Bill to limit gender discussion in schools stalls in committee

Legislation aiming to restrict discussion about gender identity in Georgia classrooms hit a wall this past week in a state Senate committee.

Senate Bill 88, a GOP-backed proposal, would ban teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity “other than the child’s biological sex” without parental consent.

It also would have prohibited teachers and others who oversee children under 16 from providing sex education without consent, a major shift for schools that are legally required to 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 could be associated with a different gender than the one on their birth certificate.

The measure would have applied to both private and public schools, as well as private institutions such as camps, and that’s what forced it to stall in the Senate Education and Youth Committee.

Mike Griffin of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board testified during a hearing that his group originally supported SB 88, but that changed after lawyers and activists raised concerns about the possibility of “dramatic unintended consequences.”

The committee then voted to table the measure. Under normal procedures, the legislation no longer has enough time to meet the Crossover Day deadline on Monday. That’s when a bill typically must win passage in at least one chamber of the General Assembly to have a good chance of becoming law.

It doesn’t mean absolute death for the legislation. It could find new life if its language is inserted in another measure.

SB 88’s sponsor, state Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, said the bill only applied to those in charge of children younger than the age of consent. It was meant to ensure parents were included in gender identity conversations, he said.

The measure follows a trend GOP lawmakers have set in recent years by targeting books in school libraries and classroom discussions about race. Activists have alleged that schools are behind a “social contagion” of gender questioning that is ideologically driven.