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More than four hours of “We say gay!” chants echoed through the Indiana Statehouse on Monday as hundreds rallied against a bill that would prohibit Hoosier educators from talking about “human sexuality” through 3rd grade.
The latest draft of the proposal also targets transgender students by prohibiting school employees from using a name or pronoun that is inconsistent with a student’s sex without a parent’s written consent.
Schools would additionally be required to notify parents if a student requests to change their name or pronouns.
The bill advanced along party lines 9-4 to the full House. The chamber must approve the bill and send it to the Senate by Feb. 27, or it dies.
Lawmakers on the House Education Committee met Monday to debate House Bill 1608, authored by Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Greenwood. The proposal is reminiscent of Florida’s divisive “Don’t Say Gay” law.
“The goal of House Bill 1608 is to empower Hoosier parents by reinforcing that they’re in the driver’s seat when it comes to introducing sensitive topics to their children,” Davis said, noting that the bill is a response to “numerous concerns of parents in her district.
“Parents know what’s best for their children, and their authority should not be superseded by teachers and school administrators,” she continued.
Earlier language in Davis’ bill banned K-3 classroom instruction or discussion about sexual orientation, gender fluidity, gender roles, gender identity, gender expression and gender stereotypes.
The committee nixed that list of topics and instead changed the bill’s language to bar younger kids from being taught about “human sexuality.”
Davis said that encompasses “the way people experience and express themselves sexually.” She noted that the change intends to prevent sex education from being taught to younger Hoosier students.
Davis conceded that Indiana schools do not currently teach sex education to students that young. The introduction of those concepts usually starts in the fourth grade, according to state standards.
Bill targets pronouns
Education advocates argued Monday that the bill, as amended, is an “attack” on LGBTQ Hoosier youth—especially transgender students.
A provision to the legislation prohibits schools and teachers from using “a name, pronoun, title, or other word to identify a student that is inconsistent with the student’s sex” assigned at birth unless a parent requests the change in writing.
The bill advanced along party lines 9-4 to the full House. The chamber must approve the bill and send it to the Senate by Feb. 27, or it dies.
Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, said that the pronoun language, specifically, “makes the bill far less palatable.”
Still, Republicans on the committee maintained that the bill would not apply to curriculum for academic standards or prevent students from having private, one-on-one conversations with a school counselor, social worker or therapist.
But the bill isn’t so cut and dry.
Language in the bill reads that “a school, an employee or staff member of a school, or a third party vendor used by a school to provide instruction” can not provide any instruction on “human sexuality.”
Additional amendments adopted to the bill on Monday clarify that teachers—if asked—are allowed to answer students’ questions about “human sexuality” and other topics. It’s not exactly clear what educators are or are not allowed to say, however.
“(A teacher can respond) any way that is the correct answer … You can have two moms, you can have two dads, you can have a mom and a dad. The rest of the discussion should be with the parents,” Davis said, when asked what a teacher would be able to say to a first grader who asks why a peer has two moms.
Private schools were also carved out of the latest draft of the bill.
Majority of testimony in opposition
Only a handful of people testified Monday in support of the bill.
That included Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, who said K-3 teachers should be focused on improving dismal math and literacy scores, not “unnecessary controversies.”
“Parents are free to talk to children about these issues. But when the teacher, counselor or guest speaker does it, all that will do is cause heartache for school administrators and the school board, at some point,” Clark said.
Damon Clevenger, a music teacher in Lawrence Township in Indianapolis, said, “As a young LGBTQ+ child, I was constantly a target for bullies and close-minded people who would rather isolate me than accept me for who I am. I honestly don’t believe I wouldn’t be standing here today if it had not been for my teachers who saw me accepted me, and the proud, out educators who let me know that I was not alone in this world. This bill would take that away from our children today.”
He also promised that students will always have a safe space in his classroom.
Jennifer Laughlin of the Indiana State Teachers Association said current state law already protects students of all ages from “obscene materials” — which is what some of the bill’s supporters say they want erased from classrooms.
“This bill is about scoring political points, rather than addressing the real issue,” she said. “Regardless of this bill’s merit, it’s based on a bad faith argument from the start. This bill brings to light issues that are a part of a national trend designed to sow doubt and further a false narrative of our great public schools.”
Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, held that state lawmakers should not “create a universal standard” that imposes Christian values and beliefs on all Hoosiers.
“The bottom line is that we’re here in education and in government to serve people … and to get so upset about pronouns … that we lose the educational focus—we’re here to educate children, not to sanctify them,” Smith said. “We need to make schools inviting … we’re creating a problem that we don’t need to create.”
Paula Davis, mom of three school-age children, an educator, and a chapter president of Moms for Liberty, disagreed.
“This is not about whether or not I agree with homosexual lifestyle. This is about my right as a parent to guarantee my children are not being told the morals and values of their parents are wrong.”
She added that the bill “is guaranteeing that my children do not have an educator introduce them to a topic that I do not believe should be discussed outside of my presence. It is creating a neutral space so children are not forced to participate in something that is so divisive, especially when they may not feel like they have a voice or the power to challenge the teacher.”
