Challenger’s to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law aren’t giving up so easily.
In late September, a federal judge rejected a suit seeking to block the new law, ruling the plaintiffs–a group of LGBTQ parents and teachers–did not have legal standing in their case. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor found that the plaintiffs failed to show a direct link between enforcement of the law and “the resulting harm.” The defendants are the State Board of Education, the Florida Department of Education and the school boards in Broward, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Orange, and Pasco counties.
“The principal problem is that most of plaintiffs’ alleged harm is not plausibly tied to the law’s enforcement so much as the law’s very existence,” Winsor wrote in his decision. “Plaintiffs contend the law’s passage, the sentiment behind it, the legislators’ motivation, and the message the law conveys all cause them harm. But no injunction can unwind any of that.”
Related: 16 states just turned to Ron DeSantis and said “GAY GAY GAY”
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Winsor also said the plaintiffs could file a revised lawsuit, and file it they did.
The new challenge argues plaintiffs have experienced “concrete harms” from the Parental Rights in Education law, which restricts classroom conversations about LGBTQ subjects in grades K-3, and leaves open a vague door to limit topics for older students if they’re deemed “not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate.” The law was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March, and went into effect July 1.
“They have been denied equal educational opportunities they would like to receive, in the curriculum and beyond, and they have been subjected to a discriminatory educational environment that treats LGBTQ people and issues as something to be shunned and avoided, on pain of discipline and liability,” the lawsuit said. “This type of overtly discriminatory treatment has no place in a free democratic society and should not be permitted to stand.”
The revised suit aims to solve the issue of legal standing by connecting specific examples of harm to the law, like when the Miami-Dade County School Board voted to reject a resolution to observe October as LGBTQ History Month. Last year, the district voted 7 to 1 in favor of a similar proposal, but fearing it would violate the new law, every board member but one voted against it in September.
Related: Florida’s biggest school district decides recognizing LGBTQ history is illegal now
Other examples include a student who was unable to find a teacher to sponsor the Gay-Straight Alliance at a Manatee County school, and Broward County schools’ removal of LGBTQ-related books from their libraries.
The suit also brings up the Florida Board of Education’s new rule that says any K-3 teacher who is found to have taught their students about LGBTQ issues can have their licenses suspended or revoked.
“The intended impact of this law is apparent,” the lawsuit added. “It seeks to undo the equal inclusion of LGBTQ people and issues in Florida’s schools and to impede policies requiring equal treatment and support of LGBTQ students. Presented with vague prohibitions under the threat of litigation, schools and educators have been and will be chilled from discussing or even referencing LGBTQ people, and LGBTQ students have been and will be stigmatized, ostracized, and denied the educational opportunities that their non-LGBTQ peers receive.”
A separate suit challenging the law brought by LGBTQ students, parents and their families–as well as several civil rights groups–was also dismissed by U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger on October 20. Berger, a Trump appointee, brushed off the increased level of anti-LGBTQ bullying, as “bullying as ‘a fact of life.’”
The deadline for those plaintiffs to file a revised suit is this Thursday.
ZzBomb
Right wing “logic” and narrative:
“We’re free speech absolutionists! Except you can’t say gay, pregnant people, he, his, she, hers, they, them, jesus never existed, separation of church and state, President Biden, insurrection, Indigenous People’s Day, George Floyd, free school lunches, systemic racism, police brutality (only if the police are beating black people), Hitler was evil, unisex bathrooms…..”
Kangol2
Don’t forget “Slavery,” “racism,” “White supremacy,” “mass slaughter of Indigenous people,” “settler colonialism,” “extractive colonialism,” “neo-imperialism,” “segregation,” “slaveocracy,” “the Confederacy was an act of treason,” “the Confederacy was based on a premise of maintaining slavery and White supremacy and lost the Civil War,” “secession,” “racial exclusion,” “sundown towns,” “racist violence,” “Tulsa Massacre,” “lynching,” “anti-gay violence,” “gay-bashing,” “structural racism,” “transgenderism,” and so much more!
James
I HATE RON DE SATANIS. THE MAN IS ADOLPH HITLER.
anderson69
How about just saying the law is discriminatory?