The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gender identity in schools bill stalls in Ga. Senate committee
It applied to private and public schools, causing concerns.
Georgia legislation that would have prohibited classroom discussions about gender identity without parent permission stalled in a committee hearing Wednesday, undermining its odds of becoming law.
The current downfall of Senate Bill 88 was that it applied equally to private as well as public schools, and private institutions such as camps.
Mike Griffin, spokesman for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, testified at a Senate hearing Wednesday that his group originally supported the legislation but had qualms after lawyers and activists raised concerns that it could have “dramatic unintended consequences.”
The Senate Education and Youth Committee then voted to table the measure. Under normal procedures, there is not enough time to get the bill approved for a vote by the full Senate before the “crossover day” deadline Monday.
The bill by Sen. Carden Summers, R-cordele, is similar to a Florida law that critics have called “Don’t Say Gay” because of the way it censors teacher speech about sex and gender in schools.
Georgia’s Gop-backed proposal originally sought to ban teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity “other than the child’s biological sex” unless they first obtained parental consent. It also would have prohibited teachers and others overseeing children under 16 from providing sex education without consent, a major shift for schools that must by law offer sex ed. And it would have mandated that schools use a child’s legal name on records, forcing them to ignore student requests to use a name that connotes a different gender than the one on their birth certificate.
SB 88 would have made schools a less accepting place for transgender students, Christine Knox, the principal for Westchester Elementary School in Decatur, told the senators. Teachers are supposed to be an “ally and a friend” for students, and their classrooms should be “an oasis of safety,” she said. The bill would have created an “additional layer of surveillance” in schools.
Tracey Nance, a former Georgia Teacher of the Year, testified that such a law would drive teachers away from Georgia schools. She criticized a provision that would have prohibited teachers and caregivers from dressing “in a sexually provocative manner,” noting that schools already have dress codes and wondering aloud if it was targeting women, who make up the majority of the teaching workforce.
“And if that’s not it,” she said, “I’m wondering if this is really trying to get at this drag queen story time that many states seem obsessed with, and if that’s true, that’s kind of an underhanded and unfair way to handle it.” (Nance was referring to book readings by men dressed as caricatures of women in libraries, bars and schools in many states.)
Summers said his bill applied only to those in charge of children younger than the age of consent. Its intent was to ensure parents were included in gender identity conversations, he said.