In a depressing turn of events, Florida state legislators voted on Thursday to pass House Bill 1557, the Parental Rights in Education bill—more commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, as reported by NBC News. The bill passed 69-41 in a full floor vote, with most votes falling within partisan lines. From here, this deeply dangerous bill goes to the Florida Senate. If it passes in both chambers, it goes to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for final approval. While DeSantis could veto the bill, based on his history of anti-trans legislation, it feels much more likely he will sign the legislation into law.
The bill seeks to forbid any classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary school (which includes grades from kindergarten through third) or when not developmentally appropriate, which is intentionally vague. For obvious reasons, this is not only discriminatory, hateful legislation, but it’s also not practical—what about kids who have parents in a same-sex marriage? What about students who live with siblings who are openly trans? What about teachers or coaches who are openly queer? The bill is impractical, but to conservatives, that doesn’t really matter—the real goal is getting LGBTQ+ people to disappear.
If you’re thinking: Wait a minute, I thought we just had good news about this bill? You’re right—sort of. An amendment pushed by bill sponsor Republican Rep. Joe Harding was recently withdrawn. This amendment sought to mandate that school districts “out” LGBTQ+ students to their parents within six weeks, even if there was a risk of abuse or neglect at home as a result. After much outrage, Harding withdrew that aspect of the amendment. But that’s it. Harding is no hero.
Parents would be able to take legal action against schools if the bill becomes law and districts are found having these discussions in the classroom anyway. Ultimately, already marginalized LGBTQ+ youth are going to feel further isolated and excluded if this bill becomes law. Parents and teachers are going to have even more stress during an already stressful period during a global pandemic.
Young people are going to learn that there is something innately inappropriate or predatory about being LGBTQ+, effectively taking cultural and societal advances in understanding queerness amnd setting them back by decades.
Thankfully, not everyone was on board with this hateful legislation. “I’m going to vote down on this bill,” state Democratic Rep. Michael Grieco said on Thursday. “And I am going to say ‘gay’ until I am rainbow in the face.”
During remarks on Feb. 24, state Rep. Carlos Smith (the first openly LGBTQ+ Latino legislator in Florida) said the bill sends a “terrible message” to youth when it’s presented as “so wrong, so inappropriate, so dangerous” that LGBTQ+ people and stories need to be censored from the classroom. He (correctly) stressed that identity is not “an act,” but an “entire community of people.”
Florida Republicans also passed House Bill 7, the “Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees” Act (also known as the Stop WOKE Act). For those who aren’t familiar with this particular brand of conservative hate, this bill would ban classroom discussions that could make students feel uncomfortable or responsible for history in terms of their race, color, sex, or origin. In practice, this would be used to stop schools from teaching things like slavery, Jim Crow, and so on. This bill would also ban discussions about gender identity.
Similar to the anti-LGBTQ+ discussion bill, this one also allows parents to sue if schools provide these lessons anyway. This bill now heads to the Senate.
At the end of the day, “parental rights” rhetoric is dangerous. It’s the same logic being applied to pulling books from public libraries and classrooms. To keep youth from getting sex ed while at school. To keep young people from learning real history. In all of these various applications, it’s about dismantling intellectualism and education in order to keep people learning whitewashed—and inaccurate—history.