USA TODAY International Edition
Students grapple with ‘ Don’t Say Gay’
Anti- LGBTQ laws are on the rise in red states
KATY, Texas – It was late in the fall semester a few years ago when the yearbook staff of a suburban Houston high school finished putting together the project, including a full- page feature on the high school’s Pride club, a support group for LGBTQ students.
The 2018- 19 yearbook made its way to the administration for review, which was when the principal saw the addition and made a controversial decision: parents of every student on that page would need to sign a permission slip.
The slips, sent to parents without students’ consent and for no other school club, caused an uproar, recalled Cameron Samuels, a club member and then a freshman.
“That forcibly outed those students to their families, and the Pride club disbanded because of that controversy and just the sheer impact that it had on the members,” Samuels told USA TODAY.
Samuels, who uses gender- neutral pronouns, was not in any photos on the page and was spared that trauma. But they saw how it shook and disturbed some classmates, they said.
States try to limit influence
The controversy in Texas is one of many flashpoints in the divide playing out in school districts across the country between LGBTQ advocates pressing for greater acceptance and conservatives who oppose what they see as a radical shift in what children are being taught or exposed to in the classroom.
The nonprofit Movement Advancement Project estimates that 19% of LGBTQ people live in states that censor discussions of queer people or issues in school.
The pushback against LGBTQ rights is gaining steam across America, especially in red states where cultural wars over education have propelled Republicans to election victories. But that movement could hit a wall in the form of the Biden administration, which is proposing sweeping changes to Title IX, a federal statute that protects against discrimination based on gender and sex.
In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill prohibiting the mention of sexual orientation or gender identity from classroom curriculum. Since then, about a dozen other state governments have passed or proposed copycat legislation, referred to derisively by opponents as “Don’t Say Gay” laws.
DeSantis has defended the legislation, officially titled Parental Rights in Education, as giving more control to parents.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced in April that passing a similar law is a “top priority.” Patrick won reelection in November for his third term in a position that also makes him president of the state Senate and in charge of the legislative agenda.
Texas could soon surpass Florida in restricting LGBTQ curriculum in public schools. While the Sunshine State’s law prohibits instruction of sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade, a bill just introduced in the Texas legislature would carry the same restriction through eighth grade.
“The sexualization of our children must stop. Parents and taxpayers have spoken loudly over the past year- plus,” the bill’s sponsor, GOP Rep. Jared Patterson said in a statement.
Pushback on federal level
These state initiatives could soon face challenges at the federal level, though. On the 50th anniversary of Title IX last summer, the Biden administration proposed expansions to the civil rights law that would strengthen protections for LGBTQ students.
In that case, so- called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation would be at odds with federal law, in violation of the new, more explicit definitions of sex discrimination and stereotyping, said Title IX Consulting Group Founder and CEO Sandra Hodgin.
“Federal regulation trumps state regulation,” Hodgin said. “State regulators would have to figure out how to make whatever they want in place to work with the federal ( requirements).”
Much of the burden would fall on the schools and districts of red states. While navigating any discrepancies, local officials would have to revise policies to be in line with federal guidelines, Hodgin said.
“Several of the school districts are reaching out to people like me right now to figure out ‘ OK, what’s the middle ground? What do we have to do?’ ” said Hodgin, who is hired by campuses to advise them on Title IX compliance. “They don’t want to lose millions of dollars in federal funding.”
The Department of Education plans to release the finalized amendments in May, said deputy press secretary Vanessa Harmoush.
Samuels said they hope any changes made would lead to real protections for students in their district.
“Just as they would follow any other law, I hope that districts like Katy and every other district in Texas would respect the rights of queer youth,” the student said.
Communities in transition at center of cultural divide
Katy, a suburb about 30 miles west of Houston, is not unlike many onceagrarian communities across the U. S. transformed by urban sprawl. Though these communities have long left their farm- town status following rapid growth and diversification in the last decade, a persistent undercurrent of conservative beliefs has intensified cultural divisions within the community, Samuels said.
“It’s that dialogue around what does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to be a Texan? And how can we solidify that with traditional values, which often are going to exclude the diversity that we actually ( have) as a country or as a state or a community,” said Samuels, now 18 and a first- year student at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
Austin Davis Ruiz, communications and marketing manager at the Montrose Center, an LGBTQ advocacy group and community center in Houston, has not heard of any local district coming out against the proposed Title IX changes. However, he said there is still an “anti- LGBTQ sentiment in suburbs outside of Houston.”
As a senior last school year, Samuels took on the role of advocate to protest a district internet filter blocking access to LGBTQ- related websites on school computers.
They recall standing alone at one board meeting before a room of adults “spewing bigotry.” Samuels said the discussion that evening extended to book banning, with some parents there pushing for school libraries to remove LGBTQ stories or books teaching critical race theory.
Despite partial success from Samuels’ efforts, websites like the Trevor Project – an organization focused on LGBTQ suicide prevention – still are blocked for students in kindergarten through fifth grade in Katy, high school senior Logan McLean said at a recent school board meeting.
She said it was emblematic of “Katy ISD’s hostility to LGBTQ+ students.”
Katy Independent School District did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment.