Say Gay! — Unpublished

I’ve never been to Florida. However, I have been to Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and even Tennessee. Unfortunately in these places, I've seen confederate flag baseball caps being sold in gas stations and men eating dinner at a restaurant with a pistol strapped to their side. I’ve also sat in the humid and cramped backseat of a rental car and passed through one stoplight hometowns, picturing myself running through the prairies and sitting on the wrap-around front porches all afternoon. For as long as I could remember, I have dreamt of the South. The South is home to so many, even those of us who don’t even live there. Despite that, it’s a deeply flawed region that has caused pain for so many generations, past and present. It is such a bizarre feeling, to know that the one place you want to call home might be a place that doesn’t welcome you.

On March 28th, the Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, signed a bill into law that would prohibit the mere acknowledgement of sexual orientation, gender expression, and other queer topics in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms. Not only that but in all school settings. In secondary schools as well, having open conversations about queer topics has become a justifiable reason for parents to demand a state investigation into their child’s school, putting the jobs of LGBTQ+ teachers and allies at risk. The types of comments that could trigger such an investigation could be as simple as mentioning a queer historical figure like Harvey Milk or wishing someone a happy Pride Month. Perhaps the worst of all, if a student comes out to a teacher, under HB 1557, that teacher would then be obligated under law to tell that child’s parents about their sexuality or gender expression, fully outing them and possibly putting them in danger.

Governor Ron DeSantis signing HB 1557 into law. Source

The bill has been coined, “Don’t Say Gay” by its critics because essentially what the bill aims to do is to silence queer voices. Not only that, it wishes to extinguish them.

What sort of message does a law like this send to young queer people living in Florida, or to all queer people living in America for the matter? The type of language expressed in it encourages queer people to keep their identities a secret and to be ashamed of who they are in spaces where they should feel welcomed. Even in the most liberal states, queer youth are in danger, so how can we as a society even begin to protect them in the darkest of red states? The “Don’t Say Gay” bill, no matter how Republican lawmakers try to swing it, is discriminatory against LGBTQ+ youth and is fueled by prejudice.

Although according to Governor DeSantis the reasoning behind this bill is simply to protect the rights of parents and their children. There has been a sudden wave of conservative parents rushing to their children’s school boards, complaining about “issues” ranging from transgender students participating in sports to teachers acknowledging that slavery did happen during a United States history lesson. The latest blow in this rabid movement is fueled by deeply homophobic and transphobic concerns. In an attempt to justify the discriminatory piece of legislation, Republican state senator Danny Burgess said “there should be an age limit on certain discussions." It's almost as if from a young age children aren’t outright exposed and pressured into heterosexuality. I mean has Danny ever seen a Disney princess movie? It doesn’t seem like we as a society are trying to shield young, impressionable children from heterosexuality for we see its influence in children’s toys, books, and cartoons. Sexuality, in general, isn’t the problem, it’s any sexuality or expression of gender that isn’t cis and straight that conservative lawmakers hope to eradicate.

While conservatives think it’s too young to discuss queer sexualities with their children, they certainly don’t think it’s too early to pressure them into heterosexuality, which can be seen in many children’s movies like these.

We have progressed enough as a society to acknowledge in school settings that not everybody is heterosexual, or confined to basic gender norms. No amount of legislation will ever take away the fact that queer people exist, we always have, and we always will. HB 1557 is going to fuel a witch hunt across Florida schools, persecuting any teacher or student who dares to speak up. The line between what is okay to talk about in classrooms and what is not is very blurry. The ones deciding this fine line are twisted vigilantes with nothing else better to do. It is only a matter of time before more red states begin passing this same legislation.

Florida unfortunately is not the only state in the US aimed at starting a legislative war against LGBTQ+ youth right now. In Texas, gender-affirming surgery was just recently made child abuse under the law. Nurses, doctors, and other healthcare officials now risk the chance of losing their job if they help a transgender child seek treatment. In Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Arizona transgender girls are not allowed to play on the same sports teams as “biological girls”. I had hoped that we as a society had moved past the fear of transgender people, but it seems like we haven’t made any progress.

Our society has such a strict set of rules on who can love who, what gender someone is allowed to be, and it all feels so overwhelming and pressuring. If a transgender girl wants to play on a girls’ sports team, then why don’t we just let her? The reality she’s just like her classmates, and she just wants to have the same opportunities and experiences as them. That goes for every queer child in every school. These laws have real effects on real people, and the type of effects we are going to see from this is an increased number of queer teens committing suicide. Anyone who questions this fact obviously doesn’t know how it feels to have your whole identity dismissed as something to be ashamed of.

Teens in Florida staged a school walkout in protest of the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. Source

We might as well just say what these laws truly are. These laws are hateful. We have seen them in the South before, we have seen conservatives burn books, censor, and segregate before. This movement is fueled by nothing but a lack of empathy and understanding. Queer children deserve to be seen in their classrooms. They deserve to learn about their history, and they deserve a seat at the table just like everyone else.

A place I once loved, the South and all its beauty, is a place I can barely think about now without feeling immense pain. I can’t even imagine what it must be like for queer students to have to sit in classrooms in states like Florida where their mere existence is enough for whole state investigations to be brought up. I am deeply disgusted and frustrated and can only hope these laws are short-lived.