Alabama representative makes new attempt to expand state's ‘Don't Say Gay' law
The "Drag me to the Capitol" protest started in front of the Alabama Judicial Building on May 16. 2023. HB 244, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would expand an existing state ban classroom instruction and discussion on gender and sexuality to all grades. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector)
A House representative is bringing back an attempt to expand Alabama's 'Don't Say Gay' law, which critics say infringe on teachers' and students' free speech.
HB 244, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would prohibit public school teachers at all grade levels from teaching or discussing gender identity or sexuality. The law currently bans such discussions from kindergarten to fifth grade. The bill is assigned to the House Education Policy Committee. Chairwoman Terri Collins, R-Decatur, said she expects to take up the legislation soon, but not this week.
Butler said in a phone interview on Tuesday that he received a complaint from a constituent that a teacher was deviating from curriculum to discuss sexuality. Butler would not identify the school.
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'And that's not part of the curriculum,' Butler said. 'It's not what they were hired to do.'
Butler sponsored a similar bill last year, but it died in the Senate. This year, the bill strikes language that would allow 'classroom discussion' that is 'developmentally appropriate.'
Katie Glenn, senior policy associate at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that language could impact students confiding in teachers.
'There are questions when looking at the broad and vague language in this bill about whether it would allow a student to seek out a teacher who they thought was safe to have a conversation with them,' she said. 'Is that a classroom discussion? Can students ask questions and can a teacher answer them? According to this bill, probably not.'
Glenn said the portion of the bill that bans flags and insignia in classrooms is too vague and unconstitutional.
'You cannot tell a teacher that they can't have a Pride flag bumper sticker on their car and park it in the school parking lot,' she said. 'And we heard objections last legislative session from both sides of the aisle about this.'
Butler, however, said the bill does not infringe on free speech.
'It's being honest,' Butler said. 'We want to focus on the curriculum, not the teacher's ideology.'
The bill would also prohibit teachers and students from using any pronoun or name that does not align with an individual's biological sex.
'If you are a lady, and I'm not calling you a he,' Butler said. 'I'm not required to play along.'
Alabama enacted its ban in 2022 as part of a broader bill that also forced transgender students to use the bathroom of the sex they were assigned at birth.
In 2023, Florida passed a similar bill. As a result, the College Board, which manages AP classes and curriculum, would not change the AP Psychology curriculum. According to the College Board, AP Psychology covers gender and sexual orientation as it relates to physical and social changes that influence behavior and mental processes. Six of Florida's largest school districts took the class out of circulation.
Butler said he needs to see the AP Psychology curriculum, but thinks teaching gender and sexuality in school is radical.
'Some of the stuff that we are teaching is not healthy,' Butler said. 'If it's so great, you know, the school board will adopt that curriculum and teach it.'
Butler also said the expansion to all primary and secondary education is to be in line with President Donald Trump's recent executive order.
'We send our children to school to be educated, not indoctrinated, but some extremists see classrooms as a captive audience that can be used to force their ideas on the next generation,' Butler said in a statement Monday.
Butler said in his statement that the bill would improve test scores if classrooms focus on the basics.
'It's a small minority of people that are pushing this agenda, they would have you believe that if this population wants it, but I can assure you, the moms and dads do not,' he said.
Glenn said that students perform better when they feel accepted, and the bill would prohibit LGBTQ+ students from that security.
'It's just an incredibly vague and broad bill that is bound to sweep up people in targeted circumstances,' Glenn said. 'It's not going to help students in the state of Alabama. It's not gonna make their education better. It's going to, for some of them, make their lives much worse.'
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