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| What the Science Says About ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and Young People | What the Science Says About ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and Young People |
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| Florida Republicans on Wednesday expanded a state law that prohibits classroom instruction on L.G.B.T.Q. subjects through third grade. Now the “Don’t Say Gay” law will also apply to students in grades four to 12. | Florida Republicans on Wednesday expanded a state law that prohibits classroom instruction on L.G.B.T.Q. subjects through third grade. Now the “Don’t Say Gay” law will also apply to students in grades four to 12. |
| Though the law might appear to be just about allowing parents a say in their children’s education — now up to high school graduation — its breadth and vagueness have a chilling effect on what students and teachers think they can say about sexual orientation and gender identity. Just as dangerously, scientific research has linked the gag order’s implicit message of exclusion, shame and unworthiness to tangible health harms for L.G.B.T.Q. youth. | Though the law might appear to be just about allowing parents a say in their children’s education — now up to high school graduation — its breadth and vagueness have a chilling effect on what students and teachers think they can say about sexual orientation and gender identity. Just as dangerously, scientific research has linked the gag order’s implicit message of exclusion, shame and unworthiness to tangible health harms for L.G.B.T.Q. youth. |
| The original law, in effect since July 2022, was championed as a way to ensure that very young children wouldn’t be exposed to supposedly age-inappropriate topics. But the law’s expansion to all grades casts doubt on whether that was ever the goal. | The original law, in effect since July 2022, was championed as a way to ensure that very young children wouldn’t be exposed to supposedly age-inappropriate topics. But the law’s expansion to all grades casts doubt on whether that was ever the goal. |
| I spent decades studying another notorious anti-L.G.B.T.Q. gag rule: the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that banned military members from saying they were gay. Its lessons are instructive. As with “Don’t Say Gay” laws, proponents of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” promised to protect the rights, privacy and dignity of people on all sides of the fraught debate around sexuality. The policy was sold as a way to prevent the culture wars from infecting a key institution of American society. Yet in reality, it did the opposite, heightening division, undermining trust, hampering morale and driving capable people away. | I spent decades studying another notorious anti-L.G.B.T.Q. gag rule: the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that banned military members from saying they were gay. Its lessons are instructive. As with “Don’t Say Gay” laws, proponents of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” promised to protect the rights, privacy and dignity of people on all sides of the fraught debate around sexuality. The policy was sold as a way to prevent the culture wars from infecting a key institution of American society. Yet in reality, it did the opposite, heightening division, undermining trust, hampering morale and driving capable people away. |
| Our country now risks replicating the damage of this failed policy, but this time for children. Since 2021, versions of the “Don’t Say Gay” law have been introduced in 24 state legislatures. The political calculus here is evident. Large majorities of Republican voters, along with a plurality of independents, back the Florida measure. But if additional politically convenient gag orders were to pass, they would harm L.G.B.T.Q. students across the country. | |
| A 2008 report by a panel of senior retired military officers provides a damning summary of the individual and institutional costs of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” They found that the policy hamstrung leaders by forcing them to choose between following the law and fully tending to their subordinates, made it harder for gay service members to obtain psychological care and undermined institutional trust by forcing troops to lie to one another. |