Colorado’s Rep. Jared Polis Reintroduces Bill to Protect LGBT Students

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican Rep. from Florida Is Co-Sponsor

Openly gay Rep. Jared Polis(D-Colo), former chair of the Colorado State Board of Education, plans to reintroduce the Student Non-Discrimination Act in the U.S. House.  This act would prohibit schools that receive public funding from discriminating against LGBT youth. Modeled after Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, SNDA established LGBT students as a protected class.  According to The Miami Herald, the bill has more than a hundred cosponsors.

Statistics Point to Need for Bipartisan Bill

This bill was also introduced by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) who said that “schools should be places where our kids can learn and thrive, and that are free from persecution and harassment.” Polis remarked that surveys have indicated that as many as 80% of LGBT students experience harassment in school because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

According to a Human Rights Campaign Family Project, sixty-four percent of LGBT teens, compared to forty-seven percent of non-LGBT teens never participate in afterschool activities for fear of bullying or discrimination.  LGBT youth are twice as likely as their non-LGBT peers to experience harassment or bullying in school. Said Ellen Kahn, director of the HRCFP, “while most of the bullying and exclusion is perpetuated by their peers, we also know that adults who work in the our schools – from bus drivers to teachers – engage in anti-LGBT behavior and discrimination as well.”

“The Single Most Important Step to Help LGBT Students” – Ian Thompson, ACLU leg. rep.

“There is no federal law that explicitly protects LGBT students from discrimination and harassment in our nation’s public schools,” said Ian Thompson, ACLU’s legislative representative. S. Inouye, a White House spokesperson, said President Obama supports the goals of SNDA.  “We look forward to working with Congress to insure that all students, including LGBT students, are safe and healthy and can learn in an environments free from discrimination, bullying and harassment.”

History of the Bill

Last year, the  SNDA bill died in the Senate after Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) who sponsored it  in the Senate, withdrew the measure as an amendment. The exact timing for Senate introduction of SNDA is unclear.  Franken is planning on introducing the bill in the upcoming weeks.

With a Republican majority controlling the House, it may be hard to get the bill passed, but if Congress takes up the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it may pass.  SNDA would be part of the reauthorization.  Polis has also considered passage of the bill as a standalone bill through a markup process in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

On the same day that Polis introduced SNDA, more than eighty-two advocacy organizations sent a letter to Congress members urging them to sign on to support of the legislation: “The Student Non-Discrimination Act presents us with a historic opportunity to offer critical protections to current and future generations of LGBT youth and their student allies by ensuring that discrimination against and harassment of students on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity will have no place in our country’s public elementary and secondary schools.”

Safe Schools Improvement Act

Another bill that would address anti-gay bullying is the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would require schools and districts receiving federal funds to adopt codes of conduct against bullying, including on basis of LGBT actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity  status. The Act requires reporting bullying data to the Department of Education.  Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Ca.) in the House and Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in the Senate are sponsoring that legislation.