By Anonymous Sheridan High School Student
The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade English class, taught by Abby Williams.
I am an openly queer, nonbinary student at a small, rural school with a primarily heterosexual student body. This column gives an inside look at how people in my school, town, state, and government criticize LGBTQ+ individuals.
Sheridan, Ind. is notorious for farmers and ag kids. Unsurprisingly, many students have learned to dislike or disapprove of students who are different from them. In school, I have heard kids as young as sixth grade use hate speech toward these students deemed “different.” I believe that at ANY high school, LGBTQ+ students may be harassed verbally or physically. This instills in me a strong feeling of injustice.
The CDC has reported that students in seventh through 12th grade who are LGBTQ+ are two times as likely to have suicidal ideations, and I believe this statistic could be lowered if LGBTQ+ students felt more safe at their schools and homes.
Recently, I had to analyze a historical text. I chose Harvey Milk’s Gay Freedom Day Speech, which was written in 1978. Milk pointed out all the wrongdoings of heterosexual people that are commonly blamed on LGBTQ+ individuals and presented ideas on why people should be more open-minded. Milk also encouraged people to stand up for these basic human rights that people deserve. Why is it that people are still following the same close-minded ideas that Milk had to protest 45 years ago?
In 2023, at least 385 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed across the nation. As I write this, there have been only 72 days this year, with around 5.2 bills (on average) introduced daily. That means 5.2 bills that target LGBTQ+ youth, teens, and adults. That’s 5.2 bills that hurt, disappoint, and kill those LGBTQ+ people. If these bills are passed all over the United States, people will die. The laws in place that protect LGBTQ+ rights are actively keeping people alive. Many LGBTQ+ teens and kids may be living in a place where they are not safe to come out. Some of the bills being introduced will force teachers and school staff to out these children to their parents, which will put kids in the position to commit suicide.
Indiana alone has proposed around 24 bills that would hurt the LGBTQ+ community in various ways. Most of these bills target people under the age of 18 and would affect teachers as well.
House Bill 1346 would ban schools from “affirming students’ gender identity” which means teachers could not address the LGBTQ+ students who use different names or pronouns in the way they prefer.
House Bill 1608 would take LGBTQ+ representation out of schools by limiting what teachers can say and teach. This bill also forces teachers to out the LGBTQ+ students to their parents no matter what.
These bills and many others endanger LGBTQ+ students and risk the chance of mass suicides.
Personally, I believe there are many other world problems that could be addressed instead of people’s basic human rights. Gun violence kills on average 316 people each day and there have been over 110 mass shootings in 2023 alone. I may just be a high school student, but maybe the government should start focusing on how people are being killed and not how people want to live.