The Equality Act: What Math Teachers Need to Know

On February 25 of this year, I watched as the House of Representatives heard arguments and voted on the Equality Act. In all, House Representatives spent less than an hour debating the bill. They spent less than an hour deciding whether people like me and my LGBTQ+ peers should be able to go to a restaurant, hospital, or bathroom anywhere in the US without the fear of being denied service or entry. They spent less than an hour either defending or criticizing our basic human rights. They spent less than an hour considering our humanity. LESS. THAN. AN. HOUR. And the result? The bill passed by a margin of 18 votes, with 206 Republicans deciding that I (and people like me) do not deserve the same rights/protections/freedoms as everyone else. Only 3 Republican representatives joined the Democratic majority (there are 221 Democrats in the House) and voted in support of the bill. Only 3 Republicans indicated that my queer siblings and I deserve the basic liberties and protections afforded to non-LGBTQ+ Americans.

The vote was incredibly disheartening, but also sadly not surprising. During the hearing, many old troupes were used in defending Republican opposition to the bill, which opponents consistently referred to as the “Inequality Act.” Such objections included the weakening/elimination of religious liberties and parental rights, the threat to women rights, a concern for “fairness” in girls sports, and the threat of “a universal right to abortion.” I could provide counter arguments for each of these, but that’s not the point of this post, so I’ll leave that for some other time. As if those objections weren’t upsetting enough, Rep. Ralph Norman of North Carolina had the audacity to propose a moment of silence during the session to honor the recent passing of Rush Limbaugh…the same Rush Limbaugh whose radio show of the 80s and 90s ran an “AIDS Update” in which he would celebrate the deaths of queer people who had died of AIDS [1]. To me, these all felt like another indication that our Republican officials are more concerned with children’s sports, the right to use religion as a tool for hate-based discrimination, and instilling a fear of LGBTQ+ people and their “lifestyle” (insert eye roll) in their constituents, than with recognizing queer folx’s basic humanity and rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” So, while I’m happy the House has passed the Equality Act and sent it to the Senate for consideration, I’m also incredibly tired. It should not be this hard to get politicians to vote in favor of queer folx’s basic human rights.

It’s taken me some time to sit with how I’m feeling about this and to consider what other math teachers might need to know or hear in relation to the pending legislation. While my thoughts are still developing, I feel compelled to write about them now, given that the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on the Equality Act today, March 17, 2021. 

So, What is the Equality Act?

The Equality Act would essentially amend the Civil Rights Act to include queer folx. According to the text of the legislation, its purpose is “[t]o prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes” [2]. Your first questions might be, “Aren’t LGBTQ+ people already protected from discrimination under the law? Didn’t we get that when marriage equality passed?” You would not be alone in this confusion. In fact, most Americans have been found to (wrongly) believe that queer folx are protected from discrimination in housing, public spaces/accomodations, and employment benefits [3]. While there are 27 states that currently do provide such protections, that leaves 23 that do not. In those 23 states, LGBTQ+ people can be denied health care services, housing, employment, etc. based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. As if that weren’t enought there are currently 147 anti-LGBTQ+ bills under consideration by state legislators (more than 70 of which target transgender people) that would further limit the rights of queer folx across the country [4]. While the legislation will not solve the larger societal problems of homophobia, transphobia, and violence against LGBTQ+ people, the Equality Act would send a clear message that, in the eyes of the law, LGBTQ+ people deserve the same protections as everyone else. It would be one small step in the right direction for LGBTQ+ liberation.

How Would the Equality Act Impact LGBTQ+ Youth?

According to a recent gallup poll (which has a 95% confidence interval), 15-17% of Generation Z (ages 9-24) identify as LGBTQ+ [5]. Based on past trends, it is also likely that an even higher percentage of the next generation (Generation Alpha) do or will identify as LGBTQ+. Take a minute to think about your classes and what that would mean about the likely number of queer identifitied students in your classroom right now. Those queer kids are watching their rights to exist and thrive be debated by politicians in much the same way as those rights are debated in their everday lives. In fact, a majority of the 147 anti-LGBTQ+ bills currently under consideration in state legislatures across the country directly target the rights of queer youth (particularly trans youth). Here’s a small sampling of some of those bills [6]:

