Ten New York Republican Senators have introduced the Safe Schools for All Students Act — a bill that would implement measures that would to protect students from anti-gay bullying. The bill, a version of which has been repeatedly passed in the New York Assembly by Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, would provide training to help teachers identify and respond to bullying and places the responsibility of keeping tack on bullying cases with schools.

The bill also includes protection for transgender students and teachers and a cyber-bullying stipulation, but does not allow parents to sue.

While the New York chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans has received praise in lobbying for the bill, Democrats are skeptical about Republicans’ commitment to the bill.

Gay City News reports:

However, key Assembly Democrats – including Speaker Sheldon Silver and Daniel O’Donnell, lead sponsor of a similar measure repeatedly passed in that chamber – voiced strong doubts this week that any new law will result this year, with O’Donnell asking whether the GOP is a “willing partner or a flirting partner” on getting the bill done.

And the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the nation’s leading advocacy group for the rights and protections of LGBT students, is similarly dubious.

“It’s like the new ‘X-Files’ movie,” said Kevin Jennings, GLSEN’s executive director. “I want to believe. But there’s an element of it that feels like a death-bed conversion that would make them seem more friendly than they’ve been for the last eight years.”

In Jennings’ view, the test is not introducing the bill, or even passing the Senate version promptly, but rather working out differences with the Democratic-controlled Assembly version in time to have the bill signed by Governor David Paterson prior to the November elections.

“If they just pass it next week, and it goes no further, I will know they found the switch but have not seen the light,” Jennings said. “I know what election-year posturing looks like. They know that the intolerance they’ve propagated for years doesn’t sell in New York State anymore.”