WYOMING — At the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Education Committee, Senator Bo Biteman (R-WY) pushed to bring back a failed bill that would put a ban on sex and gender education in Wyoming kindergarten through third grade classrooms.
SF0117, Parental rights in education, is aimed at “prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity as specified…No school district shall permit classroom instruction by teachers or any other person on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The bill also gives a parent or guardian the right to make decisions about their child’s care and control and have full access to the school’s medical records.
While the Senate originally passed the bill, the House refused to consider it. Now, Senator Biteman is attempting to bring back consideration of the bill by arguing that a majority of it deals with parental involvement in healthcare decisions and procedures and the focus shouldn’t be on anti-trans legislation.
Yet Senator Chris Rothfuss (D-WY) still expressed concern that the bill would take the education discussion out of the next Education Committee meeting by making the conversation about a national social issue and national legislation.
“We want to depoliticize our education,” Senator Rothfuss said. “We’ve got a lot of Wyoming work that’s important for the state of Wyoming that we need to get done.”
Representative Karlee Provenza (D-WY) turned to recent Wyoming youth suicide statistics to push mental health as a top priority in the discussion. According to Rep. Provenza, 10,000 middle and high school boys and 18,000 middle and high school girls have attempted suicide in the last year at least once.
“We need to provide a good, equitable education, and we cannot do that if our kids are depressed, stressed or suicidal,” Rep. Provenza said.
Whether or not SF117 will be brought up at the next Education Committee meeting was not resolved; rather, the topic was deemed to have been “exhausted.”
In March, Governor Gordon allowed a bill prohibiting transgender students from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity to go into law without his signature.
