Introduced to the Arizona State Legislature earlier this year, House Bill 2495 prohibits public schools from referring students to or using sexually explicit material. It also includes language that might be damaging to the LGBTQIA+ community under its definition of sexual conduct.
The bill takes steps to define homosexuality under its definition of sexual conduct but does so in a problematic way. Additionally, heterosexuality is not included anywhere in this definition or bill. Could this result in materials that simply feature people who are homosexual being banned from Arizona public schools?
What is the actual problem HB 2495 is trying to solve? There doesn’t seem to be a present or past issue with sexually explicit material being distributed to school children in Arizona. Could the real purpose of this bill be to ban any mention of people in the LGBTQIA+ community by defining any mention of their existence as sexually explicit?
Hey Ashley, thanks for posting this. I’ve heard a lot about the “dont Say Gay” bill in Florida, I didn’t even know there was one in Arizona too.
It’s interesting that in this dichotomy heterosexuality is considered not “sexually explicit” while homosexuality is. Saying that being gay is “not appropriate” for children implies that children either cannot understand homosexuality or cannot be homosexual, which is a demonstrably incorrect take.
I agree with the conclusion that it is only meant to stifle the LGBTQIA+ community. There is a lot of historical precedent for homophobic legislature, and these bills make little sense except to deprive people of their identities.