Steven LaChance Blog

This week, legislation tied to proposals like the one introduced by Tim Walberg is being pushed at the federal level. We’ve already seen the blueprint in Florida with what became known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. It started the same way. Curriculum. Appropriateness. Protecting children. People said it was limited. People said it wouldn’t touch real life in classrooms. I’ve heard that before.

I lived in a time when you learned very quickly what you did not say. Nobody had to sit you down and explain it. You just knew. That’s how this works. You put limits around what can be talked about. You make teachers cautious. You bring parents into conversations about identity. And the room changes. A child with two moms or two dads sits there and realizes something simple about their life is no longer simple in that space. So they stop saying it. Not maybe. Not sometimes. They learn not to say it.

And then there’s the child who is LGBTQ+. The one who is still figuring it out. The one who is looking for any sign that they’re okay. Now they’re sitting in a place where even the subject itself is restricted. They learn the same lesson. Edit yourself. Keep it in. Don’t bring that part of you into this room. And we already know where that leads. Isolation. Shame. Kids feeling like they have nowhere safe to be themselves. Kids being pushed out of their homes. I don’t need hypotheticals. We’ve seen this.

I know what that does to a kid because I lived it. I built my life around protecting my children from that reality. I waited until they were out of school before I could even think about living my life openly. Not because I didn’t want to. Because I knew what it could cost them. That’s exactly what this brings back. Kids learning to stay quiet about their families. Kids learning to stay quiet about themselves.

So when I look at this, I’m not thinking about politics. I’m thinking about my grandchildren sitting in a classroom one day and learning that something as basic as who they are or who loves them is something they shouldn’t say out loud. That’s not protection. That’s harm.