As Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' law tak effect, schools roll out LGBTQ rtrictns

Contents:

• THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER
• GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
• GAY TEACHER 'HAD SEX HIS CLASSROOM DURG SCHOOL HOURS'
• AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS
• GAY TEACHERS
• ARTHUR’S GAY TEACHER AND OTHER STORI SCHOOLS WON’T TELL
• FLORIDA TEACHERS NAVIGATE THEIR FIRST YEAR UNR THE 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW
• A TEXAS TEACHER FAC LOSG HER JOB AFTER FIGHTG FOR GAY PRI SYMBOLS SCHOOL

THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER

As a gay teacher who hadn’t e out to his stunts or staff, he felt hamstng.

In 1978, the state of California proposed a law—a ballot measure wily known as the Briggs Iniative—which would've prohibed openly gay and lbian teachers om workg the state’s public schools. In five stat—Indiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Virgia—gay people n get legally married but also legally fired by an employer for beg gay, a Washgton Post map shows. In San Bernado, California, for example, a lbian teacher challenged her school district urt wh help om the Amerin Civil Liberti Unn, allegg that she was fired after attemptg to help the school’s Gay Straight Alliance chapter.

"In the years before I had tenure, there was no way I was gog to let someone’s else’s homophobia jeopardize my reer, " Bunger said. "Even teachers stat wh legal protectn worry that homophobic school lears n still fd a way to fire them regardls. "My stunts mostly e om Caribbean scent, where homosexualy is tradnally owned upon, " said Lamar Shambley, a sixth-gra math teacher New York who hasn’t e out to his stunts.

GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE

"Paranoia surroundg LGBT teachers part trac back to unfound theori lkg homosexualy and pedophilia. Although the Amerin Psychologil Associatn and numero other rearch anizatns have nclud that homosexualy do not make someone more likely to sexually abe children, Conservative anizatns such the Fay Rearch Council and the Amerin College of Pediatricians—a group that requir s members to "hold te to the group's re beliefs of the tradnal fay un" before jog—argue that homosexualy is a threat to uld help expla why LGBT teachers who are married or mted relatnships sometim enjoy a level of legimacy and acceptance that sgle gay teachers often fail to secure.

"The more [homosexualy] n f to the schema that people already have about fai, the easier is for others to unrstand...

Beg gay and sgle and not relatg to people’s notns of fay is harr and somehow not as easy to tst. "But even people wh generally tolerant views toward homosexualy sometim qutn the necsy of g out, particularly a school settg. "But many LGBT teachers argue that nversatns about personal matters do happen classrooms all the time, that 's only bee society promot heterosexualy—vers homosexualy—as normal that discsns related to a teacher's sexual orientatn are kept out of class, of Teach for Ameri, agre that for herself and her lleagu, beg the closet wh an extra layer of work—and strs.

GAY TEACHER 'HAD SEX HIS CLASSROOM DURG SCHOOL HOURS'

Bunger also me out after earng tenure, spired by a fellow gay teacher who never had any qualms about discsg his sexual orientatn wh his stunts. "If a kid ever ed homophobic slurs, he’d open up the discsn.

Overall, the strs experienced by LGBT youth also put them at greater risk for mental health problems and substance e: A natnal study om 2008 found that lbian, gay, and bisexual youth are more than twice as likely to attempt suici as their heterosexual peers. "If we ever want to get to a place where people aren’t beg killed for who they are, ’s important that stunts know people who are gay and are learng that difference isn’t herently threateng, " Lazar said. "Kids and teachers need to know that someone they know is gay, that ’s not a hypothetil, that this is about real people who they know, " Bunger said "Beg visible to the kds of kids—kids who make dangero cisns bee they’re aaid to talk—is ccial.

AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS

"Sce Bunger began g out to his stunts, bullyg and homophobic remarks his classroom have stopped. After about a the classroom, he was named the bt tor Kentucky September 2021 -- but at the same time, he said, a small but vol mory his ral town Montgomery County went after him.Carver, who is gay, told ABC News that he was sgled out for actually protectg LGBTQ kids his school and their fai, which ma him a target.He said that earlier this year, a muny member who was postg about him on social media also repeatedly went to unty school board meetgs to report predatn and so-lled child "groomg" -- a term that has bee popular nservative circl for allegatns of adults sexually manipulatg kids.Carver said this person, who had not named him at the board meetgs but repeatedly referenced him by name onle, also "doxxed" him and some of his stunts on Facebook by sharg their private rmatn.When, acrdg to Carver, he and some stunts' parents asked Montgomery County Supertennt Dr.

The most noteworthy is Florida's Parental Rights Edutn law, barrg discsn of sexual orientatn or genr inty krgarten through third gra or olr gras where would not be "age-appropriate" or "velopmentally appropriate."Many crics labeled the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights Edutn bill -- which don't specifilly e the word "gay," though broadly rtricts talk of sexualy and genr -- to law earlier this year rponse to "woke genr iology." In his "Edutn Agenda Tour" advance of the Aug.

