Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law goes into effect July 1, and fears about the law’s vague language appear to be fully justified.
Signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March, HB 1557 known officially as the ‘Parental Rights in Education’ bill bans the discussion of LGBTQ topics mainly at the primary grade level. Many advocates have blasted it for the harm it might cause LGBTQ kids. President Joe Biden slammed it as “hateful.”
Now teachers in Orange County, FL are reporting they’ve been told to scrape off rainbow stickers from classrooms, and remove photos of their families from their desks if they have a same-sex spouse.
Related: Florida teen goes viral educating history teacher on Stonewall. Now the school is “investigating.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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They’ve also been instructed to report if a student comes out as LGBTQ, according to a local teachers’ organization.
Following a meeting between the school district and attorneys last week to discuss “what behaviors would and would not be legal” under the law, the Orange County Teachers’ Association (CTA) was given the troubling new guidelines, which further prevent educators from wearing rainbows on their clothing and even discussing their same-sex partners.
Signage indicating a classroom is a “safe space” for LGBTQ students is to be taken down, and “teachers will have to report to parents if a student ‘comes out’ to them and they must use pronouns assigned at birth, regardless of what the parents allow,” the CTA reported.
“It will be alarming if our district chooses to interpret this law in the most extreme way,” CTA President-Elect Clinton McCracken told local news station WFTV. “We want them to protect student privacy. We want them to make sure that they’re creating and helping to create safe classrooms. We believe our school board supports that.”
Mario
Hooray for parental rights!
Munungo
Definitely a victory for ignorance, increased suicide rates, and homophobes! By all means, celebrate! ?
Bosch
School is supposed to protect children, not bigoted uneducated moron parents.
Bosch
Silly me, trying to reason with you.
I’ll try again.
I’m sorry you’re so dissatisfied with life, and that you have fetish for the people who hate you. I hope you find happiness one day, and lose the urge to spread your unhappiness to other people.
Ps you’re stupid.
Cam
When the same old right wing troll is so bad at it’s job it can’t even bother to pretend to be LGBTQ I know we’ve defeated it.
Your trolling is sad and weak. But you trying to hide the word “Bigotry” behind “Parental Rights” didn’t work for the Mormons during Prop 8 and you are so bad at this you couldn’t come up with something better?
DarkZephyr
@Bosch
I don’t think Mario’s gay or in any way LGBT.
Bosch
@DarkZephyr
Youre undoubtedly right, but it’s a paradox. He sure as hell doesn’t identify as lgbt, yet he comes here to surround himself with gay men who take turns verbally abusing him, day after day. Maybe it’s the closest he can get to feeling loved.
kevin57
Ummm…Mario…did you even bother to read the article? Teachers must use pronouns assigned at birth “regardless of what the parents allow,” How does that sound like “parental rights”?
MichaelSD
Interesting. Those same parental rights that were deemed protected under the 14th amendment due process clause which, among other things gave us a right to privacy, the right to control our bodies, marriage rights, and many others. Those rights were all called into question in Dobbs (overturning Roe v Wade). So do you ACTUALLY have the right to control what your children learn, or is the state in charge now?
JanDivine
This bypasses parental rights. Teachers are required to ignore how the parents feel for the sake of the religious right.
Sanjo
If the parent of a trans child wants the child to be called by their new name and gender, how is this supporting parental rights?
If an outed child kills themselves, how does that support parental rights?
If an outed child runs away and end up on the street, selling themselves to survive, how does that support parental rights?
If a gay teacher is fired and all the school can do is put minimally trained substitutes in the classroom for a semester, how does that support parental rights?
mailliw110
Says the person who was born under a rock.
RyGuy
For a party who wants to limit government control, they sure do know how to lean on the government and litigation in order to control Americans…
Al
Almost every white parent in the 1950’s South supported Jim Crow laws and segregation. SHould we shout ‘Hooray’ for THOSE parental rights?
Mario
It was the Democrats who ran everything in the 1950s South. It was also the Democrats who supported slavery, enacted the Jim Crow laws, and created racial segregation.
cheks
You avoid answering the question, Mario. Who cares who enacted the laws. We aren’t all sheep like you who blindly follow a political party. Answer the question. Would you be happy for parents rights to keep schools segregated?