  • One bill would make it illegal for family therapists, professional counselors and social workers to be disciplined by professional certification boards for discriminating based on gender, gender identity, or ethnicity. It would also be illegal for them to be disciplined for encouraging queer folx to undergo conversion therapy, a practice that has been found to be extremely harmful to the health and well being of queer people. 
  • Several states have introduced bills in which guardians must be given notice prior to and the option to opt their student out of any school instruction or curriculum pertaining to sexual orientation or gender identity. Yet, queer students don’t get to opt out of learning about the history, “lifestyle”, or ideas surrounding straight or cisgender people. One bill takes this even further, and would require school districts that offer instructions related to gender identity to also “include in the curriculum educational materials and references to gender dysphoria, the existence of transition regret and detransition, and the potential harm and adverse outcomes of social and medical gender interventions.”
  • A number of states have introduced measures that would allow child welfare agencies to discriminate against queer youth (who are disproportionately impacted by homelessness) and potential adoptive/foster families based on moral or religious grounds.
  • One measure would prohibit medical professionals from providing anyone under the age of 18 with gender-affirming care – including puberty blockers, which have been shown to lower the risk of suicide for trans youth. Oddly enough, none of these states have passed legislation preventing gaurdians of intersex children from subjecting their infant children to cosmetic (and medically unnecessary) surgeries to make sure their children’s anatomy fits neatly into a gender binary.
  • Several states have introduced bills that would prohibit trans youth (mainly targeting trans girls) from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity and using locker rooms that match their gender identity. One bill proposes that the consequence of disobeying the law could carry up to 90 days of juvenile detention.
  • Several states have introduced so-called “bathroom bills” that prohibit individuals from using restrooms that match their gender identity in public spaces or publically funded entities (such as schools).

By enshrining LGBTQ+ rights into law, the Equality Act is an essential step in squashing these cruel attacks on the rights of LGBTQ+ youth and their families. The act would prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ+ youth attending and participating in “federally funded entities and programs, and expands the categories of public accomodation. The Equality Act also forbids the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 from being used as a basis for discrimination or challenge of the Act. The codification of the measures will prevent businesses such as gyms and restaurants, and public schools of all grade levels from barring people from using the locker room or bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. It will not allow public places or entities that receive public funding, such as homeless shelters and schools, to use religious freedom as a justification for discrimination” [7].

But What Does This Have to Do With Mathematics Teaching?

In my view, this has everything to do with mathematics teaching. If a child in your classroom is worried about using the bathroom, going through puberty in the wrong body, experiencing discrimination in foster care after being disowned by their parents, being sent to conversion therapy, being bullied or even “outed” by peers for their gender identity or sexual orientation, etc., wouldn’t that have an impact on their learning? This brings to mind Zaretta Hammond’s discussion of the nervous system’s role in learning [8]. Hammond discusses how the brain is constantly looking for environmental signs to determine if we are safe or in danger. Hammond writes,

“When anyone experiences others in an environment like a classroom that is inattentive or hostile, the body picks up on that information through the autonomic nervous system and sends it up to the RAS and amygdala. There the amygdala gets the information that it’s not socially, emotionally, or intellectually safe and sends out a distress signal to the body. The body starts to produce stress hormones that make learning nearly impossible. Even if the environment isn’t hostile but simply unwelcoming, the brain doesn’t produce enough oxytocin and begins to experiences anxiety…When we look at the stress some students experience in the classroom because they belong to marginalized communities…we have to understand their safety-threat system is already cued to be on alert for social and psychological threats based on past experiences. It becomes imperative to understand how to build positive social relationships that signal to the brain a sense of physical psychological, and social safety so that learning is possible”(p. 45).

The passage of the Equality Act would move us toward creating environments that were more affirming, and thus would feel safer for LGBTQ+ students in our classrooms. It would allow them to take some of their cognitive focus off of simply surviving and would allow more space in the brain for learning to occur. For this reason, I strongly encourage educators to contact their state senators to urge them to support the act.

Is That All We Can Do?

Calling your senators is an excellent first step, but the passage of the Equality Act will be an uphill battle. With an even split between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, I am not extremely optimistic the measure will garner the 60 affirmative votes needed, but it’s still important that we try. Whether the bill passes or not, over 80% of LGBTQ+ students report experiencing some form of harassment or assault at school [9]. While passing the Equality Act would send a message that LGBTQ+ people have rights and protections just like the rest of Americans, it is not going to automatically change the culture of homophobia and transphobia that exists in our schools and larger society. That will take time. That is where our sustained work lies. The rest of this post is dedicated to a small subset of avenues for such work.

We must educate ourselves on the experiences of queer people, especially of those that carry multiple identities that are traditionally marginalized (e.g., queer disabled folx and queer people of color), to understand how to make our classroom spaces and instructional practices more welcoming to queer students.

