The Louisiana House Education Committee has approved two bills that aim to protect children in public schools from discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation without parental permission.
The Republican-controlled committee passed House Bill 466, which bans K-12 public school staff from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation, including during extracurricular activities, in a narrow 7-5 vote.
The measure, authored by Republican state Rep. Dodie Horton, is aimed at protecting all children from the risk of harm. Meanwhile, House Bill 81, which requires school employees to use pronouns and the name of a student that correlates with their birth certificate, was also advanced.
Opponents of the bills argue that they could harm students, particularly those who are already at a high risk of bullying and depression.
Those who do not believe in sexualizing children argue that it is important to protect the rights of parents to raise their children, decrease the distraction caused by pronoun use in classrooms, and protect teachers and school board members from politicization.
Republican state Rep. Raymond Crews, who authored the pronoun legislation, believes that the legislation is necessary to solidify and identify parents’ rights to raise children.
Fox News reports: “Republican state Rep. Raymond Crews, who authored the bill, said the legislation was created to “solidify and identify parents’ rights to raise children,” to decrease the “distraction” that he says pronouns are causing in classrooms and to protect teachers and school board members from “this type of politicization.”
The pronoun legislation in Louisiana is part of a larger wave of bills being considered in statehouses across the United States that would formally allow or require schools to use the name given to transgender students by their parents. If both bills pass the House, they will be sent to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has the power to veto them. However, Horton believes that there are enough votes to override any veto.