Bosch
“It was also the Democrats who supported slavery, enacted the Jim Crow laws, and created racial segregation.”
We know that the democrats were the racist, conservative southerners back then. Don’t you know that? Isn’t that common knowledge? Are you just pretending to be American?
Kangol2
Mario, Mario, it was White Southern Democrats in the South who are now mostly White Southern RepubliQans in the South. And many White RepubliQans in the North, beginning with Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, who often aided and abetted those same White Southern Democrats. Your point is?
Robothedestroyer
@Mario I’m tired. Please at least come up with a good argument for whatever cause you’re championing right now.
bowlingbutch
the Republicans are bullies. Instead of making the classroom safe and having students with same sex parents feel as if they belong, they choose instead to make these students feel shame. It seems they want students who have same sex parents to commit suicide. Makes you wonder how they treat friends and children they know. Obviously, these adult bullies were bullies in school and instead of making people feel inclusive they want to make others feel less than
Bosch
I wonder what Mario’s next name is gonna be.
The real Bruce
Bosch and everyone: Just ignore Mario. Don’t acknowledge his even being alive! He/it just wants attention. Give it to him and his next screen name might be SuperMario. Just wither away and die, loser!
Bosch
I know we should ignore it, but I very much enjoy watching it get frustrated.
Brian
Every single comment is so f-ing weird! Never a comment with substance. Never a comment that makes you pause and consider something. Never a new perspective or interesting anecdote or additional source/cite to read. Yet he seems so proud.
Bosch
We should take a shot of tequila every time he brings up Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Den
“Yet he seems so proud. ”
That’s because idiots like him are too impaired to know how stupid they are. Very common with right wingers.
jax florida
We hear a lot about parental rights and that is understandable, but despite not having children in school, I do pay part of the cost and think I should have a say in this also. I also think this is driven by a small number of loud parents that are following a Republican party organizing and fundraising tool.
Bosch
Its not really about parental rights of course, it’s just about punishing gay people, “lefties”, atheists, educators…
They hate gay people. Which is weird, because they looooove gay sex.
Kangol2
I hear you, Jax, but the fact is, these RepubliQans don’t give a d@mn about taxpayers like you. They also don’t believe in free speech or any of the other things they love to profess. They are all about canceling ideas and people they disagree with. Along with forcing women to bear children, denying people of color access to voting, creating a grossly economically unequal society, and worse. And when they hold the presidency, they really show how irresponsible they are with your tax dollars!
Sanjo
Every taxpayer has that right!
GregR
Yet how many gay men will go spend their tourism dollars in Key West? I normally think these boycotts don’t do a lot but I think now the only way to fight back is to harm these states economically by withdrawing our tourism dollars and not buying their products. Not sure what the abortion law is in Florida as of this minute but I’m sure very soon if a pregnant woman is visiting Disney World and has a crisis, you could be putting her life on her line because she can’t have an emergency abortion or have some partisan panel deciding for her what is life-threatening. In this same vein: I would not flock to a state which would gleefully take my rights away. Yes, some good people get hurt by that but I for one will have no relationship at all with these retrograde states to the very best of my ability.
Cam
Boycotts absolutely work. Target stopped funding right wing extremists and dumped their CEO after a Boycott, Disney’s CEO recently went from talking regularly to DeSantis to loudly opposing the Don’t Say Gay bill because of the threat of a boycott, Chick Fil Et has been kept out of several areas due to backlash, Smaller shops like Taylor Gormet in DC and Chicago shut down after the owner had a meeting with Trump and customers stayed away, Boycotting businesses owned by the Sultan of Brunei made the country retract it’s death penalty for sodomy, etc…..
Ste211
Absolutely! There are many places that are just as good (or better) where they appreciate more than just your money.
The real Bruce
I love the idea! A no-go to Florida for a season or maybe two, might make the state wake up finally and do decent. Sorry Key West. I haven’t been there in years, but I remember it being beautiful and friendly. Come to California, another sunshine state and have fun.
