Stop legislating hate toward LGBTQ youth in Tennessee | Opinion – Knoxville News Sentinel
- Megan Haselschwerdt is an associate professor in Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She writes this as a Knox County resident, mother, wife, and staunch ally to the LGBTQ communities.
More than 60% of American adults support same-sex marriage, including 61% of Catholics and 66% of mainline Protestants, according to the Pew Research Center. Within the past two decades, an unprecedented cultural shift has also occurred where more Americans now than ever before generally support the rights of members of the LGBTQ community.
What has changed
Two key factors explain this shift toward affirmation: the increasing number of people who openly identify as LGBTQ (just less than 6% of all adults and 16% of Generation Z, according to recent Gallup polling), and relatedly, the increasing percentage of people who have a close friend, neighbor or family member who identifies as LGBTQ. In 2016, 87% of American adults said a person close to them is lesbian or gay. For many Americans, this is a critical point. They simply don’t want to limit the rights and humanity of people they know.
However, the few people who do want to remove or limit the rights of LGBTQ people largely identify as white evangelical Protestants. Only 27% of them support same-sex marriage, and they hold a disproportionate amount of political power in states like Tennessee. As an associate professor in Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee who teaches about the impact of policy on the wellbeing of children and families, this is concerning.
Harmful Tennessee legislation
The vital work to create schools, cities, states and countries that allow all citizens — especially youth — to thrive is being undermined in the name of Christianity. In the past few weeks, Tennessee legislators put forth at least nine bills specifically aimed at limiting the rights and humanity of LGBTQ youth under the guise of protecting Christian youth and families in public schools and the medical systems. Legislators are pushing out these bills so quickly that advocacy groups, parents and educators of LGBTQ youth — and LGBTQ youth themselves — can barely keep up.
Here are two examples:
• House Bill 800 would ban any LGBTQ content from public school curriculum, which means that school districts and teachers would not be able to teach from any textbooks or commonly used curriculum if there is any reference to LGBTQ people. The primary sponsor, Rep. Bruce Griffey (District 75, Paris), who serves on the Education and Instruction Committee, says that public schools should teach only things like reading, science and mathematics.
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This approach, however, ignores the state’s commitment to curriculum that covers topics like health, sex education, healthy relationship formation, and nutrition. (Parents already have the option to opt out their children from the sex education components of this curriculum, called Family Life Education.) Rep. Griffey states that it “offends” those with Christian values to hear or read about LGBTQ people even though this interpretation of Christianity contradicts how most Christians think. At its very foundation, House Bill 800 also explicitly blurs the line between church and state so that Christianity may take precedence in Tennessee public schools.
• Senate Bill 657/House Bill 0578 would make it nearly impossible for a transgender child or teenager to receive lifesaving, reversible, gender-affirming health care even when their parents and medical providers support it. If passed, medical care providers would be criminalized for following the guidelines of all major medical organizations.
Although the bill’s sponsor, Rep. John Rogan (District 33, Oak Ridge) is likely very knowledgeable about aeronautical sciences, as his degrees and career suggest, he is not qualified to dictate how pediatricians, endocrinologists and other medical specialists should provide care to transgender youth.
These bills stand in stark contrast to recommendations by major pediatric medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association and their most recent APA Resolution on Gender Identity Change Efforts.
The science is clear. Supporting LGBTQ youth in Tennessee schools, communities and families is essential if we want to lower the risk of suicide ideation, suicide attempts and death by suicide that are so common. And yet, we have current legislation that will further marginalize LGBTQ youth, limit their visibility and humanity in everyday life and decrease access to the medical care they are entitled to receive.
We should instead listen to consensus in the scientific community on how to best support LGBTQ youth. This includes things like respecting and using their affirming name and pronouns; ensuring that they have access to high-quality, informed medical care; allowing all students to create and participate in Gay Straight Alliances at school; generally acknowledging the humanity and worth of LGBTQ youth; and working hard to teach the next generation how to truly “love thy neighbor.” These steps will make Tennessee a better state for everyone because we all benefit when youth thrive. When elected officials demonize LGBTQ youth out of fear that is rooted in ignorance and intolerance, we all lose.
We must make our voices loud and clear. Anti-LGBTQ youth legislation is anti-youth legislation. Call and write your representatives, talk to your neighbors and fight to make sure that all young people can thrive at school and obtain the medical care they need and deserve.
Megan Haselschwerdt is an associate professor in Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She writes this as a Knox County resident, mother, wife, and staunch ally to the LGBTQ communities.