Just Call Students By Their Name

I have a sister named Peggy. But because "Peggy" is not a saint's name, my grandmother objected to my parents naming her that. So, the name they gave her was "Margaret," and only to satisfy grandma and an outdated, dumb, Catholic rule. Peggy legally changed her name when she was old enough to do it herself, and to eliminate that dumbness once and for all. Whew!

The only place she was ever called Margaret, after she was baptized, was at school. But only until they were told: her name is, was and always will be Peggy.

I would have loved to see my dad deal with a school that refused to call her Peggy. My grandma was a famously difficult woman, and while dad might have taken that naming crap from her the day my sister was born, any school that tried that would have regretted it.

House Bill 1608 is an offensive and ignorant bill rolling through the Indiana General Assembly this year. The bill is titled, "Human sexuality instruction." It should be titled, "Prohibited human sexuality instruction," since the primary function of the bill is to specifically prevent the teaching of something. The bill is not solving a problem in Indiana. It is borrowing a made-up problem from somewhere else and legislating a made-up epiphany to solve it.

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