With tears and flowers Orlando remembers the victims of the Pulse club 6:40
(CNN) --
This weekend, Javi Gomez traveled more than 500 miles from his native Miami to Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, to plead his case against a law that LGBTQ advocates call the "Don't Say Bill." Gay” (“Don’t say gay”, in Spanish).
I was nervous.
But he was ready.
At school, her classmates gave her nicknames for what they thought were her feminine traits, such as the tone of her voice and her propensity for hand gestures.
Their experiences are not unusual for a young LGBTQ person: 52% of LGBTQ middle and high school students said they had been bullied in person or online in the past year, according to a 2021 report by the Trevor Project, a prevention organization. of suicide for queer and trans youth.
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Gomez, now a senior in high school, blames her former classmates' bullying on ignorance: "They didn't know what they were talking about or what they were saying because they learned everything from other people," she said.
Some exposure to LGBTQ issues — what it means to be gay,
queer
or transgender, and why it's wrong to discriminate against LGBTQ people — might have helped ease the pain they inflicted, he said.
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"Now I look back on my past, and I have healed," he said.
"I've tried to forgive. But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of trauma involved."
Javi Gomez, a high school senior from Miami, leads his school's Gay-Straight Alliance and teaches his peers about queer and trans history.
That's why he travels so far to speak to lawmakers about "Parental Rights in Education," identical bills introduced last month in the Florida House and Senate that, among other things, would ban school districts "encourage" discussion of "sexual orientation or gender identity" in elementary classrooms.
The bill is advancing in the Florida legislature.
This week it was approved by the Senate Education Committee.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has indicated his support for the bill, though there is no timetable for when it might hit his desk.
(The legislative session ends in a few weeks.)
Many opponents of the bill believe it will pass.
And when it does, they say, it will open the floodgates for lawmakers to introduce more extreme bills that limit the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ students.
There is a lot of uncertainty about what the bill would actually prohibit, if it becomes law, given its broad language.
But they say they fear for children and adolescents who attend schools where their identities subject them to additional scrutiny and they face greater risk of abuse, especially when their homes are not guaranteed to be supportive environments.
“It will probably get to the point where lawmakers perk up,” said Scott Galvin, executive director of Safe Schools South Florida, an organization that advocates for the safety of LGBTQ students.
"The mind reels at what could potentially happen."
Scott Galvin of
Safe Schools South Florida
organized a rally earlier this month to protest the "Don't Say Gay" bill.
Many advocates have called Florida home for decades: Galvin, a North Miami city council member, recalls being the only gay boy in his senior year of high school in Miami.
Brandon Wolf, press secretary for Equality Florida, moved to Orlando from Portland, Oregon, 14 years ago.
They've seen the state's LGBTQ communities grow and prosper, and they've also mourned the victims of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, where Wolf says some of his best friends were killed.
They want these communities to continue to thrive for generations to come and are fighting to make LGBTQ people of all ages feel safe in the state.
"We're talking about reversing very fundamental elements that we've worked so hard to do, and it's not only disappointing and unfortunate, but it's also scary for LGBTQ people who were just beginning to feel comfortable in their home state," Wolf told CNN.
Why are LGBTQ advocates speaking out against 'Don't Say Gay'?
Legislation on parental rights in education introduces some measures, including one that would require teachers to alert parents to issues related to the "well-being" of their children and prevent policies that block parental access to "certain records," according to the bill, although the types of records are not specified.
But the line that has caused the most anguish among LGBTQ advocates reads as follows: "A school district may not encourage classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity at the primary grade levels or in a manner that is not appropriate to the age or development of the students.
ANALYSIS |
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According to the House bill's co-author, Florida Republican Rep. Joe Harding, "primary grade levels" include kindergarten through third grade.
But the second half of that sentence, "or in a way that is not age-appropriate," has advocates concerned that the bill could be interpreted broadly enough for schools to discourage teachers from any degree of discussing those issues with students.
"The 'o' could certainly be interpreted in many ways," Galvin said.