RKthegay
I would disagree with boycotting simply because gays staying away is exactly what those people want. If anything, I would say increase our visibility.
JRamonMc
Schools are no longer a safe place both physically and emotionally. We have tied our educator’s hands in teaching love, empathy and acceptance. Not to mention paying them next to nothing to risk their lives and lively hood if the wrong thing comes out of their mouths.
GayVeteranOfcr
Teachers should react by never talking about sexual things at all.
Just say “The Governor said that it is illegal to talk about this in school.”
and leave it at that with no further explanation.
Answer every question that asks about marriage and so forth with “It’s not permitted to talk about in school.”
Go overboard and censor all talk of any kind.
Equal treatment: if saying gay is not allowed, then neither is saying other sexual practices.
Would that be illegal? No, as not talking about any similar matters avoids all the problems. As to having to inform parents if a child reveals his or her orientation to the teacher, fall back on the defense that you’re no psychologist, so you cannot say if the child said something that should be reported. After all, claiming ignorance is tradition for Republicans.
Jer
And the Republicans will just love it. They never wanted sex to exist in the first place. Children were found under a leaf in the cabbage patch.
Sanjo
Gender isn’t just queer gender. Male, female, men, women, girls, boys. These terms should all be off limits. Having a picture of a straight spouse is “discussing” sexuality. Pictures of one’s biological children demonstrates a sex act.
Raphael Klarfeld
Until the law is thwarted in some way, how about simply using another word for gay like the young high schooler who gave the graduation speech without saying the word gay by using another word in his case “curly”? Let’s just use “curly or curls” for the word “gay” until we can get this DeSantis Law repealed?Boycotts do work. Do it.
white-queer-african
@Mario sounds just like someone we know with 14 screennames at the last count. Is this screenname number 15 Mario?
Oh just FO and die anyway.
JimmyG
It’s interesting that prayer and religion can be discussed in school though. No matter the family’s religious beliefs you can be sure that what their child will be exposed to will be Judeo-Christian teachings. I think this goes much farther in “grooming” than mentioning one’s same sex partner/spouse.
Always plenty of hypocrisy with the far right.
Terrycloth
Pulling your child out of school and having them home schooled won’t do much good either .they are probably montored to death .boycotting products and not spending your dollars in state will help..remember we boycotted the orange juice Anita Bryant was a spokes person for. It blew up on her ..the sales dropped for the.juice .she lost her position..her crusade against gays didn’t stand a chance
gregg2010
And this is just the beginning of anti-LGBT legislation. Mark my words, the Republicans have a plan, and it doesn’t include us. It’s starting now, and it will only get much worse after the 2024 Presidential election.
Anand
I am gay. I am 66 years old. And, frankly, I don’t think that children in kindergarten to the 3rd grade need to be told about gay life. As a child, when I saw “Dick & Jane” books, I never thought that running up a hill to fetch a pail of water was going to involve anything sexual at all! I didn’t know what sex was. I think the internet and social media has robbed young children of their innocence completely. Learning about same sex marriage, gay people and transgender issues in 4th grade and beyond seems just fine to me.
Bosch
No one is trying to teach children about sex. What gives you that idea?
The fact that some men have husbands and some women have wives is not something shameful or perverted that needs to be hidden from children. And most importantly, the last thing we want is to make little gay boys and little lesbian girls feel like they are something shameful that can’t be spoken about.
Brian
No one is talking about actual sexual intercourse with K-3 grades. And acknowledging the existence of gay people (or having a photo of your family on your desk, etc.) does not teach children what sex is.
You’re falling for the reductive crap that Republicans have been peddling. Bigots say that gay people are inherently more sexual — that just the mere existence of a gay person is more sexual than the existence of a straight person. That’s false.
Kids in my third grade class were already using the anti-gay f-word slur. A teacher should be able to say why that word is inappropriate and mean.
Mario
Anand: You are a wise person.
gaym50ish
Being told about “gay life” is no more sexual than the Cinderella story, and it’s not harmful to little kids. It’s just an acknowledgement of real-world relationships, and it’s cruel to try to shield kids from the fact that some boys like boys and some girls like girls.
