This is such an important point, and and the people pushing for those policies and laws also say that it's not about homophobia.

But of course it is.

When a child's picture book is targeted for a ban but contain no sexuality other than a hug, then parents show up at school board meetings shouting that the book sexualizes their children, you know it's about homophobia.

They complain that they don't want that book in school, because their children are "too young" to understand that same-sex parents exist. This, despite the fact that some of their children's classmates have gay parents.

Nothing in the book they want to ban is different in any substantial way from other children's picture books featuring straight parents. The homophobia is self-evident.

I read a news article the other day about a nonbinary middle-school teacher who sometimes performs as a drag king on weekends. Their act is highly stylized performance art. They wear shimmery business suits and lip sync to electronica as they as they glide slowly to unusual lighting effects. It's not something you would immediately identify as drag if you were watching it. Their act contains no sexuality.

Then a social media account associated with a group of students at the school who reportedly harass and bully LGBTQ students targeted the teacher.

A significant fraction of the local community became outraged at the teacher. They received so many threats of violence, including death threats, that they resigned. They're now preparing to move out of state.

That is about homophobia, of course, though plenty of people in the community claim that it's not. What they think it really is, I have no clue.

Dancing fully clothed while queer isn't something school administrators have a problem with. They say they had no problem with the teacher's weekend drag hobby. But they supported their decision to resign, citing disruption to the school environment.

Sigh.

So, what do you say when they say it's not about homophobia? When it clearly IS about homophobia?

That's the question way too many queer people in the U.S. are asking ourselves these days.