"The vagueness of that kind of continuation of the sentence is to me what concerns me, let alone closing it at the elementary age."
Advocates fear the bill will prevent students in any grade from learning about LGBTQ equality and the work it took to get there.
They fear the legislation could erase important episodes of history like the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
And on top of that, discouraging discussion of LGBTQ issues could ostracize LGBTQ students who may not feel comfortable discussing their identity if the bill passes and discourage identity-questioning students from exploring the issue in school. they said.
The mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando was one of the worst in US history, and many of its victims were LGBTQ.
"Can you imagine having to concentrate in science or math class knowing that those who are supposed to protect you are refusing or unable to do so because the law prohibits them?" said Roberto Abreu, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Florida whose research areas include LGBTQ communities.
Schools are already often hostile environments for LGBTQ kids: Nearly 33% of LGBTQ students ages 13 to 21 said they missed one day of school in the course of a month because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable, and more than 77 % said they avoided school functions because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable, according to the most recent National Survey of School Climate released by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) in 2019.
The ignorance Gomez faced in elementary school is nearly ubiquitous in schools across the country.
According to the GLSEN report, 98.8% of LGBTQ students said they heard "gay" used in a negative way, and more than 95% of them heard homophobic slurs at school.
A group of LGBTQ students shared their stories of bullying with their school superintendent last month at the Compass LGBTQ Community Center in Lake Worth.
Speaking with Palm Beach County Schools Superintendent Michael Burke, members of the youth group held hands for support as they recounted their stress over not knowing which bathroom to use, being teased in locker rooms and their afraid to attend classes if the bill passes, Compass Center Executive Director Julie Seaver told CNN.
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The superintendent was receptive, Seaver said, leaving his contact information for the assembled students.
It was a positive meeting, he said, but he is concerned about students in areas where leaders are not working on his behalf.
“Just think of the LGBTQ youth and students who are not in a more inclusive county like Palm Beach,” he said.
"Just think about those kids: do they have someone in their corner who is rooting for them?"
The bill is one of many in recent years
Last year's national list of anti-LGBTQ legislation was the largest in recent history, according to the Human Rights Campaign, and many of the bills targeted transgender youth.
This year's list of bills may top 2021's record, Wolf said.
Brandon Wolf, pictured in 2019, works with Equality Florida to bolster existing LGBTQ organizations and challenge anti-LGBTQ bills.
Her organization, Equality Florida, successfully stopped all bills it deemed discriminatory against LGBTQ Floridians during its first 25 years of existence until 2021, when the "Fairness in Women's Sports Act" was passed, banning girls from trans compete on women's sports teams at public high schools and colleges in the state, he said.
This month, DeSantis said it was "totally inappropriate" for school staff to discuss a student's gender identity, though he said he didn't think such conversations were happening in Florida "in large numbers."
Wolf said it's not surprising that conservative lawmakers are introducing bills targeting LGBTQ residents, considering the considerable progress made in 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees the right to same-sex marriage and in 2020, when the Court ruled that federal civil laws protect LGBTQ workers from discrimination.
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"It's not surprising that we're seeing a backlash to advances in LGBTQ equality," he said.
"It's not like opponents go home and shake hands and say, 'Good game.'"
Bill co-author says it's meant to give parents a voice
Florida Rep. Joe Harding, who co-introduced the House bill, said he sympathized with the challenges of underserved students in the state, but disagreed with opponents who said the bill could lead to further intimidation or marginalization of those students.
Harding told CNN that the bill is meant to discourage school staff from asking about a student's gender identity or pronouns without including their parents in the conversation.
She said the experience could be confusing for young children.
President Joe Biden, by speaking out against the bill, Harding said, is effectively "saying that it's okay, for kids as young as kindergarten, for someone within the school district to change their gender, change their name, and be just one person at school and be someone else at home.
"As a father, that's just shocking," he said.
Florida Rep. Joe Harding said it's "shocking" that teachers ask a child's name and preferred pronouns without involving their parents.
