Indiana: Trans Kids Must Stay Closeted In School Or Get Outed To Bigot Parents

This is not going to end well.

Over the last year, at least, Indiana has been waging war on LGBTQ youth — under the assumption, apparently, that if they make life miserable enough for these kids they will either stay in the closet or leave the state entirely. Republican legislators have introduced (or both introduced and passed) a slate of laws barring discussion of the existence of LGBTQ people in schools, barring schools from using pronouns or names inconsistent with the sex the child was assigned at birth, barring local governments from banning conversion therapy, and making it a felony punishable by up to two and a half years in prison for school librarians to let kids read books they've determined are "harmful to minors."

This week, Governor Eric Holcomb signed a new "Don't Say Gay" bill that would ban the discussion of human sexuality (ie: acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ people) from kindergarten up to third grade and also require teachers to notify parents if their children requests a name or pronoun change at school.

Of all the laws that hysterical, culture-war obsessed Republicans have been passing across the country, it's the laws like this that are the most frightening. Prioritizing "parental rights" over the health and physical safety of their children is a dangerous road to go down.

If a kid doesn't want their parents to know that they are trans or even just questioning and exploring their gender identity, one would have to imagine that they have a very good reason for that. Best case scenario, their parents wouldn't accept them and would treat them differently. Worst case scenario, they end up on the streets. Or dead.

I am not exaggerating here. There are a truly disturbing number of cases in which parents have literally killed their own children for being gay or trans.

Krisinda Ann Bright of Pennsylvania killed her two adult children for being trans and non-binary.

Kevin Golec of Akron, Ohio stabbed his transgender daughter to death. 

  Wendell Melton of Las Vegas, Nevada killed his 14-year-old son for being gay and had physically and mentally abused him for years prior to that.

Shehada Khalil Issa of Los Angeles, California, shot his 29-year-old son to death for being gay. 

 Jessica Dutro killed her 4-year-old son Zachary because she thought he might be gay.

These are just the examples on the first half of the page when I Googled. I did not have to do any kind of deep dive to find them. This happens. So do a lot of other terrible things.

The purpose of these parental notification laws are twofold.

First, they're meant to give bigot parents the opportunity to force their child to stay in the closet in some way — either by making their home life miserable, sending them to conversion therapy (which is legal in Indiana) or threatening to kick them out of the house.

Second, they're meant to keep kids in the closet at school by making them scared that they will be outed to their parents who will make their home life miserable, send them to conversion therapy, or kick them out of the house. This is important to them because obviously the more people feel comfortable and safe coming out, the more others will feel comfortable and safe coming out.

There is no other purpose. The idea that kids are being peer pressured or brainwashed into becoming trans at school and must be rescued by parents who "know better" — which you know is what they're getting at with this nonsense — is patently absurd.

There are and always have been a whole lot of kids who know they are more safe at school than they are at home — for a variety of reasons. Children need to be able to feel that they can trust their teachers and school officials in these cases and it is important that they be able to do so. Teachers are mandated reporters for a reason and must necessarily prioritize the safety of children over the wants and needs of their parents.

This is not going to end well.

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