Over a fifteen years span, lawmakers and school administrators have started to recognize that LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and other non-gender conforming) youth are a vulnerable population in schools. As a result, many administrators have implemented policies designed to ensure all students feel safe and welcome at school, but not in six of the states (Like Walking Through A Hailstorm). These states are Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. Unfair discrimination against students and improper sexual education are among the side effects of No-Promo Homo Laws ise states. Bea Giauque, a bisexual highschool student, recalls, When I went into tenth-grade health, with the knowledge I was Bisexual, the entire thing was, Oh hey, men and women go together, girls and boys are going to have sex. That is how it is. This experience speaks to the inadequate information that LGBTQ+ students receive in health class, where they are denied access to safe non-heterosex
ual sexual practices.
As a result of lack of legal protection, LGBTQ+ youth experience verbal harassment 85% of their time in schools (LGBT Bullying and Discrimination in Schools). For example, high school is harder for LGBTQ+ youth than other teens. Walking through the hallway of the high school and getting called things like Lesbian, Gay Boy, Carpet Muncher, Fag, Queer, or he-she is something no child should have to go through. These children just want to be who they are, but they feel they can not because of the names they are called and the way they are treated. No Promo Homo Laws prevent schools from educating other students about the LGBTQ+ community, which makes the children who are not a part of this community feel it is wrong and immoral not to be heterosexual. Worse yet, in some of the states like Alabama and Arizona, schools must teach children that homosexuality is not a lifestyle accepted in the general public, which leads to more dangerous forms of harassment against LGBTQ+ students (No Promo Homo Laws).