Arizona Law Leaves Schools Struggling To Navigate LGBTQ Issues

February 24, 20197:00 AM ET
MARIANA DALE

For the fourth year in a row, Arizona lawmakers appear unlikely to revise a law that limits how public school teachers can talk about LGBTQ relationships in health classes.

Arizona is one of at least seven states with curriculum laws around LGBTQ issues, according to the advocacy group GLSEN. But of all the state laws, Arizona's is the only one that bans promoting "a homosexual life-style," says University of Utah law professor Clifford Rosky.

"This is not about gay sex," Rosky explains. "This is literally about whether it's OK to be gay and to talk about people who are gay."

The Arizona law controls HIV/AIDS instruction in public schools. It bans teachers in those courses from portraying "homosexuality as a positive alternative life-style" or suggesting there are safe ways to have homosexual sex.

Like many of the other state laws, Arizona's was created in the throes of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and after a 1986 recommendation from the U.S. surgeon general that HIV/AIDS education start at an early age.

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https://www.npr.org/2019/02/24/696572968/arizona-law-leaves-schools-struggling-to-navigate-lgbtq-issues?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news