We’ve long known that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is no ally to the LGBTQ+ community. This sad reality makes the steady progress of HB 1557 (also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill) all the more concerning. The bill—which seeks to eliminate discussions or acknowledgment of LGBTQ+ people in public school classrooms under the guise of parental consent and appropriateness—passed the Florida House already and is set to finish out in the Florida Senate this week. From there? The governor’s desk.
The bill permits parents to sue the school district if students are encouraged to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom. They’d also be allowed to sue if they find out they were not informed about these topics coming up in the classroom. Of course, in such a sweeping declaration, teachers are likely to avoid these topics—even if it means staying closeted themselves—in order to keep their jobs and avoid being sued. Conservatives can have an easy win, and students (and families) alike will suffer deeply.
DeSantis recently doubled down on his support of the bill at a news conference in Jacksonville, Florida, saying, “How many parents want their kids to have transgenderism or something injected into classroom instruction?” Of course, this is a bad faith presentation of what’s happening—explaining how someone can use different pronouns or a different bathroom, for example, is not injecting “transgenderism” into kids. It’s just giving honest, age-appropriate, inclusive explanations. It’s fine!
"It's basically saying for our younger students, do you really want them being taught about sex?” DeSantis continued at the press conference, as reported by CBS Miami. “And this is any sexual stuff. But I think clearly right now, we see a focus on transgenderism, telling kids they may be able to pick genders and all of that."
Again, there’s nothing inherently sexual about LGBTQ+ issues. Whether it’s about attraction or identity, it’s not rooted in sexuality or sexual acts any more than heterosexuality is. Conservatives have long framed queerness as overtly, ceaselessly sexual, but that’s just framing, not reality. And when applied to school or children, anything inherently sexual (of course) is a problem, inappropriate, and frankly, horrifying. Republicans want the average person—and maybe even some allies—to agree LGBTQ+ issues are innately sexual and therefore inappropriate. That’s erasure, not protecting kids.
In the big picture, this framing ties in perfectly with the conservative angle that queer people are predatory, and that children (and adults, for that matter) need some kind of protection from knowing that LGBTQ+ people even exist. For LGBTQ+ youth (or teachers, counselors, janitorial staff, etc.), having to be “hidden” can be deeply harmful, confusing, and isolating. Add that on top of bullying, possibly having an unsupportive family at home, and worries about being outed, and it’s easy to see how deeply damaging this is on an emotional level.
And this isn’t just intellectual hyperbole, either. Press Secretary Christina Pushaw, who works for DeSantis, fired off a tweet on Sunday that backs this analysis pretty neatly.
“The bill that liberals inaccurately call 'Don’t Say Gay' would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill,” Pushaw wrote. “If you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn’t make the rules.”
And there it is: grooming. Conservatives present anyone who so much as discusses LGBTQ+ issues as being a predator and “grooming” children. It’s presented as child abuse, manipulation, and criminal. Meanwhile, teachers in heterosexual marriages can have framed photos of their wedding or reference their spouse without issue. It’s only grooming when it’s not cisgender and straight, apparently.
Youth shouldn’t have to protest to defend their basic rights, but they’re stepping up to the challenge. We saw a number of high schoolers in the state stage walkout protests against the bill.
High school senior Jack Petocz, for example, told NBC News that he was removed from school grounds and suspended indefinitely after passing out Pride flags during a school-approved demonstration against the legislation.
Petocz told the outlet he feels it’s an attempt to “threaten” him. “You’re silencing a queer student standing up for what he believes in, in his rights, and you’re disciplining him for challenging you on the allowance of pride flags in a gay rally?” He told the outlet. “It’s ridiculous. It truly is.”
The 17-year-old is right: It is ridiculous. And every adult needs to do better to protect vulnerable youth, and that includes rallying, organizing, and voting whenever we can.