Another day, another queer person discussing their identity, journey, and humanity in an appeal to lawmakers in hopes of preventing them from doing harm. At this point, this scenario feels like it could come from almost anywhere around the United States, but this particular instance comes out of Florida. While states have been pushing a variation of anti-trans legislation, SB 1834 in Florida has a different (but still terrible) agenda. What is it? It wants to ban school districts from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity with children.

Like many other pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, this bill is titled “Parental Rights in Education,” because framing the issue as being about parental rights reads a lot less nefariously than outright saying you want to prevent young people from knowing LGBTQ+ people exist. Luckily, a video of a brave man speaking up to lawmakers in the state has started to gain traction online, hopefully helping to get people’s attention on this horrifically prejudiced legislation.

In specifics, the bill seeks to “prohibit” district school boards from “encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a specified manner, etc.” Later in the text, it adds: “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”

There is absolutely no reason young children can’t leave about queer people in some capacity; yes, things need to be age-appropriate so they’re accessible, but children can absolutely learn that LGBTQ+ people not only exist but are all around them—their teachers, doctors, favorite movie stars, musicians, writers, and so on. Sure, it needs to be “age-appropriate” and “developmentally appropriate,” just like it’s considered “age-appropriate” and “developmentally appropriate” when teachers reference their spouse when in a heterosexual marriage … right?

Students are also perfectly capable of understanding the basics of respecting someone’s pronouns and name changes; in fact, some students in that age group are exploring those things themselves. How would it feel to show up at school and realize that not only are you possibly part of a group you can’t even discuss in school but that your friends likely have not learned how to process your identity? Very isolating. 

This also goes back to archaic, hateful ideas that LGBTQ+ people are inherently predatory, dangerous, or inappropriately sexual. Whereas cisgender, heterosexual people are considered the norm and the default, LGBTQ+ people are othered and seen as innately different. That’s not okay, ever, and especially not when vulnerable young children could internalize these discriminatory messages. 

Equality Florida, a group that works to achieve full equality for LGBTQ+ people in the state, shared a moving video from Jon Harris Maurer, who spoke to lawmakers after they decided to move forward with the bill on Thursday, Jan. 20.

“What we do know is that LGBTQ people are a normal, healthy part of our society,” Maurer said in part to lawmakers. “We’re parents, students, and teachers. We are your brothers and your sisters. Conversations about us aren’t something dangerous that should be banned; that’s deeply prejudicial and sends a terrible message to our young people, including LGBTQ young people or young people who have LGBTQ parents.”

You can check out the full video below.

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