INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana schools may soon be required to notify parents if their children request a name or pronoun change at school, after the state Senate on Monday advanced a House bill that some worry could out transgender kids to their families.
The Republican-dominated state Senate’s 37-12 vote came after intense committee hearings where residents derided the measure as an attack on the state’s LGBTQ+ students, especially trans youth.
Like Indiana, Republican-led legislatures around the country have been seeking to curb LGBTQ+ rights, especially in targeting transgender individuals’ everyday life — including sports, health care, workplaces and schools.
Under the Indiana bill, which the House first sent to the Senate in February, a school would have to provide written notification to a child’s parent or guardian within five business days of the child asking to be called a different “pronoun, title, or word.” Supporters say this approach would empower parents to choose how their children are raised.
“We know parents’ rights are important, and they need to know what’s going on in their child’s life at school,” Republican state Sen. Stacy Donato, one of the bill’s sponsors, said before Monday’s vote.
Protesters against the legislation, which originally resembled Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law enacted last year, often filled the Statehouse hallways this session with thunderous cheers of “No hate in our state” and “Kill the bill.”
“Growing up in an abusive home made it impossible for me to come out earlier, though I’ve known that I’m nonbinary since the age of 5,” Quinn Mackenzie, a 30-year-old Indiana resident, testified during a Senate education committee hearing last month. “I know we all like to believe that every parent is, I believe the words were, competent and good-intentioned. But that hope does not reflect the sad reality.”
The parental notification bill would also bar schools from from teaching “human sexuality” in pre-K through third grade. One of the bill’s authors, Republican state Rep. Michelle Davis, said this would put parents in control of “introducing sensitive topics to their children.”
But critics say the measure would inadvertently eliminate discussions about LGBTQ+ individuals in the classroom out of fear that such topics constitute “human sexuality,” which is not defined in the bill.
The proposal now returns to the state House chamber for a concurrence vote. If approved, the measure would then go to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who recently signed a ban on all gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
“I want you to know that this bill, in my opinion, does not protect children or parental rights,” Democratic state Sen, J.D. Ford, the Legislature’s only openly gay member, said Monday. “Our teachers care about our children, and it’s insulting to the entire profession to think to think that there is a conspiracy … of teachers trying to secretly teach our young children anything that is age inappropriate.”
4 comments
Wow! This is what our State legislators are working on. Meanwhile, my property taxes have gone up 25%, spending is out of control, inflation is eating a hole in my wallet, food prices through the roof. I could go on. Seems like it makes no difference Republican or Democrat. They’re all in it for themselves. Thanks for nothing.
Other than property taxes, the other items are caused by the Biden administration. The Indiana budget is in fine shape. I wish our legislators didn’t have to deal with this nonsense, but the left is bent on ruining the lives of children and removing parents from the equation.
This is a typical opinionated paragraph in the story above from the AP: “Like Indiana, Republican-led legislatures around the country have been seeking to curb LGBTQ+ rights, especially in targeting transgender individuals’ everyday life — including sports, health care, workplaces and schools.”
Parents have a right to know what their minor student is doing at school and nothing about this law in any way “curbs rights.” Why the left has drawn battle lines around the whole fake gender nonsense is beyond me. These are the same people who demanded we follow the science related to Covid restrictions, yet they ignore the science that proves there are only two genders. No amount of affirmation, hormones, or surgery will change a person’s chromosomes or fix the underlying mental illness. Those suffering from gender dysphoria will still have a higher rate of depression and suicide. This is about an agenda of grooming our children to become confused about who they are while exposing them to a perverted agenda of sexual abuse. The alphabet crowd has never explained what rights they don’t have which means they just want special rights. Those special rights involve removing the rights of others who do not support their beliefs. The Dem party has become experts at exploiting extremely small minorities and dividing the nation. This began under Obama where everything was about race. Now “gender equality” is the theme of the day. In the meantime, young people who were butchered by doctors now find themselves unable to have children of their own and have realized they cannot play God with their gender. Our foreign enemies are watching and China is biding their time knowing America is on a downward spiral under the Biden administration.
When did the alphabet mafia get to decide what happens between parents and their minor children. Will that skeevy group take responsibility for housing and feeding plus the medical care of those kids. NOTHING that happens at school should be kept from parents. The parents are responsible morally and legally for their children. NO ONE ELSE has that responsibility.