Today marks the 16th annual Day of Silence, an event sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), where students from middle school to college take some form of a vow of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment. But a federal bill reintroduced yesterday that would prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination, harassment, bullying, and violence in public schools faces a tough road ahead.
Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) reintroduced the Student Nondiscrimination Act (SNDA), reports Metro Weekly. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) is expected to introduce a version of SNDA in the Senate. The bill has also been introduced in the past two Congresses, but has not made it to the floor in either chamber.
As in the last Congress, the bill will likely be attached to a larger federal education bill, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). That didn’t work out so well last time, though, as I reported for Keen News Service. Do I think the current Congress will be more amenable? To doing anything about anything in this Congress? Let’s just say that the Senate’s failure to pass stricter gun background check legislation this week has made me skeptical (which is a nicer way of saying “highly cynical”).
In the absence of federal legislation, it then falls to the states, local school districts, teachers, parents, and students to create change. The thousands of students taking part in the Day of Silence today are on the leading edge of that effort. My deep thanks to them for their courage and commitment.
