ban any lsons related to homosexualy through eighth gra.

GAY-WGS: 1 FN

Before there was “don’t say gay, ” there was “no promo homo”—bills that proliferated the 1980s and ’90s as nservative legislators rpond to the AIDS crisis by seekg to ban what they nsired “promotn of homosexualy” schools, pecially sex tn urs. Accg LGBTQ people of "groomg" or "recg" children to bee gay or transgenr is an age-old trope that feeds off fear.

"This is a classic trope of humanizatn and fear that has been ed agast gay people after after .... Thk about the lumny agast gay people throughout most of our lifetim: that gay people somehow are moltg kids, or after kids, or predatory.

" That ia propelled anti-gay activist and sger Ana Bryant's Save Our Children mpaign the 1970s. And led to a 1978 California ballot measure to ban gays and lbians om workg public schools, an iative spearhead by state Sen. John Briggs, who promised, "We are gog to rtore moraly to the classroom and remove openly and blatant homosexuals om fluencg and teachg our young.

WHAT IS "GAY-WGS"

But the homophobic attacks ntued, fuelg a moral panic. Proposn 6, lled the Briggs Iniative, sought to ban gays and lbians om workg California public schools. "If somebody tried to mpaign today on endg gay marriage, they would get so ltle tractn outsi the most ge elements, and yet, even five years ago, that wasn't an extreme posn....

I thk this is a stupid, stupid argument to be makg, bee every day, more and more people know someone who is gay or transgenr.