WASHINGTON — Republican legislators have proposed a far-reaching new law that would prohibit public schools from offering young students lessons or literature that discuss gender identity, sexual orientation and transgender individuals.
The legislation, introduced in Congress this week by a group of 33 House Republicans led by Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, is called the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act. It would prohibit the use of federal funding “to develop, implement, facilitate or fund any sexually-oriented program, event or literature for children under the age of 10.”
It also outlaws use of federal funding for any event that “exposes children under the age of 10 to nude adults, individuals who are stripping, or lewd or lascivious dancing.” And it says federal facilities cannot be used to “host or promote any sexually-oriented” programming, literature or events for children under 10.
The bill defines “sexually-oriented” as “any depiction, description, or simulation of sexual activity, any lewd or lascivious depiction or description of human genitals, or any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects.”
The bill says parents can sue school districts in federal court for violating the law, and it threatens disobedient school districts with the loss of federal, state and local funding for up to three years. It is the latest in a wave of hundreds of laws proposed over the past three years that similarly aim to restrict what children can learn and do at school as part of the education culture wars, The Washington Post has previously reported.
Johnson is touting the bill as a necessary step to fight back against the liberal program for public schools, echoing baseless but increasingly popular allegations from the right that LGBTQ teachers in public schools are “grooming” children for sexual abuse. Johnson wrote on Twitter: “The Democrat Party and their cultural allies are on a crusade to immerse young children in sexual imagery and radical gender ideology at school and in public.”
The proposed law drew immediate backlash from Democrats, educators and LGBTQ rights groups.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who declined a request for comment, tweeted Thursday that the bill is “hateful” and that she will fight the measure “as the proud mom of an incredible trans kid.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, wrote in an email that Johnson’s bill resembles the 2021 Florida law – dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by opponents – banning education on gender identity and sexual orientation for students in kindergarten through third grade and limiting lessons on those topics for higher grades. Weingarten said this kind of legislation harms “the most vulnerable kids for cheap political gain.”
And Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, executive director of LGBTQ rights group GLSEN, warned in a statement Thursday that “erasing LGBTQ+ issues from classrooms jeopardizes the foundation of our democracy.”
Asked about the criticism, a spokeswoman for Johnson wrote in an emailed statement Thursday that the bill is “straightforward and commonsense . . . Our young children should be learning about reading, writing, and math at elementary school, not radical gender theory or the finer points of drag culture.”
The bill comes amid a flurry of education legislation: More than 283 state laws were proposed over the past three academic years seeking to reshape how students learn and the rights they have at school, a Post analysis found. Of the proposed bills, 64 have so far become law across 25 states, whose populations together add to nearly half of the nation.
Johnson’s six-page bill makes several claims about the inappropriate nature of public K-12 education in America, stating that sexual education curriculums nationwide wrongly foster “discussions of sexuality, sexual orientation, transgenderism and gender ideology” for children who are too young to understand those topics. Sex education across most of the nation is in fact quite limited already per state law, The Post has reported: Just 29 states and D.C. require that students receive sex education, while 16 states mandate “abstinence-only” sex education.
The bill also states that “state and local library systems, museums and other educational institutions . . . have purchased sexually-oriented literature and materials that target preadolescent children and teach them about concepts like masturbation, pornography, sexual acts and gender transition.”
It follows a historic wave of attempted school book bans and challenges. Most of the literature targeted across the country has been written by or about LGBTQ people or people of color. Usually, the arguments advanced against keeping LGBTQ literature in schools is that it is too sexually explicit, while proponents of the books argue it is necessary for LGBTQ children to see themselves reflected and represented in what they read.
Student LGBTQ groups have also come under fire, with conservative parents, pundits and politicians alleging without evidence that the Gay-Straight Alliance clubs are sites of political indoctrination.
Johnson’s bill further alleges that federal funds have been used “to host and promote sexually-oriented events like drag queen story hours and burlesque shows.”
Drag Story Hour, founded in 2015 in San Francisco, is a national program that invites drag queens into libraries to read books aloud to children, a practice advocates say afford LGBTQ children greater representation and allow all students to learn about diverse lives and beliefs. These family-friendly drag events, sometimes hosted in libraries including school libraries, have in recent months drawn escalating protests from conservatives and politicians, as well as right-wing extremists including the Proud Boys.
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