INDIANA HOUSE TWISTS ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ TO TARGET TRANS STUDENTS

Benjamin Manning

Parental rights bills continue to make waves across the country following the passing of Florida’s own “Don’t Say Gay” Act last year.

Proponents of the bill tout the importance of giving parents more control over their children’s school environment. However, anti-LGBT parents are the only beneficiaries.

Indiana’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill has just passed the House and moves to the Senate with amendments that deviate from Florida’s act and impact transgender students more.

HB 1608 begins with prohibiting instruction on sexuality from kindergarten through third grade. The rest of the bill details the hoops a student has to go through to potentially be referred to by their preferred name and pronouns.

If the bill passes the state senate, students who wish to go by a new name must submit a

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request from their parents at the beginning of the school year. A parent must be notified if their child otherwise tries to use a new name or set of pronouns.

However, the bill states that an employee of the school is not required to refer to a student by anything other than their legal name and assigned sex at birth.

WTHR reported Indiana teacher Chris McGrath asking, “How do I not have the right to compel [a school] to call my child a name that I told them I want my child to be called?”