23 primary, DeSantis, a Republin, ntend the classroom was on the ontl a larger culture war and said was "wrong to ject thgs like sexualy and transgenrism to the classroom."Joshua Block is a staff attorney wh the Natnal ACLU’s Lbian Gay Bisexual Transgenr & HIV "We need to be teachg them to read or wre, to add, to subtract," he said -- addg that "the purpose of our schools is to te kids not to doctrate them."But for Carver and others cril of such chang, the new laws nnot help but feel more like a personal attack."There's this systematic targetg of the topic of LGBTQ people, jt like they're havg a systematic targetg of the topic of experienc of different racial and ethnic groups," Amerin Civil Liberti Unn attorney Josh Block told ABC."Focg the attack on public schools is tryg to keep people om beg exposed to ias or experienc that whoever's power don't approve of," Block said.'The msage that this is … shameful'Florida tors like Jonathan Kryk say they are trated that the LGBTQ discsn bill was signed to law over what he scrib as more prsg ncerns for most U.S. Teachers."This is the exact oppose of what we need," Kryk, a gay fifth-gra teacher outsi of Tampa, told ABC News.

GAY TEACHERS

He intifi as gay.

Before the bill was passed, some Democrats unsuccsfully attempted to make more specific -- rtrictg stctn on sexual activy rather than orientatn, for example.Even though many who spoke wh ABC News said they are disappoted the law's lack of clary, some gay teachers don't see an issue wh .Washgton, D.C.'s Boswa Shaw said he supports how, his view, the polici draw a clear le for children."The bill might be beneficial -- siar to the separatn of church and state," he told ABC News. Pancholy's Stonewall Honor-wng novel "The Bt at It" follows 12-year-old Rahul Kapoor, who is not only figurg out his cultural inty as an Indian-Amerin but is also jt begng to realize that he might be gay.

And so what's next: gay marriage?

ARTHUR’S GAY TEACHER AND OTHER STORI SCHOOLS WON’T TELL

I am gay! For Damon Zuima, a former K–8 mic tor, was important for his stunts to know that he is gay and for his admistratn to be supportive of his cisn to share so openly wh his class. When asked if he felt prsure to hi his sexualy to his stunts, Connor Schmidt, a primary school teacher Beijg who is openly gay, shared:.

Jonny Vriema, a physil tn teacher Jacksonville, Florida, who intifi as a gay Christian, fears that his sire to live out his fah and teach wh relig schools will create nflict. Damon’s rponse to his send grar’s surprise about him beg gay was an easy one. As Florida’s Parental Rights Edutn law — or what crics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law — go to effect Friday, some of the state’s public school districts have begun rollg out new polici to lim LGBTQ issu and inti om beg discsed the Tuday night, the Leon County School Board unanimoly approved s “LGBTQ Inclive School Gui, ” which clus a provisn to alert parents if a stunt who is “open about their genr inty” is their child’s physil tn class or wh them on an overnight school trip.

Clifford / AP fileThe so-lled Don’t Say Gay law, HB 1557, bans “stctn” about sexual orientatn or genr inty “ krgarten through gra 3 or a manner that is not age appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state standards. ” A provisn the law also requir school staff members to alert parents about “cril cisns affectg a stunt’s mental, emotnal, or physil health or well-beg, ” which many advot have terpreted as a way to force tors to out their gay or trans stunts.

FLORIDA TEACHERS NAVIGATE THEIR FIRST YEAR UNR THE 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW

They have also ntend that will not prohib teachers and stunts om talkg about their LGBTQ fai or bar classroom discsns about LGBTQ history, cludg events like the 2016 attack at the Pulse gay nightclub crics and legal experts have said the broad language of the law uld open school districts and teachers to lawsus om parents who believe any nversatn about LGBTQ people or issu is “not age appropriate. Carlos Smh, a Democrat who is gay and has been an outspoken cric of the new law, said he was “not surprised” that schools the state were announcg the polici and guil. “What’s happeng right now — wh the censorship of rabow flags and school districts preparg to basilly ph LGBTQ stunts and teachers to the closet — is exactly what we said would happen wh the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law.

"Members and supporters of the LGBTQ muny at the "Say Gay Anyway" rally Miami Beach, Fla., on March 13. Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Imag fileFive other stat — all of them the South — have enacted laws that lim stctn or discsns about LGBTQ people or issu school, and at least 32 others have proposed such measur this year, acrdg to acrdg to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ thk tank that has been trackg the strsed that the polici will have nsequenc for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer stunts, potg to the disproportnately high rat of suici attempts among the untry’s LGBTQ youths. ”In Palm Beach County, Woods, who is gay, said that after they received the qutnnaire om school officials to flag urse material or books wh LGBTQ referenc, many of his lleagu are nervo they’ll be reprimand if they miss somethg.

The 21st-century has seen some major chang the way gay and lbian people's rights are treated.

A TEXAS TEACHER FAC LOSG HER JOB AFTER FIGHTG FOR GAY PRI SYMBOLS SCHOOL

Ined, Amanda Machado wr The Plight of Beg a Gay Teacher The Atlantic that gay teachers were equently fired when state tn partments purged their rolls of LGBT teachers.