Teaching of gender in Georgia private schools would be regulated under revived Senate bill

Georgia state Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, presents a bill to the House Committee on Public Health Tuesday, March 14, 2023, in Atlanta. Summers is the chief sponsor of a bill that would stop private school teachers from talking to students about gender identity without parental permission. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)

A Georgia Senate committee is advancing a long-stalled proposal aimed at stopping private school teachers from talking to students about gender identity without parental permission, but both gay rights groups and some religious conservatives remain opposed to the bill.

Senate Bill 88, which majority Republicans on Tuesday passed out of the Senate Education and Youth Committee on a party-line vote, now says private schools would have to obtain written permission from all parents before instruction “addressing issues of gender identity, queer theory, gender ideology, or gender transition.”

“We worked in earnest to make this bill fair while still achieving our goal of making sure children’s parents are involved in a sensitive and often life-changing issue,” said Sen. Carden Summers, a Cordele Republican.