The legislative power of Utah, led by the Republicans, pushes a controversial bill that would prohibit the representation of Pride flags in schools and government buildings, but allow Nazi and confederated flags to schools and on all government ownership.
The bill, HB77, adopted the House Education Committee this week and led to a fire storm of indignation and debate on free speech, historical context and the erasing of LGBTQ+ visibility in public spaces.
The bill, introduced by the Republican representative Trevor Lee, tries to limit public schools and government institutions to flying only officially sanctioned flags, including the American and Utah State flags, military banners and the flags of recognized Indian tribes.
However, a Maas in legislation makes the temporary representation of historical flags for educational purposes possible – an exemption that, according to Lee, explicitly confederated and Nazi flags.
“There are cases where you have a curriculum in classrooms that is needed to use flags such as the Second World War, Civil War,” Lee told the Huiscommissie.
'Maybe you have a Nazi flag. You may have a southern flag, so you can display those flags … as part of the curriculum, and that's okay. '
Despite his explicit statement in the committee, Lee later declined in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, in an attempt to deny that his legislative proposal stated that Nazi flags are being shown.
“There is a difference between displaying flags in the curriculum if you teach about it,” he maintained. “You don't censor history here.”
The Republican legislature of Utah pushes a controversial bill that would prohibit the representation of Pride flags in schools and government buildings (file photo)
The bill would still allow Nazi and confederated flags to schools and on all government possession (file photo)
Nevertheless, the language of the bill will open the door for these historically charged symbols, which expresses concern among educators, students and proponents of civil rights who fear that the measure could encourage extremism under the guise of 'historical education'.
While the supporters of the bill claim that legislation promotes neutrality in government spaces, opponents have criticized the movement as a flagrant attack on the LGBTQ+ community.
The Pride flag, a symbol of inclusiveness and support for marginalized students, would be deleted from public schools and a grim message to LGBTQ+ young people send that their identity is not welcome in the institutions intended to teach and protect them.
“This ban is unconstitutional and only serves as under control of people,” said secondary school Senior Millie Dworkin during a public hearing.
“You all claim semantics, but you all know that this is wrong and immoral,” said Dworkin.
'Queer people commit suicide at a higher pace than everyone else … This is not because they are inherently susceptible to suicide because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It is because of how they are treated. If you pass this on, you have queer blood on your hands. '
The passionate plea from Dworkin comes after many studies have shown how supporting environments drastically reduce suicide figures at LGBTQ+ young people.
The proponents of the bill claim that the presence of Pride flags in schools is a political explanation.
The bill, introduced by the Republican representative Trevor Lee, wants to limit public schools and government institutions to flying only officially sanctioned flags, including the American and Utah State flags, military banners and the flags of recognized Indian tribes
The urge to prohibit Pride flags in Utah comes in the midst of a broader national effort of conservative legislators to limit LGBTQ+ rights (file photo)
“We are starting to see more and more hostile interactions between different political factions,” said Lee. “Our schools should be a place for children to learn, not to feel that they are being pushed or seen as agendas in one way or another, because it relates to political beliefs.”
Critics have noticed the flagrant hypocrisis in such an argument that by the Pride flag from choosing while they represent allowances for Nazi and confederated flags, symbols that have represented historical racism, genocide and betrayal, legislators make a clear political explanation.
“If a teacher hung a flag with a gigantic image of Jesus on it, it would be removed immediately,” Aaron Bullen from Lehi testified to support the ban.
'Nevertheless, the Pride flag sends a clear message about the marriage. It also sends a message about gender that a boy can become a girl and a girl can become a boy. This message is contrary to the religious beliefs of my family. '
The urge to prohibit Pride flags in Utah comes in the midst of a broader national effort of conservative legislators to limit LGBTQ+ rights.
At the federal level, President Donald Trump has launched an aggressive campaign that focuses on transgender rights, in which executive orders are signed that limit the recognition of the government of gender identities that go beyond male and female and transgender women to compromise with women's sports.
Trump's executive Order 'recognizes two genera, male and female', claim that these genera are 'not changeable and are based on the fundamental and unacceptable reality'.
In response, the human rights campaign has denounced these measures as “an incorrectly informed conversation about elite, adult athletes to justify the adoption of extreme, discriminatory legislation that focus on transgender young people in schools.”
In addition to the orders about access to health care and defining the sexes as unchangeable, Trump has also signed orders that open the door to ban transgender people from military service; Set up new rules on how schools can teach about gender; And has now forbidden transgender athletes to participate in girls and women's sports.
Legal challenges have already been submitted to the military order, the plan to move transgender women in federal prisons to men's facilities and the recognition only of the genus of people as assigned at birth, which led to stopping gender markers on passports .
Because transgender people have gained visibility and acceptance in some ways, there has been intense pushback.
At least 26 states have adopted laws to limit or ban the gender -confirming care for minors. The American Supreme Court heard arguments last year, but has not yet ruled whether Tennessee's ban on care is constitutional.
