Indiana House Bill 1608, a bill restricting name or pronoun changes in schools, will no longer require parental consent for a student to go by a different name or pronoun. Instead, the proposed changes will only require parental notification.
The amended version of the bill passed the Indiana Senate today with a vote of 37-12. Since the bill was changed, the House must vote to approve the most recent version of the bill before it can go to the governor.
The bill may cause conflict for transgender minors who are not supported by their parents, forcing the students to either let their parents be informed of their identity or continue to be referred to with the name or pronouns assigned at birth.
[Related: Governor signs bill banning gender-affirming care for minors in Indiana]
The bill also prohibits instruction on human sexuality for prekindergarten through third grade in public schools.
Another change in this version of the bill is the removal of a section that would prevent teachers from being disciplined for not using a minor’s preferred name or pronoun because of religious conviction. The amendment that removed the parental consent requirement was authored by Sen. Stacey Donato R-Logansport.
President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Rodric Bray R-Martinsville, said in the Indiana Capital Chronicle he thought parental consent was important, but that situations where parents are divorced created contention. Instead, Bray said parental notification was sufficient.
