LGBTQ Advocates Challenge Ohio Bill on Disclosing Students’ Sexual Orientation

Parents and the LGBTQ community spoke out this week in the Ohio Statehouse against a bill that would require schools to disclose a student’s sexual orientation to their parents and warn parents of “sexuality” content.

“Forcing schools to our kids, regardless of their home situation, will lead to unconscionable cruelty against LGBTQ kids,” Maria Bruno, Equality Ohio’s public policy director, warned during Tuesday’s Senate Education Committee meeting.

House Bill 8, known as the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” would require public schools to warn parents about sexuality-related materials, allow parents to evaluate them, and provide parents the choice to select alternative training.

“For religious freedom purposes, that would appear to make sense because parents may want their children to be taught in a specific manner,” said state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware. The law, introduced by state Reps. D.J. Swearingen (R-Huron) and Sara Carruthers (R-Hamilton), passed the House last summer.

An amendment added to the measure during Tuesday’s committee hearing would prevent any sexuality-related content from being taught to pupils in kindergarten through third grade. HB 8 defines sexual content as “oral or written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology.”

However, several opponents pointed out that there is no definition of gender ideology in the bill’s text.

“I asked in this hearing last time if you could give me a definition of gender ideology, and you haven’t done so,” said Jeanne Ogden, executive director of Trans Allies of Ohio. “So I’m very concerned about having some kind of vague definition of gender ideology.” State Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, questioned Bruno about how the law could be improved.

“I think there may be a way to define sexually explicit content more explicitly to avoid any assertion that mentioning an LGBTQ identity would count as sexually explicit content and avoid that situation,” Bruno said in a statement. HB 8 also mandates that instructors notify parents of “any request by a student to identify as a gender that does not align with the student’s biological sex.”

“Any requests by a student to identify as a gender that does not align with the student’s biological sex, it very explicitly would require schools to out students to their parents,” said Mallory Golski, Kaleidoscope Youth Center’s civic engagement and advocacy manager.

She stated that students are exercising their sovereignty by choosing whom they feel comfortable coming out to.

“All people, including young people, are entitled to their privacy,” she went on to say. Opponents argue that HB 8 would ban kids from discussing gender identity, sexual orientation, and various family configurations in the classroom.

“This is not only ostracizing to students who are openly queer, gender-diverse or come from family systems outside of the cisgender and heterosexual standard, but it also prevents students who may be questioning their gender or sexuality from seeing themselves represented in classroom materials or discussions unless their classmates’ parents find it acceptable,” said Liam Strausbaugh, a staff member at the National Association of Social Workers’ Ohio chapter.

Some opponents worry that the bill will have a chilling impact in classrooms.

“When kids discuss their families, how are children who have queer parents supposed to discuss their families when that is not supposed to be a topic mentioned?” Dara Adkison, Board Secretary for TransOhio, was asked.

Golski is afraid that this will keep some books off school shelves.

“When we censor certain stories from classrooms and libraries, we aren’t just taking away the chance for some kids to see their lives and experiences reflected back at them,” she went on to say. “We’re taking away crucial opportunities for those who don’t share the same experiences to develop empathy and understanding for others.”

Proponent’s testimony

Troy McIntosh, executive director of the Ohio Christian Education Network, was the only public proponent who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting.

“In a free society in which parents are the primary providers for their children, it is the parents who ought to have the fundamental right to make decisions regarding the upbringing, care, and education of their child,” he said.

McIntosh said he does not believe HB 8 will affect any Ohio children.

“All it does is provide a requirement that the school notify parents ahead of time if sexuality content is going to be discussed in the school,” she added. “Even in a broken world in which some children are not provided the inherent benefits of biological parents in their lives, this principle still serves the best interest of every child.”

The bill has attracted a lot more opposition testimony in House and Senate committees. For Tuesday’s meeting, twenty-six opponents and three proponents submitted testimony.