Will doesnt know where they would be today if they didnt have LGBTQ-affirming teachers to support them.

A 17-year-old junior in Florida, Will had a rough start to the year after beginning in-person school last fall. Will is nonbinary, and when they were finally going to get to go to high school with other students, Will said, they felt empowered to dress the way I wanted to, including by wearing makeup.

Classmates didnt embrace their gender expression the way Will had hoped. Someone recorded them walking through the hall and uploaded it to social media with the caption Didnt know this f****t actually existed. Students repeatedly harassed Will in the bathroom and filmed themselves tearing down posters on LGBTQ suicide prevention put up by the schools Queer Student Union.

At a Halloween party, a group of boys surrounded me, called me slurs, told me I was going to hell, and told me they were going to beat me up if I didnt leave, Will said.

The abuse didnt stop even after Will reported it, and they said they turned to substances to cope. I had such a deep hatred for myself, Will said of the period. Queer teens are more likely to have higher rates of self-harm and drug abuse, and Ive been there because of the sheer amount of bullshit.

Will said they broke down crying one day in the classroom of a teacher they often sought out for help. Will expected the teacher to be empathetic but didnt realize they had been through many of the same struggles. That day, Wills teacher came out to them as pansexual and gave them advice about how to deal with the situation as someone who had made it through to the other side.

That moment was life-saving, Will said. Feeling seen by an authority figure, they explained, opened up this light at the end of the tunnel.

A lot of kids are only able to find solace at school, they said. Having teachers and adults that they can turn to when they cant turn to their parents or when theyre going through stuff, for some people, its the only thing keeping them going.

LGBTQ students fear that the passage of Floridas controversial House Bill 1557 will take away some of the few supportive resources they have. Referred to by critics as the Dont Say Gay bill, the legislation seeks to ban classroom instruction on topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity until students enter the fourth grade, according to its text. As widely expected, the bill was signed into law on Monday by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Opponents have taken issue with H.B. 1557 for being overly broad and vague in its wording, and LGBTQ advocates remain unsure how it stands to impact schools. But queer and trans students in Florida predict the newly signed law will make the routine terror they live with every day so much worse.

Many of the LGBTQ youth who spoke with HuffPost, whose last names are being withheld to protect their safety, face overwhelming bullying at school and are struggling to get by as it is. With H.B. 1557 on the books, they worry they will have nowhere to go for help.

Going to school as an openly LGBTQ student already is terrifying with the amount of harassment that we endure daily, said Sebastian, a 17-year-old trans student. This bill is just enabling people to be ignorant, and its letting the ignorant people have all the power. Its going to enable the people who are already harassing us to continue harassing us without repercussions.