Penny Thoughts: HB1-SB10 is not the way to go

On March 3 the Alabama senate passed a bill that, in my opinion, is one of the worst in recent memory.

This may be a bit of a controversial opinion here in the South, but despite my own opinions on transgenderism that I will not delve into in this article, the transgender community deserves rights and acceptance. This is why I say that this bill, known as HB1/SB10 or the Vulnerable Child and Compassion and Protection Act, is such a horrible bill.

It destroys and takes away those rights.

Under this new bill, any hormone blockers or gender therapy are made illegal for those under the age of 19, and any doctor caught doing so will be charged with a felony as well as up to ten years in prison or a $15,000 fine.

Now, you can argue all you want that hormone blockers and gender therapy are bad for minors. I actually have no qualms with arguments against it. However, the next part of this bill is where the bill goes from tone-deaf to discriminatory.

The second half of the bill states that any school staff, teachers, counselors, anything, are required, by this law, to report any case of gender dysphoria to the parents of the students.

I have made friends with transgender people, and the one thing they want more than anything is acceptance. They are one of the most scrutinized groups of people in our country, and in the South especially, it starts with the parents.

One of my friends here at Southern Miss was the one to introduce me to this bill. He identifies as male, and he was furious that this bill was even proposed. When I discussed my opinion on it, he stated that if his father had found out about his transition, he would have “beat the ever-living [expletive] out of me and pulled me out of school.”

As someone who wants to go into education and was born and raised in Alabama, this bill, despite being named the “Vulnerable Child and Compassion and Protection Act”, does the exact opposite of what the name implies it is intended to do.

The gender identity of the student should always be a no-factor. As a teacher, I don’t plan on teaching a male student different from a female student and vice-versa. That is discrimination.

So, imagine, you are a student who has recently transitioned, and you are not ready to tell your parents. It’s a difficult thing to tell your parents that you’ve decided to completely change how you identify, the name they gave you. They might be angry, and you always hate it when your parents are angry at you.

You confide in someone you trust, a school counselor, a schoolteacher, or worse, maybe a friend while a teacher walks by and overhears you. Now that faculty member is required by law to tell your parents something that might completely damage the relationship you have with them.

The gender identity of a student is not the business of the teacher unless the student is getting bullied for it.

If this bill passes the Alabama House of Representatives, I will swear to never teach in an Alabama school system, and if I even break my swear, I will 100% be committing any felony that comes with this bill.

Which is why, despite the fact that this article might not ever reach them, I implore the Alabama House of Representatives to vote no on HB1/SB10, and for once, prove that Alabama is not the ass-backwards state that we get flak for.

This is about not alienating rights, this is about actually protecting children, and this is about rebuilding a statewide image beyond Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”.

The Vulnerable Child and Compassion and Protection Act is not the way to go.

Please vote no.