The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, not-for-profit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.
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If my memory serves me correctly, “sex ed” for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders essentially consists of being shown a single video about the puberty manifests itself physically. I don’t remember anything being taught about sex itself is taught until students were well into middle school, and I remember being sent home with permission sheets before every sex-ed lesson from 4th grade until 8th grade.
I only mention this because this bill only ever targeted sexuality-related discussions in K-3. The 4 years of public school in which nothing even close to sexuality is taught – not even puberty. Unless its goal was to further fuel a destructive “culture war”, HB1608 is (and always has been) pointless.
For the last several years, Indiana’s legislature has repeatedly tried to address divisive issues with bills that practically do nothing. It just makes us look like a legislative swamp. I can’t wait until we get leaders on Capitol Avenue who focus on unifying Hoosiers towards attainable economic goals. Until then, I’ll wait in the frustration of “leaders” who divisively distracting us from a better future.
We never will as long Hoosiers decide they’d rather vote for legislators like Michelle Davis who spend our time on bills fixing issues that don’t exist to burnish their conservative credentials, as opposed to problems we actually have like terrible roads and a workforce that only attracts distribution centers.
Republicans aren’t very useful when it comes to issues like education and infrastructure. They’re hard and it’s no longer a party of serious thinkers.
Requiring schools to “out” trans students to their parents: Can anyone please tell me what this hate-inspired amendment has to do with regulating sex education in grades K-3? No one is secretly providing gender-affirming care or anything of that nature. At the most, a school here or there is allowing a few kids some safe breathing room to figure themselves out, and being respectful in the process. Creating a regulatory requirement to “out” these kids on the state’s terms, rather than their own, is oppressive and sounds a whole lot more like Russia than America. Like so many Indiana bills, this attempts to “solve” a nonexistent problem in order to score political points with the base.
The most Russian thing about this is hiding things from parents and enveloping them in an ideology antithetical to the parents’ wishes, against the cognizance of the parents. That’s some serious Cultural Revolution stuff we’ve got going here–which is Chinese, but the same thing.
Imagine thinking you’re a good person as a teacher, hiding a dysphoria you see in a student from the parents.
“No one is secretly providing gender-affirming care or anything of that nature.”
They most certainly are.
Maybe the parents should be better parents…. and stop relying on teachers to do their job for them?
The Southen Poverty Law Center categorizes the American Family Association as a hate group, on the same level as the KKK. Sounds like Mom’s for Liberty is not much better.
The southern poverty law center has been a ideological clown show for at least a decade. Most conservative groups see it as an achievement to get placed on their “hate” list. It boosts their publicity.
And to think that I used to support the SPLC. I was wrong.
Hey Michael, did you know that the lawyer staff at SPLC is overwhelmingly young white grads from elite schools (Georgetown, Yale), and the the clerical staff (the “help”) is overwhelmingly black? Kind of reinforcing old stereotypes of the Democratic party to which it so steadfastly leans. Of course, those stereotypes still apply. They never REALLY went away.
Michael G.
That’s why the SPLC has NO credibility anymore.
To put th American Family Associotion and others in with the KKK.
How stupid do you have to be to that!!
The SPLC ised to be a highly regarded organization but not anymore
They are facing multiple lawsuits from mislabeling & slandering and are
being sued from within their own organization.
That said, the legislation passed by the Republicans was utter nonsense
and a waste of time. The R’s wasted time on a problem that doesn’t exist.
The R’s need to focus on more important tangible things such as roads, bridges,
and attracting economic development.
Michael G.
That’s why the SPLC has NO credibility anymore.
To put th American Family Associotion and others in with the KKK.
How stupid do you have to be to that!!
The SPLC used to be a highly regarded organization but not anymore
They are facing multiple lawsuits from mislabeling & slandering and are
being sued from within their own organization.
That said, the legislation passed by the Republicans was utter nonsense
and a waste of time. The R’s wasted time on a problem that doesn’t exist.
The R’s need to focus on more important tangible things such as roads, bridges,
and attracting economic development.
Hoosiers have an F rated quality-of-life and the state has a D- rated workforce, a C- rated education system, the third worst maternal mortality rate in the nation, and the country’s most polluted waterways. I’m so glad our super majority is working on important issues like the K-3 human sexuality non-issue.
Mark W.
All those negatives you listed didn’t stop many states from bypassing
Indiana in population or economic development.
Hmmmm
Truth is, this bill was not needed.
But the bill also does nothing for the leftists to lose their collectivist minds over.
Keith – your comment is nonsensical… Indiana is one of the worst places statistically to live in America, and you commented that did not stop other states from surpassing us?
Duh?
The trans thing is so silly to me. It is such a small portion of the population and it has created all of these bills in search of a problem (or an imaginary one) to fix for political gain. On both sides, there is this huge race to see who is most in favor of “freedom”. The only problem is the other side’s version of “freedom” is what they think they should be free to do and also tell you how to live at the same time… all the while both sides complain about how triggered the other side is. You’re all snowflakes.
Exactly.
why are 25% of headlines and seemingly legislative time spent around less than 1% of the population?