Bosch
Hahahaha Mario pretending he can recognise wisdom.
Den
Actually “Mario” his is at best slightly brighter than you, but no less disingenuous (look it up if you know how to use a dictionary, child).
RickHeathen
I went to school in East Tennessee, and because no one ever told my peers in second grade that it’s normal for some people to be gay and there’s nothing wrong with it, I was bullied in school for being gay for over a decade. If they had any messages that being gay was normal for some people, that might have been reduced.
What the Republicans want is for no one it contradict their anti-LGBTQ narrative.
RKthegay
I agree to an extent. However, what about the kids who want to know why their friend has two mom’s or dad’s. There needs to be a way to explain that’s not sexual. Simply ignoring it isn’t the answer.
canadiankid
It’s so sad what’s happening there. Straight teachers can share stories about their partners but not gay teachers. Makes no sense. What a backwards country.
BigE
Since the law prohibits any discussion and display of sexuality in the lower grades, any family pictures would be inappropriate for this age level. I can’t think of a single US State that assigns PRONOUNS at birth. There are none listed on my birth certificate. Since “they” and “them” are both singular and plural, it would be the most appropriate pronoun for everyone.
gaym50ish
“They” and “them” are NOT both singular and plural to any grammarian, and their use as singular pronouns only leads to muddied and confusing communication. If you don’t overdue it, their is nothing wrong with using “him or her” when you’re not referring to a specific person. Good writers get around the problem in various ways, not by being ungrammatical.
Kangol2
gaym50ish, if you are going to critique grammar, please at least use it correctly yourself. We all make typos, but “overdue” for “overdo” and “their” for “there” sort of undercut your argument. Additionally, they and them can be singular and plural to grammarians.
From the Oxford Dictionaries online:
THEY
2. singular Used to refer to a person of unspecified gender.
‘ask someone if they could help’
2.1 Used to refer to a person whose gender identity does not correspond to the traditional binary opposition of male and female.
And:
“The word they (with its counterparts them, their, and themselves) as a singular pronoun to refer to a person of unspecified gender has been used since at least the 14th century. In the late 20th century, as the traditional use of he to refer to a person of either sex came under scrutiny on the grounds of sexism, this use of they has become more common. It is now generally accepted in contexts where it follows an indefinite pronoun such as anyone, no one, someone, or a person: anyone can join if they are a resident; each to their own. In other contexts, coming after singular nouns, the use of they is now common, although less widely accepted, especially in formal contexts. Sentences such as ask a friend if they could help are still criticized for being ungrammatical. Nevertheless, in view of the growing acceptance of they and its obvious practical advantages, they is used in this dictionary in many cases where he would have been used formerly. See also he and she.”
mailliw110
Thanks Kangol2 for the English lesson for gaym50ish. I’m sure he will take it to heart (if “they” have one). I’m now wondering if my English teacher I had back in the 70’s would go along with your post. I’m hoping she would have. I have a feeling gaym50ish won’t though.
gaym50ish
Teaching that some boys like boys and some girls like girls is not harmful to kids at any age. They will accept it as normal if their parents do. This new law simply caters to homophobic parents.
RickHeathen
What’s up with Queerty moderating my posts? There’s no reason. You did this with another of my posts elsewhere when there was no reason to, and you deleted it. Why?
Den
When you edit a post it becomes “held for moderation” forever.
inbama
As Den says, plus it does seem like there are trigger words or points off view that will cause a post to be moderated. Oddly, Mario, who is either a Republican plant, Russian bot or just a demented gay-hating troll, seems to have no problems.
RickHeathen
Thanks Den, I had no idea of this little secret. It’s been driving me nuts.
Reinhart1
You CAN’T fix stupid.
CityguyUSA
And people want to elect that president?
RKthegay
If teachers are not allowed to display pictures of same sex partners, but straights can, I detect discrimination lawsuits in the future.
GreekKeys
DeSantis will be president because of this one issue. Looks like sending drag queens into grammar schools to tell boys they’re girls isn’t working out so well.