Even in States Where You're Supposed to 'Say Gay,' Fear Often Outweighs the Law

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

66% : They are far less likely to hear homophobic and transphobic slurs, to feel unsafe because of their identity or gender expression, to miss school or to be victimized.
60% : " When the FAIR Act was passed in 2011, suitable resources were even harder to find.
59% : In the case of the FAIR Act, California's updated history and social studies standards were published in 2017, six years after the law's passage.
58% : "One common question is, 'How do young people know that their gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth?' "
56% : Newsom also said that if the Assembly passed a bill that would create consequences for flaunting the FAIR Act and other laws requiring inclusive instruction, he would fine the district $1.5 million.
54% : According to GLSEN's Dittmeier, six states now require that teachers be trained on LGBTQ inclusion, and seven have developed materials for educator professional development.
53% : Like California's, the law leaves the question of whether to adopt the materials up to local officials, but it mandates checks on whether the instruction is being provided as part of a process of monitoring whether districts are following a number of state requirements.
52% : " U.S. education policy has long put local leaders in charge of many decisions, so long as school systems meet thresholds set by state and federal officials.
52% : In California, advocates and members of the state commission reviewing classroom resources scrapped over how to identify historical figures such as Emily Dickinson, James Buchanan and Ralph Waldo Emerson; how to characterize people who were not out when they were alive; and whether to include context regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in texts given to students, or only in teachers' guides.
51% : But the FAIR Act did not set deadlines for schools to shift their instruction, require state officials to monitor implementation or spell out what would happen in districts that ignored the mandate.
47% : Examples of age-appropriate lessons the state advisory board approved include a section titled "Different Kinds of Families" in a second-grade book, an entry on the legal recognition of same-sex marriage for fourth-graders and a lesson for 11th-graders on homosexual life under Nazi rule.
46% : If inclusive standards requirements are not accompanied by anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies -- and similarly specific instructions for implementation -- confusion can arise.
46% : Based on the data the organization has gathered over the last 25 years, GLSEN researchers say that to make the most difference in student welfare, inclusive curriculum should be accompanied by teacher training -- both in colleges of education and in on-the-job professional development -- by the adoption of non-discrimination and anti-bullying laws and by the creation of forums where LGBTQ youth can express their needs.
43% : A few days later, the district's teachers union, a group of educators and parents sued the board, charging that its votes rejecting instruction required by state standards and a variety of other edicts involving race, sexuality and gender violated students' constitutional rights.
42% : Educators also told the researchers they fear the wave of state legislation curtailing classroom speech and are unsure what they can say.
37% : The three new board members -- who earlier banned instruction on critical race theory, which is not taught in K-12 schools -- said they opposed the curriculum because they did not want students to learn about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California.
18% : " Well-tested legal limits on federal involvement in what schools teach may make it difficult for Trump to starve schools that teach "woke" concepts.
17% : President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold funding from "any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.

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