Akron LGBTQ+ community reacts to HB 616, Ohio’s “Don’t say gay” bill
Ohio House Bill 616 would ban schools from teaching young children about gender and sexuality.
The irony for Fran Wilson: Elementary school is exactly where and when they learned about gender and sexuality. But instead of learning in a safe, fact-based, age-appropriate way, Wilson got a traumatic crash course when terms like “gay” and “queer” were hurled as insults on an Akron playground in the third grade.
It took Wilson years to understand that queer is not something shameful, but a key piece of their identity and something to be proud of.
That’s why Wilson has been speaking out against HB 616, filed in the Ohio legislature early this month, dubbed a parental rights bill by proponents and the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by opponents.
Wilson spoke to both Akron City Council and the Akron Public Schools board of education, sharing their story of early childhood harassment but also of a private school education that didn’t provide the necessary facts about gender and sexuality that would have helped them better understand their own identity. Wilson said the response from others who identify as LGBTQ+ was immediate.
“A lot of people have reached out to me and told me their stories, telling me very similar things to either being outed at school or being confronted with words like queer and gay before they knew what it meant or that they themselves would eventually take those on as identities,” Wilson said.
Those stories, Wilson said, are what make HB 616 so scary.
Already, Wilson said, LGBTQ+ people have to fight for an education that is inclusive of their history, and later in high school, their sexual education.
The bill would do away with what little is provided to students about the diversity of families and people, Wilson said.
“A lot of people don’t have the family structure or support in their church, synagogue or temple to be able to have the needed dialogues around identity today,” Wilson said. “So that’s where schooling plays a really important part with a lot of youth.”
HB 616 is early in the legislative process, as it has been introduced but not assigned to a committee. But similar legislation has already been passed into law in Florida, so just its introduction in Ohio has created a firestorm, particularly in the LGBTQ+ community.
In Akron, there is worry it will undo much of the work the city and schools have done around inclusivity and cause further harm to LGBTQ+ people, stripping them of their ability to be themselves at school, to ask questions and receive honest answers.
What’s in Ohio House Bill 616?
HB 616 would ban the teaching, use or provision of “any curriculum or instructional materials on sexual orientation or gender identity” for students in kindergarten through third grade. For fourth grade and older, schools could not “provide any curriculum or instructional materials on sexual orientation or gender identity in any manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
The bill also merges the gender and sexuality issues with that of other “divisive concepts” topics, seeking to outlaw the teachings of certain topics that the legislation or the state board of education deems racist. The list of “racist” topics includes critical race theory, a college-level academic framework not taught in K-12 schools in Ohio; intersectional theory, which examines the ways race, class and gender intersect; and the New York Times’ 1619 project.
The project, published in 2019, argued the United States’ true founding was the day in April 1619 that the first slaves reached the territory that would later become the U.S.
Opponents argued the reckoning with America’s past was an effort to turn people against their own country, or to feel guilty for sins of the past. The project sparked nationwide outrage among conservatives, who have worked to make “critical race theory” synonymous with diversity, equity and inclusion work in schools and workplaces.
Bills targeting diversity, equity and inclusion teachings in schools have previously been introduced, and are still under consideration, but HB 616 is the newest version, and was expanded to include the restrictions on teaching about gender and sexuality.
Republican backers of the legislation say it is about parental rights in education.
“The classroom is a place that seeks answers for our children without political activism,” Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, said in a statement. “Parents deserve and should be provided a say in what is taught to their children in schools.”
Akbar: Schools should affirm students’ identity
Akron School Board President N.J. Akbar said the bill is not about parental rights, but an assault on truth in education and the dignity of all people.
“Everyone deserves to see themselves in the curriculum and in the school, and everyone deserves to know real history and also to be in a safe environment,” Akbar said.
The school board has worked to do that, he said, by passing a racial equity policy, which specifically calls out race in the ways the school district will address students’ needs and the systems in place. The board also is in the early stages of creating a policy that affirms students’ and staff’s choice of names and pronouns.
The purpose, he said, is to “provide a space and environment in our schools where everyone feels valued, everyone is affirmed.”
“And you do that by ensuring that there’s no discrimination between who gets to be called the name they want to get called,” Akbar said. “If your name was Robert and you asked your teacher to call you Bobby, there would be little to no complaints about doing that.”
Akbar is an expert in equity working, serving as an associate vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion for Kent State University. He is also a Black gay man who decided to change his first name.
“That was all about having and declaring confidence in who I am and love for myself,” he said.
Schools should be a safe place for allowing and encouraging that confidence and individualism, he said.
HB 616 is written with such vague language, Akbar said, that it’s hard to tell what would be allowed or not. If a student brings up an issue or has a question about why a student’s family has two moms, for example, or asks what gay means, how would a teacher be permitted to answer? Would that be considered part of the curriculum, if they answer honestly?
“You don’t have to have sex with anyone to understand your identity,” Akbar said. “That is not about sex. I think when it’s boiled down to that, a sexual act, I really think that that’s somewhat perverse. Unfortunately, it also provides us a limited view on what it is in the first place. It’s a reductionist type of perspective.”
The legislation also would allow anyone to make a complaint against a teacher, who could lose their job, and school districts could lose funding if they don’t comply.
“It creates a space through legislation for vigilante type individuals to really attack teachers,” Akbar said.
Akbar noted the legislation also gives the state board of education — an organization that recently rescinded its own anti-racism resolution, a decision the Akron school board condemned — the last word on what is considered divisive.
HB 616, Akbar said, is designed to protect the comfort of adults, not to address actual needs of students to feel dignity and worth.
“These bills are a direct assault on that type of value system,” he aid. “And really bolsters hatred and an unsafe environment for children in the name of adult hatred.”
Akron council passes resolution, with some dissent
Akbar led a discussion of the school board last week about the possibility of passing a resolution condemning HB 616 and said he would bring such a resolution back to the board at its next meeting. Every board member spoke in favor of such a resolution.
Akron City Council passed a resolution last week opposing the bill and standing in support of Akron’s teachers, LGBTQ+ youth and racial minorities.
Ward 9’s Mike Freeman, council’s president pro tempore, was the only member to vote against the resolution.
“I kind of wish this resolution could’ve been bifurcated because mixed in are sexual issues and also racial issues,” Freeman said. “I do believe that schools and educators should limited in matters of teaching kindergartners, first, second, third graders about sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Ward 1’s Nancy Holland responded that issue lies “at the feet of the sponsors of HB 616,” who combined the two issues and urged council members to come to the agreement that “discrimination is in fact discrimination.”
“This bill that has been introduced in our Statehouse is a solution in search of a problem,” said Ward 8’s Shammas Malik, who sponsored the resolution. “There’s no one here that thinks we should have sex education for kindergartners. What we’re talking about here is erasing people who are gay, erasing people who…
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