A Senate panel approved a bill Tuesday that aims to regulate classroom discussions about gender identity.
The panel approved the measure 6-3 on a party-line vote, with Republicans supporting the legislation.
When Senate Bill 88 was filed last year, critics likened it to a measure passed in Florida because of how it limits what teachers can say about sex and gender in schools. An amended version doesn’t deal with public schools but mandates that private schools have parents give permission — or opt in — before “addressing issues of gender identity, queer theory, gender ideology, or gender transition” with students 15 and under.
State Sen. Carden Summers, a Cordele Republican, said his bill applied only to those in charge of children younger than the age of consent to ensure parents were included in gender identity conversations.
“The whole bill is about protecting the young people and including their parents to talk to them about gender ideology,” he said.
Public school boards would be required to write policies for informing and involving parents when gender identity comes up in school — and that private schools inform them when they put it in curriculum. Schools operated by religious institutions would be exempted.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
“This bill is only dealing with us telling private schools what to do,” said state Sen. Sonya Halpern, D-Atlanta. “And it’s interesting because generally in schools you (allow parents to) opt out, and now you specifically have to opt in.”
The bill follows a trend by GOP lawmakers in recent years who have targeted books in school libraries and classroom discussions about race. They have been pushed by activists who assert that schools are behind a push to encourage children to question their gender.
Senate Education Committee Chairman Clint Dixon, a Buford Republican, allowed the public to comment for 15 minutes and only called on supporters of the bill. Dixon said the panel had three previous hours-long hearings on the legislation. State Sen. Donzella James, an Atlanta Democrat, asked those in the packed hearing room to raise their hand if they opposed the bill. Most of those in the room stood.
SB 88 had opposition from groups on both ends of the political spectrum, including the conservative Norcross-based Frontline Policy Action and the LGBTQ rights organization Georgia Equality, albeit for different reasons.
Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, called the legislation an unnecessary and “troubling government overreach.”
“Over four hearings, no evidence has been presented that students are being taught lessons about gender identity in schools that would lead to confusion or would coerce kids into identifying as transgender,” Graham said.
Jeff Cleghorn, a longtime gay rights activist, supported the bill.
He said that while LGBTQ people in the 1990s worked to slowly gain rights by “changing hearts and minds,” transgender people have co-opted the gay rights movement.
“SB 88 is necessary because the former gay rights movement has been hijacked by those pushing this dishonest gender ideology on children,” Cleghorn said. “This is about indoctrinating kids into a belief system that is not real.”
The bill now goes to the full Senate for its consideration.
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