Please Say Gay: An Examination of “Don't Say Gay” Laws and LGBTQ Attitudes

Don’t ask, don’t tell. The closet. The Lavender Scare. Throughout history, LGBTQ+ people have been repeatedly told to hide who they are at risk of losing jobs, housing, family, and friends. Presently, new silencing laws are on the forefront of public discourse, with many states enacting “don’t say gay” laws that prevent discussion of sexual and gender diversity in public schools. However, these laws, like other anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, may only further stigmatize LGBTQ+ people and create cultural norms of anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes. This pre-registered study examines the effects of “don’t say gay” laws on state-level anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes through time. Though new “don’t say gay” laws do not affect the trajectory of sexuality attitudes through time, states with “don’t say gay” laws have more negative implicit and explicit sexuality attitudes overall. Importantly, this effect was most robust for earlier “don’t say gay” laws that were enacted in the 1980s and 1990s. This study shows evidence that “don’t say gay” laws may relate to negative attitudes towards sexual minority people, which is important as these laws continue to be proposed, debated, and enacted across the country.