BY JULIET PEREZ
Staff Writer
For about a year now conservatives have been targeting curriculum taught in school, starting from “critical race theory”, to certain books that are offered to students, and now discussions about gender and sexual orientation.
States across the country are now passing or considering bills that would restrict discussions about LGBTQ-related things. The Florida bill states that talk of sexual orientation is banned in kindergarten through third grade, and lessons that are deemed inappropriate are also banned in other grades. Before this bill was passed, it was going in a direction that had principals telling parents if their child came out as anything other than straight. However, that provision was pulled. In other states, similar laws are being passed. In Kansas, a teacher cannot depict any material showing homosexuality in any way, even if it isn’t sexual. In Tennessee, a bill is being considered that will ban books that mention gay, bi, or transgender lifestyles at all. And in Indiana, any talk about homosexuality or transgenderism is not allowed without the consent of parents.
Every time this country seems to go forward in LGBTQ issues we always end up going backward. These new laws ARE going to cause problems and it’s frustrating that so many people cannot see that due to their own biased opinions. So many people still struggle with separating church and state, and it’s evident every time religious views seem to get in the way of human rights. People may argue that this isn’t a religious issue, but it is. The majority of people who don’t support same-sex relationships are religious and don’t support it because of their religion. Why is it that because it goes against OTHER people’s religion, EVERYONE has to comply just to make THEM comfortable? If straight people are not having the same restrictions put on them, why are they being put on other sexualities? So many people claim that in America people are free to express themselves and that people are equal, but these new laws are literal blatant discrimination.
People argue that they don’t want their kids to be “taught how to be gay”, but kids are not taught to be gay, just the same way that kids are not taught to be straight. From the day kids are born, straight couples are broadcasted everywhere. LGBTQ isn’t taught in school, and that isn’t what people want. What people want is for there to be open conversations about the subject surrounding the topic, so that LGBTQ youth feels comfortable and welcomed. Being young and questioning things is difficult enough, and sometimes kids already cannot talk about it at home and school may be their only safe place, so why are we removing that?
Society as a whole needs to move past the idea that LGBTQ is inappropriate or sexual, it isn’t, and this idealogy can make so many young kids and even older people who are gay feel gross or perverted when they aren’t. At the end of the day, who I like shouldn’t make people treat me differently.