Cardona Reaches Out to Florida LGBT Youth, Warns GOP Against Restrictive Laws
Categories: US Education News
Ten-year-old Dempsey Jara, a transgender girl who lives just south of Orlando in Florida’s Osceola County, loves to run. She’s the fastest girl on her school’s cross-country team – according to her.But next year, when she starts sixth grade and moves up to a new middle school, she may be forced to run on the boys team.Meanwhile, Dempsey’s mom, an 11th grade history teacher, is focused on the Sunshine State’s more recent effort to curb the rights of LGBTQ students – namely the controversial new law dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibits classroom instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity for students in kindergarten through third grade. The legislation is touted by conservatives as a parental rights bill and an antidote to what they view as a public school system that’s shut them out. “The problem I'm having is that not only am I Dempsey's mom and her cheerleader, I’m a teacher,” says Jaime Jara. “I have a trans kiddo in my class who isn't supported at home, so the only time she hears her pronouns is in my classroom when her name is being called. When we start taking away these safe spaces, a lot of kids say school is the only safe space they have.”Jara says the grade span that the new law covers are the three years it took for Dempsey to socially transition.“What would I do if this law had been in place,” Jara asks. “Hide her? She was growing out her hair. The kids had questions.”Cardona said his warning isn’t restricted to Florida and that other states that pass similar legislation targeting LGBTQ children and their families will be investigated if his agency is asked to do so. The National Youth Law Center has tracked nearly 200 state laws that have been introduced over the last year that would restrict teaching about racism, gender identity, sex, equity and other so-called “divisive” topics, or roll back the rights of LGBTQ students and their families by not allowing them to use the bathroom or play on the sports teams that match their gender identity. And while most won’t get out of committee, GOP-controlled states are pursuing various versions of them at break-neck speed. Cardona’s visit to the Sunshine State occurred alongside a number of new directives the White House announced Thursday to elevate recognition of transgender and non-binary individuals, including by allowing U.S. citizens to select an “X” as their gender marker on U.S. passport applications beginning April 11.“Politicians across the country will mark this day by pushing harrowing legal and legislative attacks to regulate nearly every aspect of young trans and nonbinary individuals’ daily lives,” said Same Ames, The Trevor Project’s director of advocacy and government affairs, who has been traveling to states like Texas and Florida over the last week to advocate against anti-transgender legislation. Cardona said the civil rights office is ready to act on any complaints that may come of the state’s newest “don’t say gay” legislation.“We know that transgender students are among the most vulnerable, not because of who they are, but because of the hostility directed at them,” Cardona said. “This includes a growing number of state laws that bully and intimidate transgender students and their families. These laws are an affront to who we are as a nation.”