Over the summer many teachers were energized to educate themselves on systemic racism, privilege and anti-racist pedagogy. Dedicating ourselves to such education, self-exploration, and development of responsive curriculum is essential when working with any traditionally marginalized group, including queer students. Many teachers I speak with are afraid to engage in this work because they fear they don’t have the right tools or know enough about what it means to be queer in this world. That’s probably true, but it’s not an excuse. Twenty years ago it may have been harder to learn about queer people and their experiences, but today everything we need to know is a google search away. In fact, I’ve already done a lot of this work for you. If you hop on over to my resources page, I have compiled resources for teachers to learn the basics of gender identity and sexuality, historical and contemporary perspectives of queer life, materials touching on intersectionality, as well as instructional practices to create queer inclusive classrooms and lessons. It’s important for us to understand that no two queer people are alike, nor are their experiences. In addition, terminology and ideas within the queer community are changing and evolving every day. Because of this, we may never feel like we know enough to engage in conversations about queer identity. That should not stop us from trying. If we put some work into self-education and approach this work with an open mind and heart, students will respond to that. They will correct you if you say or do the wrong thing and as long as you let them know they can make such corrections and that you will take that correction gracefully and move on, they will appreciate the efforts you are making.

We must get over our fear of talking about gender identity and sexuality in K-12 settings.

Two questions I’m commonly asked are “Is it really appropriate to talk about sexuality in schools?” and “Aren’t kids too young to know how they identify?” To address the first question, I usually clarify that what the person is asking is if it’s appropriate to talk about homosexuality, because if they meant general sexuality, then they’d only have to take a look at everyday life to know that we talk about heterosexuality all the time. Every time a heterosexual teacher displays a picture of their family, they are touching on sexuality. Every time we encounter a problem in which we couple boys and girls or make comments about typical adolescent (heterosexual) crushes/attractions, we are touching on sexuality. Heterosexuality is ubiquitous with everyday life. That’s how we’ve set up the world. So the real question that’s being asked is “Is it really appropriate to talk about homosexuality in schools?” Because of all the ways in which it is socially acceptable to talk about heterosexuality in schools and with kids, my answer is yes. I do understand that this answer will not be sufficient for some. For those people my most basic response is my belief that schools are democratic spaces in which we are tasked with creating the critical thinkers of tomorrow. If we are not acknowledging the complexities of the world in which they reside, which includes people that are not heterosexual (shocking, I know), then we are doing students a disservice. We are reinforcing the belief that school is a place where students learn facts, methods, and ideas completely devoid from their realities. How does this create critical thinkers? How does this serve the democratic ideals of schooling? 

To the second question, “Aren’t kids too young to know how they identify?” I usually pose the question “If a child who was assigned the sex of male at birth were to say they were a boy, would you tell them they were too young to know that?” Again, let’s say what we mean here. What people are really asking is “Aren’t trans or gender non-conforming kids too young to know how they identify?” Again, this is a double standard. We do not ask such questions of cisgender children, only trans and gender non-conforming children. Though we know gender identity is complex and continues to develop throughout our life, research tells us that many (though not all) transgender people state they knew they were transgender very early in life. Those individuals (the ones that know early on) have been found to be “insistent, persistent, and consistent” that their gender does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Research also tells us that when we do not honor children’s gender explorations and allow for social transitions early in life, we are actually doing more psychological harm than good [10]. 

These two questions and their accompanying answers reveal (at least to me) the truth about where we are in today’s society – it makes us extremely uncomfortable when someone steps out of the heteronormative and gender normative structures of our society. But that’s on us. Life is full of things that make us uncomfortable and discomfort is entirely subjective, varying from person to person, context to context, and culture to culture. Our discomfort also breeds fear. We are afraid of how parents, other teachers, administrators, or community members might respond. We have to move beyond that though. Teaching is not about us. Most of us got into this field because we love children and want to make a difference. Reinforcing the status quo and being complicit in gender normative and heternormative structures that harm queer students does not live up to those ideals. It harms children. It does not help them.

We must combat the erasure of LGBTQ+ experiences and people in our mathematics problems, and move away from heteronormative and gender normative problems.

I have written about this elsewhere, so I won’t go into this too much, but we have to stop giving problems that assume heterosexual pairings, gender binaries, and that reinforce gender norms. This reinforces the idea that mathematics is other-worldly and exists in the imaginary realm. It goes back to what I said previously about the purposes of schooling in creating critical thinkers. How can we say we are teaching our students to engage critically with the world and with mathematics if we are asking them to set aside what they know to be true – namely that not all people are boys or girls, that not all people are straight, and that not all people follow gender norms? This is dishonest, and again, harmful to queer children. It sends the message that their identity does not have a place in our classrooms or in mathematics. What a boring mathematics that would be.

We must begin rethinking the historical construction of mathematics.

