Florida Teachers Confed By So-Called 'Don't Say Gay' Law | Time

Contents:

• GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
• ‘I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO THE GAY ONE’: LGBTQ TEACHERS SAY THEY ARE FIGHTG ERASURE THEIR OWN CLASSROOMS
• LGBTQ TEACHERS STGGLE TO NAVIGATE FLORIDA'S SO-CALLED 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW
• AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS
• ARE AMICS DISPROPORTNATELY GAY?
• THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER
• FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
• BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS
• HOW FLORIDA TEACHERS PLAN TO AL WH 'DON'T SAY GAY' L

GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE

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, 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 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 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, acrdg to Carver, he and some stunts' parents asked Montgomery County Supertennt Dr.

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. "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. Before the bill was passed, some Democrats unsuccsfully attempted to make more specific -- rtrictg stctn on sexual activy rather than orientatn, for 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 .

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.

‘I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO THE GAY ONE’: LGBTQ TEACHERS SAY THEY ARE FIGHTG ERASURE THEIR OWN CLASSROOMS

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. Florida’s HB 1557, lloquially known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which kickstarted a trend of attempted legislative bans on discsn of LGBTQ topics schools, was expand April to rtrict some discsns of genr inty and sexual orientatn public classrooms om krgarten to 12th gra.

And though he matas his optimism the classroom wh his young stunts, the realy of beg a gay teacher a polil climate that’s bee creasgly hostile toward LGBTQ people n be much more challengg, even dangero, he said.

Last year, after Florida troduced what crics lled s “Don’t Say Gay” legislatn, several other stat followed su and filed siar bills that affect whether teachers n e pronouns or nam stunts ask them to e.

LGBTQ TEACHERS STGGLE TO NAVIGATE FLORIDA'S SO-CALLED 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW

NBC News reported on two teachers Florida and Kentucky, rpectively, the latter of whom was named Kentucky Teacher of the Year 2022, who qu their jobs after some parents and muny members cricized them for beg out gay men and sharg tails about their personal liv wh stunts. Other queer and trans teachers, particularly after Florida passed s “Don’t Say Gay” bill last year, have said they no longer feel supported or mentally healthy enough to ntue teachg, acrdg to reportg om CNN affiliate WPTV. ” This fall is the first school year which teachers and school admistrators mt follow Florida’s HB 1557—lled the “Parental Rights Edutn” statute by lawmakers and dubbed the Don’t Say Gay law by crics—that banned public school districts om teachg about sexual orientatn or genr inty krgarten through the third gra, or “ a manner that is not age-appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state standards.

) “All we want as tors is to create a safe space for our stunts and teach them to rpect each other, ” says Brian Kerek, a gay high school math teacher Osceola County, Florida. ) “The fact that someone has to say to the teachers that you n have a picture of your spoe on your sk, shows the environment they’re havg to work , ” says McCracken, who is gay. Michael Woods, a gay high school special tn teacher Palm Beach County, says he terpreted Palm Beach’s school district’s guidance to mean that if a stunt tells him somethg about their genr or pronouns, he mt notify the kid’s parents.

We are bted to anizatns such as Camp Pri for rourc such as the 2010 State of Higher Edutn for Lbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgenr People, a survey nducted wh more than 5, 000 stunts, faculty and staff at lleg and universi all 50 stat, which let rponnts intify their sexual inty, genr inty and genr exprsn multiple perceptns of mp climate for LGBT people at a particular stutn n have an impact on LGBT stunts and faculty there. 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.

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

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. 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. “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.

ARE AMICS DISPROPORTNATELY GAY?

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.

THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER

”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.

This is jt htg you the face, ” said Chris Sanrs, the executive director of the Tennsee Equaly Project, a gay-rights group, potg to a bill that statethat would prohib materials that “promote, normalize, support, or addrs” LGBTQ issu. Those that did, though, varly say they’re troducg them to guard parents’ rights or prevent doctratn by teachers, though they were often unclear about what specific impact they expect the laws to John Kavanagh, Arizona, was one of the few lawmakers who agreed to speak on the rerd about the bill he sponsored, which would require parents to give approval for their children to jo gay-straight allianc at schools or other such clubs. “Some of this is polil grandstandg and vote-panrg, but there’s also an thentic anxiety around parents and nonparents alike that Ameri’s children are beg Pied-Pipered by the vague and distant threats, they’re vadg the muny through the schools, ” said Adam Laats, a profsor of tn and history at the State Universy of New York, ia that gay teachers are recg stunts who need to be protected is a particularly vic theme that rells the latter half of the 20th century, Laats said, which at that time rulted thefirg of sr of teachers—a procs ually spearhead by state lawmakers, but was also supported by teachers’ unns, ci, and others.

“And I thk there is a very strong iologil current that really do believe the heart and soul of Ameri is at stake and beg threatened by trans people, by gays and lbians, by undocumented people, that is lookg to stutnalize the versn of Ameri they want to see. What mak the surge of legislative tert particularly plited is that stat have historilly not provid much guidance on how their schools should addrs LGBTQ the 1980s and 1990s, durg the height of the HIV epimic, a number of stat passed laws proscribg mentn of homosexualy; many, but not all, have sce been rolled back.

FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG

Natnal pollg shows most Amerins are fortable wh gay and lbian teachers and about six 10 say they are fortable wh an elementary level transgenr teacher, acrdg to an analysis by the Survey Center on Amerin Life, a project of the Amerin Enterprise Instute, a thk tank.

BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS

“Concealable Stigma and Occupatnal Segregatn: Toward a Theory of Gay and Lbian Occupatns” origally was published by Admistrative Science Quarterly and featured recently  the London School of Enomics and Polil Science's Bs Review blog.

Buildg on their earlier study of gay and straight workers, as well as the existg lerature on ncealable stigmas and stigma management, the thors veloped several hypoth about why certa kds of jobs -- cludg faculty posns -- reportedly employ a disproportnate number of gay men and women. Task pennce is likely to be particularly important for lbian and gay workers, the thors predicted, bee “they tend to see workers and supervisors as the most mon source of potential mistreatment and discrimatn the workplace. In their 2014 workg paper on occupatnal skills and preferenc relative to sexual orientatn, Tilcsik, Anteby and Knight found that those survey rponnts who intified as gay or lbian dited a stronger preference for jobs which they would “work penntly om workers” and “acplish tasks whout pendg too much on other people.

HOW FLORIDA TEACHERS PLAN TO AL WH 'DON'T SAY GAY' L

Social perceptivens -- fed as a pacy to anticipate and accurately perceive others’ tentns and reactns -- is another reason gay men and women are disproportnately reprented among profsors, the thors prumed.

Moreover, they said, their recent survey rearch suggts that gays and lbians have signifintly higher levels of social perceptivens relative to their peers -- one half standard viatn’s worth, even after ntrollg for age, genr and race. (Such fdgs were nsistent wh existg qualative rearch on sexual orientatn and management of ncealable stigma, such as lerature on adolcent velopment suggtg that lbian and gay youths need to velop a high level of social sensivy and diagnostic accuracy relatively early life as an adaptatn or pg skill.

The Add Health data also were reprentative wh general figur on sexual orientatn, that about 2 percent intified as gay or lbian, 7 percent reported same-sex attractn and 10 percent reported same-sex sexual ntact. They first ed the Amerin Communy Survey Data at the occupatnal level to exame the relatnship between the proportn of gay and lbian workers the occupatn and the extent to which the occupatn requir social perceptivens and provis task pennce.