From book bans to 'Don’t Say Gay' bill, LGBTQ kids feel 'erased' the classroom

Contents:

• HOMOSEXUALY: THE UNTRI WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY
• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY?
• DESANTIS-BACKED 'DONT SAY GAY' BILL SPARKS OUTRAGE
• WHAT DO ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ ACTUALLY SAY?
• FLORIDA LAWMAKERS PASS 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL
• FROM BOOK BANS TO 'DON’T SAY GAY' BILL, LGBTQ KIDS FEEL 'ERASED' THE CLASSROOM
• GAY RIGHTS

HOMOSEXUALY: THE UNTRI WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Kamala Harris has been a vol supporter of LGBTQ rightsUS Vice-Print Kamala Harris who is on a tour of three Ain untri - Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia - has drawn cricism over her support for LGBTQ Ghana, a speech llg for "all people be treated equally" she appeared to cricise a bill before the untry's parliament which crimalis advocy for gay rights and propos jail terms for those that intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, or untry's Speaker Alban Bagb later lled her remarks "unmocratic" and urged lawmakers not to be "timidated by any person" Tanzania, a former mister spoke agast US support for LGBTQ rights ahead of the vis and Zambia some opposn policians have threatened to hold is homosexualy still outlawed? In the same month, the high urt Barbados stck out laws that crimalised gay July last year, the urts Antigua and Barbuda clared a law crimalisg same-sex acts between nsentg adults Febary 2021, Angola's Print Joao Louren signed to law a revised penal to allow same-sex relatnships and ban discrimatn on the basis of sexual 2020, Gabon reversed a law that had crimalised homosexualy and ma gay sex punishable wh six months prison and a large fe.

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

Mozambique and the Seychell have also scrapped anti-homosexualy laws recent there are untri where existg laws outlawg homosexualy have been tightened, cludg Nigeria and 's parliament recently passed a law to crack down on homosexual activi, promptg wispread source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Campaign agast LGBTQ rights some Ain untri has tensified recent weeksAnd some untri, efforts to get the laws removed have May 2019, the high urt Kenya upheld laws crimalisg homosexual acts. And many plac, breakg the laws uld be punishable by long prison of the 53 untri the Commonwealth - a loose associatn of untri most of them former Brish loni - 29 have laws that crimalise homosexualy. Although the origal Brish laws applied only to men, untri that crimalise homosexualy today also have penalti for women who have sex wh Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (Ilga) monors the progrs of laws relatg to homosexualy around the says the ath penalty is the legally prcribed punishment for same-sex sexual acts Bnei, Iran, Mrania, Sdi Arabia, Yemen and some northern stat of five untri - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, and the Uned Arab Emirat - there is no legal clary and the ath penalty uld be source, AFPImage ptn, An Indian gay rights activist protts agast a urt lg 2013 upholdg a law which crimalis gay repealed the ath penalty for nsensual same-sex sexual acts observers note that the risk of prosecutn some plac is mimal.

WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY?

A rash of laws ncerng the teachg of human sexualy school curricula, banng trans stunt athlet and strippg parents of the right to help their genr-variant children obta appropriate re have popped up numero red stat this same-sex marriage is now part of the fabric of Ameri, nservativ have chosen to explo Amerins’ unfaiary wh trans people and piggyback on parental anger over the perceived overreach of Covid-era school closur, nflatg wh an sid sense of “wokens”, the hop of fdg an electorally viable sluiceway for anti-LGBTQ+ most famo of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws is the piece of Florida legislatn banng stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty schools between krgarten and third gra, the so-lled “don’t say gay” law. The ernor and his supporters have labeled as a “groomer” anyone who believ children n learn LGBTQ+ people exist, argug that simply by talkg about gay relatnships to a child, you are sexualizg that child. He was followed by Arizona’s ernor, Doug Ducey, who, after barrg mors om genr-affirmatn treatment, wouldn’t even state for the rerd that trans people were Florida lawmaker Michele Rayner-Goolsby, left, hugs her wife, Bian Goolsby, durg a march at cy hall St Petersburg agast the ‘don’t say gay’ bill.

DESANTIS-BACKED 'DONT SAY GAY' BILL SPARKS OUTRAGE

Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/Zuma Wire/Rex/ShutterstockPolicians are supported the media by mentators like Tucker Carlson, who claimed “no one had heard of this trans thg four years ago”, or Charlie Kirk, channelg 1980s fears sayg “gays want to rpt your children” rejuvenated, the right wg is poised to make transphobia and homophobia rnerston of the midterms and 2024 electns, wh promis to liver “don’t say gay” legislatn stat cludg Michigan and New Perks, the print of the Fay Rearch Council, a nservative lobbyg group, veighed agast the ernors of Indiana and Utah for vetog legislatn banng trans women om participatg sports, llg the bills “timely, mastream protectns”.

