Things to know about developments impacting LGBTQ+ rights across the US

A legal settlement in Florida, legislative action in Arkansas and a lawsuit in Georgia this week made waves in an ongoing national battle over the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans.

Over the past three years or so, many Republican officials have been trying to limit those rights, imposing rules on which sports transgender students can play and which bathrooms they can use, among other policies.

The conservative pushback has coincided with more younger people identifying as LGBTQ+.

A Gallup poll released this week based on telephone interviews of more than 12,000 Americans finds that about 1 in 13 U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ+, including less than 1 in 100 of the total population who say they are transgender. But a higher proportion of the youngest adults identified as LGBTQ+ — a little over one-fifth of those born from 1997 through 2005.

The legal and legislative issues at the heart of the debates remain in flux.

Some things to know about this week’s flurry of developments.

FLORIDA AGREES STUDENTS, TEACHERS CAN SAY ‘GAY’

Florida this week settled a legal challenge to its 2022 law that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools, a measure that critics had dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”

Under the deal, the law remains in place but some of the restrictions that resulted will be lifted.

The agreement clarifies, for example, that students and teachers are allowed to discuss LGBTQ+ issues. In addition, schools don’t have to remove library books that feature LGBTQ+ characters, halt anti-bullying programs that address bullying of LGBTQ+ people, censor valedictorian speeches in which the speaker talks about their gender identity or sexual orientation, or force teachers to remove rainbow flags from classroom doors.