Anti-LGBTQ+ Curriculum Law and the Creation of Moral Panic Around Reproduction of Queer Identity

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 30. Gender, Schooling, and Society pt. 2

Abstract

The 2020s have seen a drastic rise in American legislation targeting LGBTQ+ identities, with over 500 bills of this kind being introduced in 2024 alone, compared to only 42 in 2018 (ACLU 2024). Max Orborn argues that sociologists can best understand this shift in Anti-LGBTQ+ political ideology as not simply a “culture war” but as constituting a moral panic (Orborn 2025). I argue that Anti- LGBTQ+ curriculum laws, which seek to limit the exposure children have to queer identities in school curriculum, are a key example of the manifestations of this panic and help us understand how it is constructed. In this paper, I focus on the 2022 Florida Legislature’s Parental Rights in Education Act and analyze how Florida policymakers construct a moral panic over LGBTQ+ identities through discourse in committee meetings, congressional floor debates, and press statements. I find that legislators construct learning about gender identity and sexual orientation as a moral issue requiring political action by stoking fear in listeners that their children's education will function as a form of social engineering and result in a growing number of children identifying as queer. This work seeks to add to existing literature on moral panics in the contemporary era, particularly through the instrumental use of educational curriculum.

Author

• Olivia Berding, Rutgers University Department of Sociology