A House Republican on Tuesday filed a proposal that would bar instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity through eighth grade, expanding a controversial 2022 law that prohibited such instruction in early grades.
The eight-page bill (HB 1223) also would prevent school employees from telling students their preferred pronouns if those pronouns “do not correspond to his or her sex” or asking students about their preferred pronouns.
Rep. Adam Anderson, R-Palm Harbor, filed the bill for consideration during the legislative session that will start March 7. The 2022 law prohibited instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and required it to be “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” in in higher grades. Under Anderson’s bill, the “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” test would continue to apply in ninth through 12th grades.
The 2022 law drew national debate, as supporters said it would help protect students and opponents disparagingly gave it the moniker “don’t say gay.” Anderson’s bill would go beyond the instruction issues to address personal pronouns. The bill says that it “shall be the policy” of all public-schools “that a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”
The LGBTQ-advocacy organization Equality Florida quickly criticized the proposal and said the 2022 law was part of a “censorship agenda” driven by Gov. Ron DeSantis. “The DeSantis regime isn’t satisfied with a hostile takeover of traditional public schools. They envision a future where LGBTQ families have no school choice to find dignity or respect,” Jon Harris Maurer, Equality Florida’s public policy director, said in a statement.
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Jackson1955 says
The cultural identity of the rural MAGA base is rooted in racism & religiosity. There is no easier way for a would-be political charlatan to gain access to the uppercrust gravy train than to pander to the prejudices of America’s social underclass, get elected, & become a useful Congressional lackey to the country’s financial elites by supporting an economic agenda that will invariably impoverish their own constituents. But they won’t even notice that they’re being taken to the cleaners as long as women are being forced to bear children, men are being forced to wear trousers & Jesus is replacing CRT in the classroom. The alternative spelling of G🤡P is RICO, & sacrificing their consciences to the gods of wealth & status is the price that Repub pols must pay to play. But in the grand scheme of things, talk is cheap & the rewards are great.
Skibum says
Deathsantis and the FL legislature have made a remarkable discovery. They have concluded that the majority of this state’s citizens share the same physiological traits as frogs. You know… when you put a frog in a pan of cold water and slowly heat the water to boiling, the frog never gets the message that it is being boiled to death, so it just floats in the pan until it is dead. The gov and his cronies in Tallahassee started slowly with trial balloons of dystopian legislation, and when they received no significant backlash from voters who keep returning them to positions of power, over time they have turned up the heat here in the “freedom state”, passing more and more draconian laws outlawing its citizens’ rights to assemble and protest, outlawing the ability of school students to be able to decide which books to read, making it illegal for non-heterosexual students to have a say so regarding their own names they wish to be referred to, enhancing voter suppression efforts by allowing county elections officials to issue voter registration cards and then sending state police officers to homes to arrest and charge those very same voters with bogus election fraud crimes, brainwashing its citizenry into believing that any thoughts or beliefs which do not fall into line with the Official State sanctioned ideology is therefore “woke” and needs to be struck down, and overturning decades of Disney’s self-governing district simply because Mickey Mouse Inc. had the gall to stand up for same sex rights, which are federally protected. Now the legislature is promoting “Don’t Say Gay 2.0”, and after that, will they start incarcerating (or even worse – executing) those FL citizens who they believe are gay? Folks, this crap has gone on far too long, and we have unwittingly allowed it by being nothing more than frogs with the state’s heat simmering under our asses, slowly and systematically killing us, killing democracy and freedom in this state of ours. We ALL need to jump out before that happens, stand up to this Hitleresque propaganda and systematic elimination of diversity of thought/opinion/political persuasion before we end up just like the frogs who didn’t comprehend the ultimate goal was the elimination of their entire existence.
Deborah Coffey says
Sure, the more hate and bigotry the better! Gotta feed those MAGAt flames.
Disgusted says
https://twitter.com/colbertlateshow/status/1630760004440453120?s=46&t=7_HrH3BSzHcapwIbFy1mLA
OMG- where do we live and who are these people? says
This is so dumb and embarrassing! With more and more kids tuning into porn at earlier and earlier ages, without proper education and discussion, they go on to have life long issues and don’t know what a healthy sexual relationship looks like. Boys are strangling girls and having violent sex at young ages because that’s what they see in the readily available and easily accessible porn videos just a click away. To actually protect children, we need to start teaching sex ed in kindergarten. Parents can’t be trusted…the same parents claiming to want to “protect children” and ban books are, very often, the same ones molesting them. Anytime I hear parents who want to ban books and support bills like this, I immediately get suspicious – huge red flags. Same with all the homophobic legislation and pushes- so many closeted people. Really sad.
“The major finding of the research is that comprehensive sex education scaffolded across grades, embedded in supportive school environments and across subject areas, can improve sexual, social and emotional health, as well as academic outcomes for young people”
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/12/1121999705/sex-education-school-kindergarten
Laurel says
Here we go again, with Republicans Rep. Adam Anderson and Governor Ron DeSantis obsessively focused on sex and their constituent’s genitals. Aren’t there other Florida issues to focus on? Today’s Republicans sure are OCD strange!
Thurston Howel III says
We do NOT want ‘Gay’ talk or discussions in our kids schools. Period! It has no place there.
Pierre Tristam says
Why not just eliminate discussions altogether? Just lectures out of McGuffey Readers, and beatings. And prayers of course. The good, good old days.