Harding said she had heard a few cases of parents complaining that school staff were discussing gender identity with their children without their input, though she did not go into detail about where in the state these cases occurred.
Asked if he thinks a student changing their gender identity, name or pronouns at school is an inherently negative thing, Harding said "the negative is driving a wedge between the parent and the student."
"Nothing should be denied to parents in the life of a child," he said.
Parents could sue school districts if they suspect a violation of the legislation, if the bill passes.
As for whether the bill would prevent a teacher from answering students' questions about gender identity or sexuality, Harding said the legislation "doesn't discourage that."
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"Students are going to ask teachers questions of that nature," he said.
"[Teachers] know when it's time to engage parents."
Harding said the goal of the bill is to fully involve parents in their children's education, and that nothing about a child's mental health, academic performance or other private matters should be hidden from their guardians.
But giving parents clues about conversations about a child's identity isn't always beneficial to that child's well-being, Abreu said.
"Unfortunately, sometimes father figures are not the safest person for LGBTQ youth to approach," Abreu said in an email to CNN.
"What this bill requires schools to do, involving parents in all the private matters of their children's lives, could put LGBTQ youth at risk for...increased symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation, and homelessness as a result of being kicked out of their home."
Because students spend much of their waking hours at school, "it's no surprise that LGBTQ youth often find at least one supportive person in their school environment," Abreu said.
Members of Safe Schools South Florida displayed a Pride flag at the Miami Beach Pride Parade in 2017.
Brian Kerekes, a math teacher in Osceola County and a board member representing the state at the National Education Association, told CNN that he has had conversations with students in which they reveal their name and preferred pronouns, which he then uses. in your classroom.
But when he met with his parents to discuss his grades and used his son's preferred name, he found that some of his parents weren't supportive of his identity, said Kerekes, who wrote an opinion piece last year about his experiences as a teacher. LGBTQ in Florida Public Schools.
That's relatively common across the country: One in three LGBTQ youth said they found their home to be LGBTQ-affirming, according to the Trevor Project's 2021 National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Youth.
By contrast, 50% of those surveyed said they found their schools supportive of their LGBTQ identity.
"First and foremost, as educators, our job is to provide a safe space for our children to learn," Kerekes said.
"I feel like this bill is going to put us at odds with that."
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Gomez, a high school student from Miami, said it wasn't until she found out one of her teachers was gay that she began to experience anything resembling confidence.
It was a "turning point" in his life, he said, meeting a confident role model as his instructor.
Where are LGBTQ Floridians going from now?
Whether the bill passes, LGBTQ advocates told CNN they are concerned about its repercussions in Florida's thriving queer communities, such as Orlando and Miami.
LGBTQ people have built those areas for decades.
They have held leadership roles within those communities for years: Orlando has had Commissioner Patty Sheehan, the first gay elected official in Central Florida, according to the city, since 2000, and Galvin has served on the city council of North Miami for almost as long.
And they want the next generation of LGBTQ Floridians to build on their progress, not completely rebuild themselves.
Gavin and Wolf said Safe Schools South Florida and Equality Florida are considering legal challenges if the legislation passes, and Equality Florida has already traveled to Tallahassee with a group of transgender teens to make their case to lawmakers.
The Compass Center offers programs for LGBTQ youth and their parents to meet with each other and with leaders in their community to share their experiences.
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Young people like Gómez are fostering those communities within their schools.
He is the president of his high school's Gay Straight Alliance, or GSA, and runs after-school courses on queer history and lounge culture, seminars with doctors on safe sex, and watch parties for "Pose" and "Legendary," series starring gay and trans people of color.
While Gomez has spoken at rallies for LGBTQ rights, she has never done anything like the lobbying she will do in Tallahassee.
He's going, he said, to "represent all the little queer kids" in the state by experiencing what he did in elementary school.
If the legislation passes, Gomez said she will still reach out to lawmakers, ask allies and adults with LGBTQ loved ones to speak up, and continue to find and create safe spaces for young queer and trans people, as she did in her high school time.
"This battle is just beginning," he said.
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