A bill that generated national attention in the final weeks of the 2012 legislative session was HB 2051, a proposal to bar discussion of sexual orientation in public schools except in scientific instruction on human reproduction. It was more commonly known as the “don’t say gay” bill.
Representatives Tim Jones and Steve Cookson (photos courtesy, Missouri House Communications)
House Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones (R-Eureka) was one of the co-sponsors of the proposal. He doesn’t know if it will be offered again in 2013.
“There must have been something significant that occurred in Representative Cookson’s District that he felt the need to file that. We’ll see whether or not that is still an issue for him. I think that bill was filed more perhaps … it was late in session. He knew it wasn’t going to go anywhere. It may have been one of those bills that was designed to send a message to his folks back home, his constituency. I’ll have to talk to him to see if we’re going to go forward on that or not next year.”
Jones will likely be the Speaker of the House in 2013.
A request for an interview with the proposal’s sponsor, Representative Steve Cookson (R-Fairdealing), was declined. HB 2051 was referred to a committee but was never scheduled for a hearing.