Why then do we now see children and young adults, who are the most vulnerable people of the gay community, being targeted with venomous policies aimed at erasing them?
Some people do concur that there is no longer any debate over the mere presence of gay people. Same-sex unionization became legal in 2015, and Title VII anti-discrimination regulations made LGBTQ+ standing a protected class in 2020. As some rights and legal privileges were being achieved after more than 50 years of advocacy, the struggle for gay independence appeared to be coming to a happy conclusion.
It was only natural that more and more kids and young people had come out of the closet and accept their identities in a world where it was safer for gay people to identify themselves, become accepted, and take part in the same social constructions as everyone else.
I was one of those kids. I made a big deal out of telling people I was gay during my first year of high class. People now knew, and I’m sure any adult who knew me when I was five years old may have guessed. However, I was able to describe why my voice sounded unique, why I walked with more vigor in my step, how I always played activities or had any male friends, so the fact that I had something unique to say to people was an achievement for me.
I loved how stereotypically queer I was. As the first person at my college to come out, others gradually did the same, and the campus discussion of being queer finally stopped caring what other people thought.
Being homosexual at the college I attended was such a product.
However, that was five years ago. People did n’t pay attention to children five years ago, but one particular poll convinced them that they should: Gallup reported that 21 % of Gen Z adults identified as LGBTQ+ in February 2022, up from 10.5 % in 2017.
Kids were frightened by that amount. Some parents who led a more traditional lifestyle were concerned that their children, who were the most innocent, vulnerable, and young segment of our society, were joining the crudest, most unpleasant, sexualized group.
Unexpectedly, they started to move.
Once more, school board served as breeding basis for racist and transphobia plans. As we’ve seen in California, Temecula Valley Unified and Chino Valley Unitedified have encouraged homosexuality to spread by attempting to outlaw novels and parental notification laws, instilling in kids and educators the notion that LGBTQ+ identities, which are as delicate as they are among kids, may be silenced.
That concept scares the hell out of me. It teaches kids that the approach their classmates and friends live is improper. The normalcy of gay people and their culture must be removed from society in order to reduce their visibility. Without appropriate role models to train them acceptance, children who are not permitted to view us as ordinary will never do so.
When you consider the gay children in these institutions, the greater threat posed by these guidelines becomes more apparent. I recall being disparaged as queer in second grade when I had no idea what it meant. All was seated by my third-grade teacher, who explained how this hurts everyone and that it is not our responsibility to view people as unique merely for the sake of doing so. Making certain I was secure in that school depended on that conversation.
If the plan to hide our presence goes on, those conversations will be over. Picture the suffering the gay community experiences when it is revealed that our children cannot exist as their true selves.
UCLA pupil and creator of June Primary Strategies is June Paniouchkine. She now sits on the Stonewall Democratic Club of LA County’s at-large panel. Distributed by CalMatters. com.
