Americans who have any empathy for children and/or queer people have watched in horror as several states consider and even pass legislation that restricts conversations about gender and sexuality in schools. On Tuesday, Florida’s legislature passed its “Don’t Say Gay” bill, officially titled the Parental Rights in Education bill, one of at least 15 such bills on the table nationwide as of late February. Despite opposition from many Floridians, including thousands of Florida's K-12 students, and from the White House, the bill is on its way to Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s desk, where it’s expected to be signed into law.
As reported by Teen Vogue, “The bill specifically limits discussion of sexuality and gender in kindergarten through grade three, but contains vague language prohibiting discussion that is ‘not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.’” Democrats argue that the language of the bill is too broad, leaving room for targeting LGBTQ+ students of all ages.
This comes as part of a terrifying wave of attacks on LGBTQ+ children nationwide, particularly against trans children. In 2021, a record 34 states introduced 147 anti-trans bills. This is objectively a matter of life or death: Research from the Trevor Project shows that LGBTQ+ students in affirming school environments are 40% less likely to attempt suicide, and a January study of theirs found that 85% of transgender and nonbinary youth say debates surrounding recent anti-trans bills have negatively impacted their mental health.
This is all bad enough, but inevitably, a callous politico had to emphasize just how bad. DeSantis’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, tweeted on Friday that the only people who could oppose the Don’t Say Gay bill would be “a groomer or at least [someone who doesn’t] denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.” In a written statement responding to public outcry over the tweets, Pushaw doubled down, suggesting, “Talking about adult topics with young children is a tactic of groomers… [and] creates an environment where grooming can happen.” Pushaw is regurgitating a false, well-worn, right-wing talking point, linking LGBTQ+ people to pedophilia and child abuse and framing LGBTQ+ people as a danger to children. Her comments netted criticism from Florida's Rep. Carlos G. Smith and Equality Florida.
Pushaw’s comments may be particularly problematic, but the pointed homophobia coming out of DeSantis’s administration is part of a cynical political gambit. As NBC News’s Jo Yurcaba points out, both DeSantis and South Dakota governor Kristi Noem — who signed the first anti-trans sports bill of 2022 into law in early February — are being floated as prospects for the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
Targeting LGBTQ+ youth is part of a broader strategy by Republicans to politicize children’s lives, involving book bans, critical race theory, and bathroom bills, even while they point the finger over the political divide to blame Democrats for the same thing. “What we’re seeing here is anti-LGBTQ groups, on a national level, making schools the new battleground across the board, across various kinds of school policies, and various forms of legislation,” Mary Emily O’Hara, GLAAD rapid response manager, told NBC News in late Februrary. “Schools are the target right now for the anti-LGBTQ movement.”
These efforts are not based on any new information; as an ACLU campaigns director told The New Republic’s Melissa Gira Grant, only “the environment surrounding the introduction of these bills has changed.” Unfortunately, cloaking homophobic rhetoric in the guise of protecting children is a political tactic that dates back to the Bible. In a 2019 essay explaining why right-wing conspiracists are “so obsessed with pedophilia,” focused on QAnon and Pizzagate, Mother Jones’s Ali Breland quotes historian Kathryn Olmsted, saying, “Hurting children is one of the worst things you can say someone is doing. It’s an easy way to demonize your enemy.” And it has a specific legacy within American politics: As right-wing politicians sense progress on social issues, demonization by issuing warnings about child endangerment is used as “an outgrowth of the normal workings of reactionary politics.” The article argues that the same tactic was employed against daycare in the 1970s and '80s — a time that was seen as a threat to the patriarchal family structure for enabling women to enter the workforce — and played into the Satanic panic.
Attacking LGBTQ+ youth — egregious as that is on its own — doesn’t just hurt young people; it hurts everyone. Florida teacher Nicolette Solomon, who is a lesbian, told NBC News that if the Don’t Say Gay bill is signed into law, she will quit her job, equating the bill’s directives with forcing her back in the closet at work. “I don’t think I can bear to see the students struggle and want to ask me about these things and then have to deny them that knowledge," Solomon said. "That’s not who I am as a teacher.”
Ultimately, as argued by Intercept columnist Natasha Lennard, attacks on LGBTQ+ students are “the mark of fascist power consolidation to stoke violent moral panic against an already marginalized and highly vulnerable community.” Republicans have declared war on those among us who are the least protected — literally, children. Shame on them.
Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Teens Share the Very Real Impact of All These Anti-Trans Bills
Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take!
