Thread by @JeffreyASachs

New from @PENamerica: So far this year, 102 Educational Gag Orders (aka anti-CRT bills) have been introduced by state lawmakers, and a total of 112 are currently under consideration.

And more and more, they are targeting LGBTQ-related speech.

pen.org/educational-ga…

@PENamerica You've heard of Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Oklahoma's SB 1654 bars schools from using any books that "make as their primary subject the study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender issues or recreational sexualization."

@PENamerica Tennessee HB 800 would bar teachers from using any classroom materials "that promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) issues or lifestyles." South Carolina H 4605 does something similar.

legiscan.com/TN/text/HB0800…

@PENamerica To say nothing of the book bans. Those endless, inexhaustible, inexplicable book bans.

pen.org/press-release/…

@PENamerica But of all the bills I've come across, none is quite as sinister as Kansas HB 2662. Introduced last week, it looks at first glance like an ordinary Curriculum Transparency bill. But somewhere near the end, it proposes to make a change to the state's obscenity law.

@PENamerica A small change, really. The removal of just five words from existing statute. But this change, if adopted, would make it a class B misdemeanor for teachers to use any material depicting homosexuality.

Not *sexually explicit* depictions of homosexuality. Just homosexuality.

@PENamerica Are you a university prof in the state of Kansas? Don't worry! You're fine using depictions of homosexuality. Just make sure it's as part of "an approved course or program of instruction." Otherwise, better lawyer up.

legiscan.com/KS/text/HB2662…

@PENamerica Btw, this is why you should be so skeptical of these "curriculum transparency" bills. Those words may sound anodyne (who doesn't love transparency?), but read them closely and you find they're full of traps. Banning homosexuality. Strangers in classrooms. Cameras. I'm not joking.

@PENamerica This is also why you should be skeptical of the people defending these bills. They've almost certainly never read them. Probably too busy mocking the people and organizations (e.g. Kansas teachers unions) that do.

@PENamerica Shocked? Good, but here's the thing: All of this is simply the logical extension of the anti-CRT movement's argument. I mean, the whole point is to ban "divisive concepts." And it turns out some people find the mere existence of gay people divisive!

thebulwark.com/desantis-shapi…

@PENamerica All across the country, anti-LGBTQ activists sense an opportunity. The public is primed to accept classroom censorship (good job, Rufo!), and these activists are eager to exploit that fact. It's a once-in-a-generation chance. They do not intend to blow it.

@PENamerica Hate "CRT"? Want it gone from the classroom? Okay, but don't do it with a law. You can't anticipate how that law will be used or what other laws it might make possible. You're not that smart. You will not see it coming.

But it will happen. And it will hurt.

@PENamerica These bills, and so many more, are discussed in @PENamerica's latest. You can read it all here.

pen.org/educational-ga…