Mathematics is a subject that is full of binaries. Educational research often focuses on binary conceptions of gender to understand how to get more girls interested in math [11]; discussion of ability often centers on either whether someone is or is not a math person or (more recently) whether someone has a growth or fixed mindset. Mathematics is posed as a subject that is rational rather than emotional/relational. Viewing mathematics through such binary lenses is very limiting. It restricts the questions we ask and the mathematics we find “interesting” or “worthwhile” [12, 13]. The fact that we encourage students to take calculus or statistics instead of graph theory is entirely arbitrary, as is everything included in our mathematics curriculum. Someone (i.e. politicians and other governing bodies) made the decision that the mathematics we teach was more worthwhile than other kinds of mathematics. In an ideal world that would not be the case. Teaching mathematics could simply be focused on teaching students to pose mathematical questions they find interesting and then learn the mathematical tools they need to explore those questions. But in reality we do have standards, we do have teacher evaluations, and we do have standardized testing. So what can we do? Rochelle Gutiérrez, talks about the method of creative insubordination and “the mirror test” as a means of being able to look ourselves in the mirror and honestly say that we are teaching to our ideals, but also doing it in a way that let’s us 1) keep our jobs and 2) set students up for success [14]. I highly recommend you read about the strategies of creative insubordination here if you are not already familiar with them. I also find queer pedagogy to be a form of creative insubordination. I plan to eventually write a more detailed post about what queer pedagogy looks like in the mathematics classroom, but essentially it encourages students to question all of mathematics. As Rands writes, it encourages students to question not only the tasks/problems they are given but also the methods of engaging in mathematics and what counts as mathematics [15].

We have to counteract the idea that this work should be left to queer educators or educators of other content areas. 

Racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and so many other ways of oppressing people that present outside of the norm are embedded with our school systems. We cannot leave it to those in the oppressed group to make the needed change. We are tired. We need your help. This work is difficult and ongoing. It will take all of us to dismantle the systems of oppression within our schools and our classrooms. It will take all of use to reimagine mathematics and schooling to create a more democratic and humanizing experience for all of our students.

References:

[1] Bollinger, A. (2021, February 25). Republican asks for a moment of silence for rush limbaugh during LGBTQ Equality Act debate.  LGBTQ Nation. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/02/republican-asks-moment-silence-rush-limbaugh-lgbtq-equality-act-debate/

[2] 117th Congress. H.R.5 Equality Act (2021). Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5/text

[3] GLAAD. Accelerating Acceptance 2020 Executive Summary (2020). glaad.org https://www.glaad.org/sites/default/files/Accelerating%20Acceptance%202020.pdf

[4] Ronan, W. (2021, March 11) Breaking: First anti-trans bill of 2021 signed into law by Mississippi governor Tate Reeves [Press release]. Human Rights Campaign https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/breaking-first-anti-trans-bill-of-2021-signed-into-law-by-mississippi-governor-tate-reeves

[5] Jones, J.M. (2021, February 24). LGBT representation rises to 5.6 in latest U.S. estimate.  Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/poll/329708/lgbt-identification-rises-latest-estimate.aspx

[6] American Civil Liberties Union (2021, March 12). Legislation affecting LGBT rights across the country. ACLU. https://www.aclu.org/legislation-affecting-lgbt-rights-across-country 

[7] Tisdale, K. (2019, March). The Equality Act: Ensuring non-discrimination protections for all lgbtq people [Policy Brief]. Advocates for Youth https://www.advocatesforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Equality-Act-Policy-Brief.pdf

[8] Hammond, Z. L. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain. Corwin Press.

[9] Kosciw, J. G., Clark, C. M., Truong, N. L., & Zongrone, A. D. (2020). The 2019 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation’s schools. GLSEN.

[10] Ehrensaft, D. (2016). The gender creative child: Pathways for nurturing and supporting children who live outside gender boxes. The Experiment.

[11] Leyva, L. A. (2017). Unpacking the male superiority myth and masculinization of mathematics at the intersections: A review of research on gender in mathematics education. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 48(4), 397-433.

[12] Mendick, H. (2006). Masculinities in mathematics. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

[13] Gutiérrez, R. (2018). When mathematics teacher educators come under attack. Mathematics Teacher Educator, 6(2), 68-74.

[14] Gutiérrez, R. (2016). Strategies for creative insubordination in mathematics teaching. Special Issue Mathematics Education: Through the Lens of Social Justice.

[15] Rands, K. (2009). Mathematical inqu [ee] ry: Beyond ‘add-queers-and-stir’elementary mathematics education. Sex Education, 9(2), 181-191.

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