Iowa Republicans want to ban teachers from talking about transgender people

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Republicans in the state of Iowa are trying to ban schools from teaching about gender identity.

A bill (S.F. 167) would update elementary school curriculum standards in the state to say, “The curriculum provided to a student in accordance with this subsection shall not include instruction relating to gender identity.” The bill says that if teachers do intend to discuss gender identity in school, they’ll need to get written permission from all the students’ parents first.

Related: 31 anti-transgender bills filed in 20 states as GOP targets schoolchildren nationwide

The bill, introduced by eight Republican state lawmakers, does not block schools from using the concept of gender at all. It requires that teachers not discuss the idea that there is a “gender-related identity of a person, regardless of the person’s assigned sex at birth.”

In other words, teachers wouldn’t be able to mention that transgender people exist, even if there is a transgender student in the classroom.

Gag orders in other states and countries that block schools from discussing LGBTQ people – like Russia’s ban on LGBTQ “propaganda,” Utah’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, or the U.K.’s Section 28 that banned discussions of homosexuality in schools – have been criticized for promoting bullying. Teachers may…

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