Perhaps one of the scariest (for conservatives) predictions made about marriage equality pre-Obergefell was that children would be taught that it exists. And were still litigating that fear today.An ad that got a lot of attention in the 2000s was in support of Californias 2008 ballot measure, Prop 8, to ban same-sex marriage. The ad, entitled Its already happened, showed a little girl telling her mother: Mom, guess what I learned in school today! I learned how a prince married a prince, and I can marry a princess! Related Major evangelical predicted that marriage equality would cause fathers to marry their daughters Two decades ago, people believed that marriage equality would erase all taboos around sexuality. It didnt happen. A bald man in a boxy suit appeared and said, Think it cant happen? Its already happened. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today Some elementary schools have acquired books depicting families with same-sex couples, middle schools have taught students not to use anti-gay slurs, and high schools have sanctioned gay-straight alliance clubs, NBC News wrote in an article about the ad at the time. And school districts have been found liable for not taking steps to prevent anti-gay harassment.Horrifying!For LGBTQ Nations June Issue about the 10th anniversary of the Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized marriage equality in all 50 states, were looking back at some of the predictions conservatives made about marriage equality before it was legalized. Most of them didnt come true. Letting same-sex couples marry didnt result in legalized father-daughter marriages. Pastors werent thrown in jail for refusing to officiate weddings for same-sex couples. Same-sex marriage didnt cause straight couples to get divorced because their marriages werent special anymore, and it didnt encourage people to marry animals. But this one seems especially relevant in light of a recent Supreme Court decision, the one in Mahmoud v. Taylor from just this past June, where the Court ruled in favor of a group of parents who didnt want their kids to read books with LGBTQ+ characters.The decision, which was supported by the six Republican-appointed justices and opposed by the three Democratic-appointed justices, said that parents had a right to opt their kids out of reading books with LGBTQ+ characters because such books unmistakably convey a particular viewpoint about same-sex marriage and gender, Justice Samuel Alito wrote. The ruling follows several states that passed laws banning teachers from discussing LGBTQ+ people in class and banning libraries from stocking books that include LGBTQ+ characters.In the dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote about the importance of learning that different kinds of people exist. Casting aside longstanding precedent, the Court invents a constitutional right to avoid exposure to subtle themes contrary to the religious principles that parents wish to instill in their children, she wrote. Exposing students to the message that LGBTQ people exist, and that their loved ones may celebrate their marriages and life events, the majority says, is enough to trigger the most demanding form of judicial scrutiny.Of course, thats not really dealing with the issue at hand, probably because many people cant even fathom what the real issue is. After all, its only being discussed indirectly, in subtext. LGBTQ+ people exist, kids are going to learn about them one day, why not learn about them in school? How does learning about two men or two women marrying present a particular viewpoint any more than learning that any other thing exists presents a controversial viewpoint? Theres no other minority group that conservatives believe parents have a right to prevent their kids from hearing about.But the important thing in the Prop 8 ad isnt that the little girl read a book about a prince marrying a prince, its what she says right after, that she learned that I can marry a princess. That is, the book turned her gay.That might seem absurd to a lot of readers of this website that there are still American adults who believe that books can turn kids gay, but surveys show that its not even a particularly rare belief. Thirty-eight percent of Americans, a Gallup Poll from this past May found, believe that being gay is entirely caused by ones upbringing and environment, and another eight percent believe that its at least partly caused by upbringing and environment. Those are the same numbers that Gallup found in 2008 they havent changed in nearly two decades.This belief has to do with how conservatives cant really understand that gay and bi people are different people with different identities and desires from straight people. They instead believe that everyone is pretty much the same and that some people, for whatever reason, just decide to have a relationship with someone of the same sex. Its a fundamental lack of imagination, an inability to understand that other people might have completely different experiences that theyre not familiar with. In that sense, the issue of marriage equality was never about the institution of marriage per se. It was always about how much respect LGBTQ+ people should get. Peoples support for same-sex marriage was largely based on how OK they were with the fact that gay people exist. Marriage itself is about honoring and celebrating the relationships that people form, making them concrete under the law and granting them certain rights that other relationships do not receive. Its about getting respect from others and recognition from society, as represented by the government.And if the state shows that kind of respect to gay people, then conservatives wonder whats to stop kids from turning gay? Justice Alito said that allowing gay people to get married is itself a viewpoint for this reason: It shows that society values same-sex and opposite-sex relationships the same, and people often look to society in general when forming their own opinions on who belongs in society and who doesnt. Did this prediction come true? That schools would be more likely to teach about gay people if theyre treated more equally under the law? In the most direct sense, yes. Seven states have passed laws requiring schools to include affirming representations of LGBTQ+ people in some form. School districts in other states have decided to teach kids about LGBTQ+ people as a way to fight anti-queer bullying. And its a topic that likely comes up in many classrooms as kids raised by same-sex couples talk about their families or LGBTQ+ teachers mention their spouses.But the real prediction, the subtext that kids will turn gay because marriage equality was legalized simply cant come true because thats not how being gay works.On the other hand, more people have been coming out in recent years because of increasing acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, and anti-LGBTQ+ advocates dont draw many distinctions between fewer people being LGBTQ+ and fewer people feeling safe enough to say that theyre LGBTQ+.Perhaps the little girl in the Prop 8 ad was gay, and reading that book made her realize that she didnt have to hate herself, that she could live a happy life with a princess one day. If thats the case, then its good that California eventually legalized same-sex marriage so she had the opportunity to read that book.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.