The Republin US reprentative Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to troduce a feral “don’t say gay” bill if Republins w the Hoe this November, only to one-up herself days later by tweetg that for people to be pro-trans is to be pro-pedophilia. ”The bs-iendly wg of the GOP that would quietly team up wh Democrats to scuttle rabidly homophobic bills is now outnumbered, and legislators a dozen or more stat that lean even farther to the right than DeSantis are takg, the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights legal director, believ Florida is the tt se for a renewed ph for an aggrsive, Christian-natnalist program.

WHAT DO ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ ACTUALLY SAY?

”The “don’t say gay” bill, Mter not, is very siar to what’s been passed Rsia, tetherg Amerin nservativ to their thorarian unterparts who have succsfully rolled back mocratic norms across eastern Europe.

“I’ve seen this movie before over the last 30 years: The right wg cid to target the LGBTQ muny, whether ’s around marriage or adoptn or trans kids playg sports or bathrooms, ” says the California state senator Stt Wiener, who is gay. “I thought was really important to ph back on the policy level, and to send a clear signal that California and other stat really re about the kids, ” he believ that “don’t say gay” is “patently unnstutnal” but also ntends that relyg on the judicial system to protect human rights may no longer be a sound optn. In five untri and parts of two others, homosexualy is still punishable wh the ath penalty, while a further 70 imprison cizens bee of their sexual where homosexualy is legal, many untri treat those same-sex relatnships differently, such as havg an unequal age of nsent or a ban on marriage.

A Florida bill that would lim classroom discsns on sexual orientatn and genr inty and enurage parents to sue schools or teachers that engage the topics ntu to move through the state Hoe and 's beg lled a "Don't Say Gay" bill by LGBTQ advot, who fear that if this bill is signed to law, uld act as a plete ban on the lsons on LGBTQ opprsn, history and discsns about LGBTQ amendment to the bill was proposed Friday that also would require school officials to disclose a stunt's sexual or genr inty to their parents wh six weeks of fdg out about the stunt's inty.

FLORIDA LAWMAKERS PASS 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL

Ron DeSantis and the state legislature for the efforts last month a Twter advocy anizatns say the bills are remiscent of the “no promo homo” laws of the 1990s that barred tors om discsg queer topics schools, but wh an add mandate on parent and fay volvement. Ron DeSantis of Florida is expected to sign Hoe Bill 1557, a proposed law that supporters ll the “Parental Rights Edutn” bill and opponents refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” lleague Dana Goldste has done a close readg of the bill self, which is about much more than gay rights. Sentence has earned the bill the “Don’t Say Gay” nickname:L 97-101: Classroom stctn by school personnel or third parti on sexual orientatn or genr inty may not occur krgarten through gra 3 or a manner that is not age appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state impact is clear enough: Instctn on genr and sexualy would be nstraed all gras.

That uld disurage a teacher om speakg about gay fai wh the whole class, even if some stunts have gay bill also targets mental health and unselg servic — a place where stunts often have difficult nversatns about genr inty and sexualy, pecially if they stggle to talk about those nversatns at as Florida revis s school unselg standards, adopted 2010, which affirm genr and sexual diversy unselg. This Book Is Gay explas how to safely have anal sex; how to accs PrEP to avoid HIV transmissn; how to fd a cloris; the difference between cis and trans bodi; and I clarify words and phras that teenagers will have almost certaly read onle like “Grdr”, “rimmg” or “goln shower”.

FROM BOOK BANS TO 'DON’T SAY GAY' BILL, LGBTQ KIDS FEEL 'ERASED' THE CLASSROOM

Spencer LystCourty Spencer LystSce the start of the school year, school officials stat across the untry have banned books about gay and trans experienc, removed LGBTQ-affirmg posters and flags and disband gay-straight alliance clubs. In school districts throughout the natn, stunts have attacked their queer classmat, while state lawmakers have filed hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills wh many seekg to refe lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer stunts’ plac U.

GAY RIGHTS

Courty Jennifer SolomonOn Monday, Solomon’s ernor, Republin Ron DeSantis, signaled that he would support a new piece of state legislatn — tled the Parental Rights Edutn bill, but dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — that would prohib the discsn of sexualy and genr inty schools. Nilette Solomon said she is already hant to mentn her wife — and by flt her sexualy — at school, but she said passage of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill would be “the straw that breaks the mel’s back” and vowed to qu if be law. In addn to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill advancg Florida, there are 15 bills unr nsiratn eight stat that would silence speech about LGBTQ inti classrooms, acrdg to ee speech nonprof anizatn PEN perhaps the biggt trend state bills targetg LGBTQ youths are those foced on transgenr stunts.