“We’re going to make sure that parents are able to send their kid to kindergarten without some of this stuff injected into their school curriculum,” says DeSantis.
QUICK FACTS:
- Florida’s Republican-led legislature on Tuesday passed a bill forbidding instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, The Associated Press (AP) reports.
- The proposal now moves to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it into law. “We’re going to make sure that parents are able to send their kid to kindergarten without some of this stuff injected into their school curriculum,” the governor said Monday.
- The bill states, “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
- Parents will be able to sue districts over violations if Governor DeSantis passes the legislation.
- Republican Rep. Joe Harding, who sponsored the measure, and other GOP lawmakers in Florida have argued that parents should be broaching these subjects with their children, rather than educators, AP notes.
- It would not bar spontaneous discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools but instead is intended to prevent districts from integrating the subjects into official curriculum, Harding and supporters have said.
- “I know how important it is to empower parents in this relationship. I want to encourage parents across Florida to own it,” said Sen. Dennis Baxley, a Republican who carried the bill in the Senate. “They’re your kids, and it is tough — it’s tough to figure out what influences will be on them and what kinds of decisions they will make and how that all comes out.”
WHAT GAY DEMOCRATS ARE SAYING:
- “This bill, from its introduction, has been used as vehicle [sic] to marginalize and attack LGTBQ people,” said Rep. Carlos G. Smith, a Democrat who is gay, adding that it “sends a terrible message to our youth that there is something wrong with LGBTQ people, that there is something so dangerous or inappropriate about us that we have to be prohibited and censored from the classroom.”
BACKGROUND:
- The proposal is called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by opponents because they argue the bill bumps up against freedom of speech.
- Since its inception, the measure has drawn intense opposition from LGBTQ advocates, students, national Democrats, Biden’s White House and the entertainment industry, AP notes.
- Joe Biden slammed the bill as a “hateful” attack on gay kids last month.
- During a press conference Monday, DeSantis challenged a reporter’s use of the “Don’t Say Gay” title that progressives have assigned to it in his question.
- “Does it say that in the bill? Does it say that in the bill? I’m asking you to tell me what’s in the bill because you are pushing false narratives,” he said.
- The reporter replied that the bill bars classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation, to which DeSantis shot back, “For who? For grades pre-K through 3. So, five-year-olds, six-year-olds, seven-year-olds. The idea that you wouldn’t be honest about that and tell people what it actually says is why people don’t trust people like you.”
