Republicans have passed a bill to stop public schools in Texas, from kindergarten up to grade 12, supporting pupil’s LGBTQ+ clubs, such as Gay Straight Alliances.

Senate Bill 12, also known as the Parental Bill of Rights, was passed by 77 votes to 40 on Saturday (31 May) and is expected to be signed into law by governor Greg Abbott, to take effect from August or September.

“A school district or open-enrolment charter school may not authorise or sponsor a student club based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” according to the bill. It also targets diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in schools and asserts that parents have a fundamental right to control their child’s moral and/or religious upbringing as well as their medical and psychological treatment.

In a passionate debate, Democrat lawmakers condemned the bill and warned of the possible effect it will have on LGBTQ+ youngsters. Representative Gene Wu said: “The real monsters are not kids trying to figure out who they are. The monsters are not the teachers who love them and encourage them and support them. They are not the books that provide them with some amount of comfort and information.

“The real monsters are here.”

Fellow Democrat Erin Zwiener, who is bisexual, described the proposed legislation as “one of the most nakedly hateful bills we have had on the floor of this house”, adding: “Getting silence in schools from the LGBTQ community, which is what this bill is designed to do, will not stop your kid being gay.

“It will just make them afraid to come out. It will make them afraid to live their lives as their full selves. It will make them afraid to tell you when they figure out that they’re LGBTQ, and it might damage your relationship with them for ever.”

And Rafael Anchía, whose is daughter has attended an LGBTQ+ group at her school, hit back at Republicans who labelled such activities as inappropriate.

“It wasn’t a sex club,” Anchía said. “They’d get together and watch movies, they’d colour, they’d go to musicals. It was about a kid who felt weird, who found her people and everything about it was good. I don’t know why grown-ups in this body are so triggered with my daughter getting together with her classmates in a school-sponsored activity.”

Zwiener echoed that sentiment, saying: “There is nothing inherently more sexual about the existence of LGBTQ people than there is of straight people. If we are concerned about overly sexualised behaviour in our schools, I would hope you would focus more on the comments young men make about young women in the locker room than about a bunch of queer kids getting together to support [one another].”

However, Republican Jeff Leach said: “We’re not going to allow gay clubs, and we’re not going to allow straight clubs. We shouldn’t be sexualising our kids in public schools, period. We shouldn’t have clubs based on sex.”

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