Sonya Stephens, president of Mount Holyoke College, states that a bill in Florida that would prohibit discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through 3rd grade public school classrooms, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, is less about protecting students than it is about cynically fueling America's political divide. Florida's bill is part of a nationwide trend as 15 similar bills now move through other state legislatures. In recent years, Republicans have found that harnessing divisive issues of race, sexual orientation or gender identity to parents' concerns about what their children are being taught in public schools is an effective means to win at the ballot box. This is just the latest instance of efforts to erase discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity--other than the heteronormative--from our schools; efforts which include banning books and gay pride flags, and which can only have lasting and devastating psychological effects on vulnerable LGBTQ youths who are already too often told by society that they should not exist.