Anti-LGBT laws harm children, too

Fifteen years ago, I helped interview some 140 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students in seven U.S. states about their day-to-day life in middle and high school. We heard grim reports of unchecked verbal abuse escalating into violence and of school administrators’ deliberate indifference when abuses were brought to their attention.

One lesson of that investigation was that laws, even when rarely enforced, can send a powerful message. Many teachers told us, with great shame, that they feared losing their jobs if they protected their students from attacks.

One reason was that in 2000, some states had laws on the books criminalizing gay and lesbian sex between consenting adults. Even if people were hardly ever prosecuted under those laws, they could be used to fire gay men and lesbians or withdraw job offers.

More generally, most state and local non-discrimination laws didn’t, and unfortunately still don’t, cover sexual orientation and gender identity. As a result, teachers feared they’d be presumed to be gay themselves if they tried to put a stop to anti-gay bullying, putting their jobs at risk.

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