Don't Say Gay Education Bill in Florida: How LGBTQIA+ People Are Simply Being Erased in FL

As my friend Mark McCurry wrote to a news report I posted on Facebook: "Erasure. A necessary step in cultural eradication."

In the state of Florida they are trying to erase the presence of LGBTQIA+ people in the Don't Say Gay Education Bill, which recently advanced in the Florida House of Representatives. In other words, members of the state legislature of Florida are trying to erase the presence of LGBTQIA+ people, and pretend we simply don't exist. And if we do exist, you can't read about us, see films about us, dance to music and perform in plays written and performed by us, talk about us, be friends with us, or hang around with us, 

Reporter Brody Levesque of the Washington Blade (as reported on Jan. 21, 2022 on the website joemygod.com), broke the story of Florida House Education and Employment Committee passed HB1557, written by State Rep. Joe Harding (R), called the Parental Rights in Education bill, the "Don't Say Gay Education Bill." Its companion Senate bill SB 1834 would ban classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, erasing LGBTQIA+ identity, history, and culture, as well as LGBTQIA+ students themselves. 

"The bill also has provisions that appear to undermine LGBTQ support in schools and include vague parental notification requirements which could effectively 'out' LGBTQ-identifying students to their parents without their consent." 

Equality Florida moved swiftly against the bill, in which Jon Harris Maurer, Public Policy Director of Equality FL, said, "We're parents, students, and teachers. We are your brothers and sisters. Conversations about us aren't something dangerous that should be banned" (Jan. 20, 2022).

I knew I was gay when I was 8 or 9-years-old. I had a crush on one of my closets friends, another young boy my age. And he had a crush on me. But I had no where to identify what I was feeling and thinking, experiencing deep in my soul. How wonderful it would've been to have LGBTQIA+ resources for young people in elementary school, middle school, high school, and college, seeing other LGBTQIA+ as kids and as parents, in social events, sporting events, books, movies, plays, music, and historical figures. We, like those who are non-LGBTQIA+ people, need role models in various vocations and jobs, showing us all the possible healthy ways we could grow up. 

What we didn't need were programs that simply got us children wrong, or denied that our ideas of being in a same sex coupled relationship that is love is a valid way of living in this world. What we don't need is an educational system that denies our existence, stigmatizing our very community, and promoting mental health distress, violence, and possibly suicide, which is what many right wing groups have pursued in eradicating us from public, civil life in the public square. This bill would torment and hurt hundreds of thousands LGBTQIA+ children in Florida, all for the cruel pleasure of mis-guided and homophobic adults in state legislatures. 

Here's a link to that story: https://www.joemygod.com/2022/01/florida-house-advances-dont-say-gay-education-bill/

But it doesn't stop there: Florida state Senate also passed another bill in which people cannot teach anything about race that would make other people uncomfortable, all around "CRT" theory, or "Critical Race Theory." Who shouldn't be made to feel uncomfortable about our racist past? White students. There is nothing in the bill about making Black students feel uncomfortable about a "white-washed" history. Here's a link about this latest bill: https://www.salon.com/2022/01/24/exclusive-florida-school-district-cancels-real-history-as-anti-crt-censorship-spreads/

Sadly, this is more of the same backlash we expected when "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was repealed, and marriage equality became law of the land. With such great advances comes great backlash, which is what we are seeing pop up, especially in states with Republican state legislatures and Governors, like Florida and Texas. 

What I keep on waiting for are the protests from some of the multinational corporations who hire Black Americans, those who are indigenous, and people of color, along with LGBTQIA+ people. I also keep a track on which churches and which major Protestant denominations are pushing back on these bills in TX and FL. Their response thus far? Nothing.

What is happening in states like Texas and Florida in their state legislatures in banning books, closing libraries, and making educational contexts toxic for LGBTQIA+ students, staff, and faculty alike is evil. And we, in the Church, as members of the body of Christ, must speak out against such injustice. 

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