The douchebubble who brought us death certificates for aborted fetuses, a bogus attempt to join the TN Senate Black Caucus (he then cried racism when they told him to GTFO), banning people on public assistance from winning the lottery (because clearly, people on welfare win the lottery ALL THE TIME and then stay on public assistance afterward, costing the state a metric ass-ton of money, right?), and the other day's cheerful "No grades, no food" bill, is back for another round.
He's reviving last year's "Don't Say Gay" bill, which prohibits teachers and other staff at public schools from even mentioning homosexuality in any context for grades k-8, but with some fun
new additions. Specifically:
At grade levels pre-K through eight (pre-K-8), any such classroom instruction, course materials or other informational resources that are inconsistent with natural human reproduction shall be classified as inappropriate for the intended student audience and, therefore, shall be prohibited.
LEA policies and procedures adopted pursuant to this section shall not prohibit:
A school counselor, nurse, principal or assistant principal from counseling a student who is engaging in, or who may be at risk of engaging in, behavior injurious to the physical or mental health and wellbeing of the student or another person; provided, that wherever possible such counseling shall be done in consultation with the student's parents or legal guardians. Parents or legal guardians of students who receive such counseling shall be notified as soon as practicable that such counseling has occurred
Bolded is the new addition to the law. The thing is, it's kinda sneaky. Ostensibly it's just about making sure the parents know if their child is in trouble and might need help, and that's what conservatives will (and maybe already have, I haven't checked yet) claim as defense against it being pointed out that they're trying to legally compel outing children to their families. (In fact, at first glance, that's what I thought. For about half a second.) But look at where it is in the law, and what it's attached to. You can't in one breath you say "You can't talk about Teh Gay..." and in the next say "...except if the kid is in need of counseling and then you have to tell their parents" without the very strong implication that counseling a student *for* Teh Gay is what needs to be reported to the parents.
This gets especially sinister if you're familiar with some of the common right-wing fundie arguments against non-het sexuality. They genuinely consider it - non-het sexuality itself - to be disordered behavior, perversion, inherently harmful. To them, two women who have been together for thirty years, never cheated, no abuse, no major issues at all, still as blissfully in love as the day they met, are harming themselves and each other simply by being together. Take that and make it about teenagers, about whom conservatives are already having several large litters of kittens over their hormones and sex drive and the possibility that they might not remain utterly chaste and have their first kiss at their ultra-het church wedding...and any sign of Teh Gay could instantly be taken as "potentially harmful behavior".
So for all the plausible-deniability of "it's not about gay, it's about troubled children who need help!", it's not even the slightest stretch, especially in that area of the country, to imagine evangelical Christian school staff "counseling" a child simply because they believe the kid to be non-het, because they do believe it to be "behavior injurious to the physical or mental health and wellbeing of the student" - and then, per the new requirements, making a call to Mom and Dad to tell them "I think your child has a case of Teh Gay". And who gives a shit what happens then, amirite? It's not like GSM youths make up some 40% of the homeless population in that age bracket, despite being only 5-10% of the total population. Not like anti-gay parents have ever, like, abused their gay children, or had them
faux-kidnapped and sent to isolated abuse camps to try to "convert" them. No, I'm sure a non-het kid being outed to a potentially anti-gay family is totally and completely safe.
And when I finish this sentence and stand up, a unicorn will materialize out of my ass.
Please, Campfield, stop wasting everyone's time with your reprehensible, harmful garbage legislation. Crawl back into the hole you came out of. I would very much like to not have to type your name ever again. Kthx.
