You're listening to the microversion of the Savage Love cast at Savage.lo

Well, shit.

Just as the Bowwerks Tim Miller predicted when I had him on to talk about Florida's Don't Say Gay Bill,

which is now Florida's Don't Say Gay Law, that shit is spreading. NPR reported over the weekend

that Don't Say Gay Bill's have been proposed now in more than a dozen states. The American Right

Wing, the religious right, is currently, well, the mainstream right, really, trying to reframe being

out as gay to kids. To your students, if you're a teacher, to your own kids, if you're a parent,

to your neighbor's kids, if you're a person who lives in an apartment or a house or anywhere

other than a gated compound, being out to kids is grooming. The poison is reasoning here. The

argument that's going to get queer people killed goes like this. Knowing gay people exist,

someone telling a kid they're in a same sex relationship means telling that kid all about gay

sex. And there's only one reason you would tell a kid about gay sex. It's a lie, of course,

of course, it's a lie and they know they're lying. But let's take the lie at face value for a second

because this may be the quickest way to show that straight people, particularly straight parents,

know this is a lie. Basically, it comes down to something all-married straight parents

kind of already know about their own little kids. They know their young kids, know their parents,

their straight parents have a special relationship. Kids know mom and dad are, hopefully fond of each

other in a unique way. Long before kids know what sex is, they know what romantic love is.

If not from the example of their own parents, then from the examples they see on television,

or in books, or all around them, assuming they don't live in a gated compound. And then the day

inevitably comes when mom and dad, at some point long after their kid has become consciously aware

of romantic love, the day comes when mom and dad have to explain what sex is, where babies come

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