As conservative politicians and activists push for limits on discussions of race, gender and sexuality, some students say the measures targeting aspects of their identity have made them less welcome in American schools.
NOLENSVILLE, Tenn. — The first encounter with racism that Harmony Kennedy can remember came in elementary school. On a playground, a girl picked up a leaf and said she wanted to"clean the dirt" from Harmony's skin.
People are also reading… "When I heard they were removing African American history, banning LGBTQ, I almost started crying," said Harmony, 16."We're not doing anything to anybody. Why do they care what we personally prefer, or what we look like?" Among them are a transgender student at a Pennsylvania school where teachers are directed to use students' birth names, a bisexual student in Florida who sensed a withdrawal of adult support, and Harmony, a Black student outside Nashville alarmed by efforts to restrict lessons on Black history.
To tell his parents, Leo shared a poem he had written about his transition. He worried it would be hard for them, as parents who had always identified as"girl parents" to three daughters. His mom, dad, older and twin sister were all supportive. Across the district, parents and students told the board stories of slurs, hate speech and sometimes violence directed toward transgender children. But other adults pressed forward in their effort to restrict inclusion. During one board meeting when a transgender student was speaking, rather than listening, a group of parents whispered to each other.
"And why are you telling me this?" she said. A lifelong conservative, his mother told him she had long known about his sexuality. It was not a problem. There also was a school board member, Debra Hixon, who won Jack's admiration when she spoke last year at a town hall event for teens. Hixon, who became widely known after her husband was killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, expressed support for LGBTQ+ students.
"They didn't even try to act like they were going to try, you know?" he said."And it was so disappointing. It really took the air out of me.""We have a lot of new laws to navigate, and I am still processing what they mean for our district, so I don't want to overstep and say something that is incorrect or inappropriate," she said.
"If people are taking this out of schools, it's making the ignorance go on, because they're not understanding the pain and agony we have to go through," she said.
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