APIndiana News

Indiana ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill pivots to kids’ gender identity

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Teachers in Indiana public schools could be required to tell parents if a student changes their gender identity or preferred name under a bill House committee members approved Monday.

A vociferous crowd lingered outside the House chamber through hours of testimony, cheering opponents of the measure and booing Republican lawmakers who back it.

Opponents of the bill — which lawmakers voted 9-4 to send to the full House for consideration — said it would alienate LGBTQ students, particularly transgender youth, and possibly force kids to come out to their parents. Supporters argued the legislation would empower parents to choose how their children are raised.

If a student questions their gender identity to a teacher, “the best answer is, you can talk to your parents,” said Micah Clark, executive director of the Indiana Family Association.

The parental notification proposal was among several amendments to a bill that started out more closely resembling Florida legislation enacted in March 2022. The so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill drew intense national scrutiny from those who argue it marginalizes LGBTQ people. Proponents say the measure is reasonable because parents, not teachers, should handle such subjects with their children.

The original Indiana bill would have prohibited teachers from teaching kindergarteners to third graders about topics related to gender identity and sexuality. It was amended limit the banned topics solely to sexual education — something already uncommon in early grades.

Missouri lawmakers also rejected a more restrictive version of the “Don’t Say Gay” law. A Senate committee in that state voted to advance a measure that would require public school teachers to tell parents if a child “express discomfort or confusion” about their gender identity or if they request to use different pronouns.

Haras Shirley, a transgender man who testified Monday, said the House legislation is “a direct conflict of interest to what I’m sworn to do” for students as a school resource officer at an Indianapolis high school.

“I will continue to be a beacon for my students, no matter the cost,” Shirley said.

Indiana’s House bill, authored by Republican Rep. Michelle Davis, would only apply to public schools and would prohibit them from disciplining teachers or staff who use “a name, pronoun, title, or other word to identify a student that is consistent with the student’s legal name.”

“This is some common sense legislation to support transparency and parents’ fundamental rights, which shouldn’t get dropped at the classroom door,” Davis said Monday.

But Chris McGrath, a teacher from Lafayette, Indiana, disagreed.

“How do I not have the right to compel (a school) to call my child a name that I told them that I want my child to be called?” McGrath asked. “I could be insisting that they use the name that she’s got right now, and that they use she/her pronouns. How can I not compel the institution to do that?”

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9 comments

C. Ommon Sense February 21, 2023 at 8:11 am

Its a sad reflection on societal values that the state legislature has to consider this bill. I saw some opponents at the state house and I assume the vast majority who support this legislation are gainfully employed and don’t have time to carry signs. How can anyone oppose the notification of parents when their child has questions about their identity? The school is there to educate, not indoctrinate. No child is emotionally equipped to make decisions about their gender and the teachers who hide them from their parents should be immediately fired and never teach again.

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Pat February 22, 2023 at 1:23 pm

100% correct.

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Jef February 25, 2023 at 9:55 am

I think those teachers you mention should face criminal sex charges and be placed in prison for at least ten years and be put on the sex offender list with all the other perverts who have committed sexual crimes. How in world have schools been able to avoid that thus far?

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Slacker06 February 21, 2023 at 10:14 am

Let’s unpack this: The WOWO person that wrote the hyperbolic headline should be fired! Who owns the kids, especially the minor kids? Who is responsible by law and morality for those kids? THE PARENTS are. The schools and all their employees including teachers and their unions are EMPLOYEES of the PARENTS. If you own a company and any employee consistently disregards your instructions you have no choice but to FIRE THEM. Any teacher of school administrator that actively shields a child’s possibly dangerous activity and goes against the plain will of the parents is out of line and should be fired. Teaching and shielding kids long before they can handle these ideas is just as dangerous to them as if they started carrying guns to school while the teachers ignore their illegal activity. In Virginia such a school is culpable for getting a teacher shot by a 6-year old. We see constant articles such as the one yesterday that in one of our largest cities, Chicago, which is lead by an alphabetophile, hopefully not for long, there are 55 schools where NONE OF THE STUDENTS can read or do math at grade level. NONE OF THEM!! But I’d bet the farm that every last one of them has been exposed to the grooming activities of the alphabetophiles. What’s an alphabetophile? It is a person that sleeps, eats, dreams, and virtue signals about the LGBTE+EIEIO lifestyle and want your kids to be groomed into it. Kids can wait until their are adults before deciding to follow an alternative lifestyle. At that age they are responsible for themselves and the parents can stand aside and lament where they went wrong. Besides, if a parent wants their kids to understand or be an alphabetophile they can teach them at home. but they need to leave my kids ALONE. Parents certainly do not need or want the school to help their 1st grader understand all the morally bankrupt ideas that are out there. Kids need to learn how to read, write, and do math first and foremost so they can eventually support themselves and their future families in this life. Their sexuality will come along in time without the help of those that do not have their best interests at heart. I applaud the state legislator for tackling this new and improved decent into oblivion as a republic and effort to destroy the rules of life established by an Almighty God by a very small but very vocal minority that simply wants your kids for their fodder. Their rainbow symbol is akin to the Brownshirt thugs of 1930s in Germany. Parents, keep you powder dry for now. Soon enough you will be in a real battle for the very soul of your children. Maybe you are in that battle today. Thank God the legislature is willing to stand for you even when the schools are not so willing. Kids are hard enough to raise to be successful adults without the teachers interposing their personal ideas into their young and impressionable lives. Is it any wonder that the school are literally hemorrhaging students to private schools and home school???? Whose kids are they? Who is ultimately responsible to the law and God for their education?? Is my child reduced to a silly meme of “Don’t say gay?”

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Pat February 22, 2023 at 1:24 pm

Yes.

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Rachel February 22, 2023 at 6:57 am

Just like every other local news outlet, half the content is coming from the AP. This headline and the article came straight from AP.
What our society seems to have trouble with is this. I don’t have to affirm your life choices to treat you fairly or with the general respect due to a fellow human.
That being said, K-3 students don’t need sexual education of any kind. By the logic being used by some, I should be a man because I didn’t like wearing dresses as a child and found boys played much better games and had more interesting conversations. Yes, I was a tomboy. I still prefer being outside and playing in the dirt. I like building things and using power tools…but I also love being a woman. I was never once confused about my gender. Guess that goes counter to the narrative. We live in a very sick society. I don’t have much hope for future generations if we continue on this path.

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Pat February 22, 2023 at 1:21 pm

Amen.

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Pat February 22, 2023 at 1:20 pm

Why is WOWO using the biased and false phrase ‘Don’t Say Gay’ to describe this common sense, parent-friendly bill? Children need to be taught reality, not leftist fantasies.

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Jef February 25, 2023 at 9:57 am

Right from the headline this is a lie. “Don’t say gay” is a lie. How about ‘don’t groom our children’ instead! What times we live it!

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