It does feel like "Don't Say Gay"

 I don't fully understand the Florida "don't say gay" House Bill 1557. I don't. I keep seeing posts like this on social media and I'm lost.

             
When I was 5 I wasn't in elementary school but by the time I was in first grade at age 6 I did.
The text of the bill bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation, gender identity, sexuality, from grades K-3 and through grade 12 limits it based on development etc. This not a bill about sex ed. 
So we shouldn't talk about marital relationships or status in schools?

That's weird to me. Because I knew the difference between Miss (Ms.) Missus (Mrs.) and Mizz (Ms.) by first grade. I knew their marital status. I knew that those that were married had a husband. My children have had classmates with two parents of the same gender, and have met family friends in homosexual pairings. It's an unavoidable aspect of life. One that we need not hide from. How this will be discussed intrigues and worries me. I wonder what instruction will be banned and if it will be equally applied to all romantic relationships or just those that are not hetero-normative. Let's be real. In most conversations there is nothing sensational about the discussion of a mother and a father, of a Disney or fairy-tale ending of a prince and princess. But we immediately sexualize two Moms. 

So my question with this bill is where we fairly draw the line with the bill.

The initial bill's language banned classroom discussion. Now it's instruction. Proposed bipartisan amendments before it's passage included language to make the prohibition about curriculum. I worry that the current language is not only ambiguous but in line with historical targeting. 

Some may say I'm a doomsayer over the bill. Others may cry that parents should have as much control as possible of what their children hear in school. But that's not something we can control. I argue we should be as involved in what our children are learning as possible. By physically and figuratively being involved is how we bring to pass what this bill wants to accomplish.

I don't see how this will be balanced at all. 

I just see contention and strife from this. I see a lot of bad faith already. And I worry that parents will not get the desired effect from this bill and that children will suffer in the margins. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why I’m here. An update.

I spoke in church this Sunday.

How can we have shared the same faith with such different results?