Georgia lawmakers are considering a bill that opponents liken to Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law, which aims to restrict the way teachers and others responsible for the care of minors answer questions about sexual orientation or gender identity of the child can answer.
The bill, authored by Republican Senator Carden Summers of Cordele, was first debated Tuesday at a Senate committee hearing, but lawmakers did not vote on it. At the beginning of the hearing, Summers said he plans to bring back the law with changes to address criticism from parents and educators.
As written, the bill prohibits teachers, librarians, camp counselors, and others responsible for supervising persons under the age of 16 from participating in discussions about “information regarding a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity, other than the child’s biological sex,” without written permission from the parent, even if the child initiates the conversation.
It requires that a student’s official record must be kept under their legal name at the time of enrollment and their name or gender on the record cannot be changed unless the school obtains a copy of the child’s birth certificate and a from form signed by parents for all children.
It also prohibits caregivers from giving instructions while “dressed in sexually provocative fashion and using current community standards,” a provision likely aimed at drag performers.
Young LGBTQ teens may feel more comfortable disclosing their personal feelings to a trusted teacher or guidance counselor than they do to their parents, said Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis, but the law could prevent these adults from helping.
“The state would place an arbitrary barrier on vulnerable children seeking age-appropriate counseling,” he said. “And even transgender students who have the support of their parents will not be able to get their schools to adequately recognize their gender identity without involving the state in official changes to a child’s birth certificate.”
Kreis said it raises serious constitutional questions.
“There is no reasonable basis for denying a student the same protections of the law by mandating unnecessary hoops for gender-nonconforming students who are recognized by their school with parental permission,” he said. “This is little more than a mere desire to do harm, which is not a legitimate basis for Fourteenth Amendment legislation.”
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, state legislatures across the country are considering 310 anti-LGBTQ laws this year, 144 of which have to do with schools or education. Georgia’s bill would stand out in part because of its 16-year age limit, said Carl Charles, senior attorney at Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal organization.
“Many of the bills, at least the one in Florida that passed last year, commonly referred to as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, have been changed to really focus almost exclusively on kids in grades K through third grade, and so the arguments there as to what are appropriate discussions for instruction are really narrow. That’s really extensive. I will also point out that the language in the bill is not just limited to school staff.”
The bill refers to anyone acting in loco parentis, a legal term meaning “in place of a parent,” which could pose further legal challenges, Charles said.
“This includes literally any adult that a minor under the age of 16 speaks to,” he said. “This is a camp counselor. This is a sports coach. This is a person who coordinates extracurricular activities. This is a kindergarten teacher. That is what puts this law, should it be passed with that particular language, into the realm of vagueness such that a person cannot see it and know what behavior is prohibited.”
Dozens of people signed up to speak at the committee hearing, but committee chairman Clint Dixon said the session had to be called off after only two people spoke because another committee needed to use the room.
Would-be commentators crowded into a committee room to discuss a bill restricting teachers’ discussion of LGBTQ issues, but time ran out before they could speak. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Gwinnett’s mother, Elizabeth Wagner, said she planned to tell the committee about the supportive community her transgender child found at his school.
“Politicians have nothing to do with telling me how to raise my child,” she said. “My child had role models at school and was supported at school. This bill aims to eliminate all of that.”
Transgender children are at a higher risk of suicide because of the stigma they often face, and Wagner said it’s all too common to meet transgender children with families who don’t support them.
“There’s a lot. I know these kids. I sent Christmas presents to the kids in college who weren’t allowed home for Christmas. So don’t think that’s an anomaly.”
Tom Rawlings, a child protection advocate who submitted the bill to Summers, said the final product will contain changes.
“We just want to make sure that in appropriate cases, parents know what’s going on with their children, and that educators and administrators don’t hide that fact unless it’s appropriate,” said Rawlings, who headed the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services and who was fired after an altercation in which he called an off-duty police officer “boy” and “son”. “So what we need to do on the bill, I admit, is that we need to make sure that we put the responsibility not to talk about these issues on the teacher, but not on the child.”
“We know there can be kids who have gender identity issues, wondering what’s going on with them, especially as they hit puberty, and they might want to talk to someone about it,” he added. “They may be rejected by their parents if they may have demonstrated gender identity issues at home or have or have expressed an interest in transitioning at home. So we want kids to be able to talk about it with a trusted adult.”
Democratic Atlanta Sen. Sonya Halpern said she’s confident that kind of context will find its way into the bill.
Sen. Sonya Halpern. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
“I think there is something like a school and home partnership. And what I’d like to see when that bill comes back to us is a less cynical take on the school part of this partnership, because I get it. I’m also a parent, I would hate to think that there are other adults in this world who know things about my child that I don’t know because my child tells them and doesn’t tell me but at the same time I In In fact, I realize that this is probably true, that for some things children will never go to their parents, but need a trusted adult in a larger village to go to.
Dixon said the author will have an opportunity to present the modified version and promised audiences they would have a chance to talk about it.
“We will have another hearing on this as we see interest in it, but we will make sure we let everyone know and allow enough time for you to make your timelines,” he said.
