Banning Education Won’t Make LGBTQ People Go Away, Students Say

This year’s legislative session has been awash in fearmongering and misinformation about the LGBTQ+ community, and particularly the realities of LGBTQ+ students’ lives.

So, instead of allowing adults to define their lives, Starting Line spoke to Iowa youth who are transgender, nonbinary and otherwise on the LGBTQ+ spectrum to get their thoughts.

These are their stories, in the third of a three-part series; read Part 1 here and read Part 2 here. (Here are some helpful definitions of LGBTQ+ terms here.)

One of the big pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation Iowa Republicans have pursued this year is limiting how much students are taught about sexual orientation and gender identity. 

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ education bill, which hasn’t passed the Iowa Legislature yet, prohibits “any program, curriculum, test, survey, questionnaire, promotion, or instruction” related to gender identity or sexual orientation for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

All four LGBTQ students said they’ve learned little to nothing about LGBTQ issues or identities at school—maybe only that they exist.

[inline-ad id=”0″]

LGBTQ education depends on the school

Dani Kallas, a nonbinary student at Linn-Mar High School, said students there start sex ed at about fifth grade.

“They’ll bring up attraction and they’ll say, ‘Oh, sometimes people are attracted to the same sex, and that is completely normal,’” they said. The school treated gender identity the same way.

However, Keiana, a senior at Cedar Falls High School, said her school didn’t talk about different sexualities in her health classes, which are required in the eighth and eleventh grades.

“Every time we talk about health and contraceptives and stuff like that, it’s always pretty straight-based, pretty heterosexual-based,” she said. “I never had any other assumption until COVID.”

Being online during the pandemic gave Keiana space to consider whether she was actually attracted to men, but she said the only time sexuality came up in the classroom was if a student mentioned it.

She said students generally don’t do that.

[inline-ad id=”1″]

LGBTQ education not about sex

Blocking this information is only going to make students unprepared for the people they might meet, Dani said, because everyone’s bound to meet an LGBTQ person at some point.

“Just by existing in the world, you can see that people date, people get married, people have kids, all that. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to talk about how that works when you’re a little kid,” they said. “So why would it be any different talking about gay people? It’s not like they’re going to go tell a 5-year-old that gay people have sex.”

Dani said Republicans are the ones sexualizing LGBTQ children and adults if all they can think about is sex when LGBTQ topics come up.

“People just see being gay for sex, and they don’t see it as just who people are,” Dani said. “They don’t just see that someone is a person if they’re gay, they see them as some sort of sexual being. And you see the fetishization of specifically gay women a lot. Which is just degrading.”

“Kids just think, ‘oh, these people are happy together,’” Dani continued. “And that’s honestly how they should think of it. And the fact that these lawmakers are thinking with the sexual side of it instead of the letting-people-be-happy aspect is just appalling.”

[inline-ad id=”2″]

LGBTQ education can give hope, lower suicide rates

Kayde, a genderfluid high school student at Linn-Mar, said they only learned about their identity because they had questions and decided to do research and ask others. But if students can’t even ask teachers questions, Kayde said, they’re only going to be more confused.

“It’s kind of messed up because then, in a way, it’s kind of like controlling the minds of people who are still learning,” they said. “Basically telling me, telling them, that it’s not OK to be a part of the LGBTQ community at all because they can’t talk about it.”

Clair Ammons, a trans woman and freshman at Iowa State University, said lack of education causes harm in both directions, both for the students and the people they encounter. She said ignorance leads to stereotypes and misinformation about LGBTQ people, which leads to harm and bills being passed to take their rights away or violent attacks against them.

“I mean, that’s part of what fuels these ideas that trans health care is bad or queerness is inappropriate for children or whatever,” she said.

On the other hand, for LGBTQ people who grow up in unaccepting environments or who don’t know anyone else like them, education can provide hope.

And research shows having support—at school and/or at home and/or in their community—drastically lowers rates of attempted suicide.*

“Having knowledge that these people like you exist and that you’re not alone can be a very important thing in both discovering and accepting who you are,” Clair said. “Whereas, if you see no one like you and you’re not told about people like you, it can be easy to feel like you’re the only one and something is wrong with you.”

All four have more to say about how Iowa’s new laws are affecting their lives; read Part 1 here and read Part 2 here. 

*If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call, text or chat online with a trained counselor at the LGBTQ-friendly The Trevor Project by clicking here.

Nikoel Hytrek
3/29/23

[inline-ad id=”3″]

If you enjoy stories like these, make sure to sign up for Iowa Starting Line’s main newsletter and/or our working class-focused Worker’s Almanac newsletter.

Have a story idea or something I should know? Email me at [email protected]. You can also DM me on Twitter at @n_hytrek. 

​​Iowa Starting Line is part of an independent news network and focuses on how state and national decisions impact Iowans’ daily lives. We rely on your financial support to keep our stories free for all to read. You can contribute to us here. Find ISL on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.