Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, listens to a debate over his resolution calling the World Health Organization "corrupt" in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 11, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama representative has refiled a bill that would extend the state’s prohibition on discussions of gender identity from grades K-5 to all public school grades.
HB 23, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would prohibit classroom instruction or discussion about gender identity and sexual orientation and stop teachers from hanging up rainbow flags in their classrooms. The bill would also prevent teachers from calling students by pronouns other than the ones aligned with biological sex at birth.
Butler said in an interview Wednesday the bill is meant to help public schools focus on educating students and claimed that the recent enrollment decline partially comes from parents who are unsatisfied with LGBTQ content in schools. Alabama public officials have not said that was a reason for the drop in the K-12 population.
“And as you’re seeing with the decreased enrollment, and a lot of it’s the CHOOSE Act and the virtual school or home schooling, but there absolutely is a dissatisfaction with what we’re doing, and I see this as helping public education get them back to their actual core charge,” he said.
Enrollment numbers for public schools have declined for the 2025-26 school year by over 5,800 students (0.8% year-over-year). Alabama State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey said in an interview Monday the reasons for the decline come from students who have received CHOOSE Act funds and students who have enrolled but have not come to school.
“One of the things we’re investigating now is that a lot of these students [who were unaccounted for] could actually be homeschooling, but just did not go through the formal withdrawal process at the school. And that’s, that’s kind of what I think now might be the leading indicator,” he said.
Butler introduced a similar version of the bill in the 2025 legislative session last spring, but the bill failed to be passed by the Senate. This is his first time prefiling the bill.
“It’s just the teachers being paid to teach a curriculum, and they absolutely they wear a lot of hats to deal with a lot of things, and mental health is one just the reality they’re having to deal with, because I spent 10 years on the school board, and it’s a lot different what you’re dealing with today than what we were just two years ago. But just adding to the confusion is not helpful.”
During a Senate Education Policy meeting, multiple people opposed the bill saying that it would be a waste of time and that “Legislature does not get to legislate morality.” Only one person spoke in support of the bill at the meeting.
The Alabama Legislature in the last five years has passed several laws targeting LGBTQ+ people, including the original “Don’t Say Gay” law passed in 2021 and a ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth the following year.
Butler said while LGBTQ discussions in Alabama classrooms aren’t a major issue, there are a small group of schools that do discuss gender identity and sexual orientation. He did not name any schools discussing this topic.
“It is a minority. And that’s what people will try to tell me it’s not happening, and I go, ‘Okay, why would you be offended by such to say this, let’s just focus on the reading, writing and the arithmetic and leave that alone.’ But it absolutely is happening,” he said.
Former Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, who was the first openly gay member of the Alabama House of Representatives, said Wednesday that LGBTQ issues should be discussed in schools because the community could be intertwined in students’ daily life.
“All parents should be talking to their kids about LGBTQ issues, because probably sometime in their lifetime, they’re going to encounter that, and they might have friends who have same-sex parents,” she said.
While schools will not be allowed to instruct classes on gender identity and sexual orientation, students can still discuss it with faculty and staff.
“The student will still be able to talk to the teacher, the counselor, the principal, whoever, but it would keep the corporate push off of it,” Butler said.
Age appropriate conversations surrounding gender identity and sexual orientation are also allowed. Butler said this is because the State Department of Education requested it.
“That’s the only thing [the State Department of Education] requested. They say we’re not opposing the bill. We would just request that you put this in. And I said absolutely, because, you know, our goal is to work with them,” Butler said.
The Alabama Legislature will begin its 2026 session on Jan. 13.
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Author: Andrea Tinker