Florida approves controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law in political win for DeSantis

The contentious bill also incited outrage among LGBTQ supporters across the nation, including President Joe Biden.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature handed Gov. Ron DeSantis a major political win ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, approving a controversial measure dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by opponents that bars educators from discussing sexual orientation with young students.

Republicans pushed the legislation for months, claiming it strengthens parental rights in Florida by preventing teachers and school staffers from withholding critical information from parents, namely surrounding gender issues. DeSantis, who has defended the measure publicly, frequently accused the media and others of misconstruing the true intent of the bill to stoke tensions. At one point, his press secretary called opponents of the measure “groomers.”

But Democrats and LGBTQ+ supporters, including President Joe Biden, say the proposal represents a broader attack on the LGBTQ+ community, one that would kindle heightened stigma for marginalized students, possibly leading to bullying and even suicides. Students and allies frequently rallied against the bill in Tallahassee, and on Monday students across Florida walked out of school in protest.

“This is a direct attack on Florida’s LGBTQ+ community, and that is not okay,” state Sen. Lauren Book, the Florida Senate Democratic leader, said on Tuesday.

The bill is part of a larger push by Republicans in Florida and beyond to bring issues like gender and race into classrooms ahead of the 2022 midterm elections and beyond, especially after Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s upset victory in Virginia — fueled, in part, by his conservative rhetoric around education policies. In Florida, Republicans are set to approve bills that target lessons surrounding critical race theory in schools and increase scrutiny over what books students can read.

At least nine states are considering legislation that seeks to limit LGBTQ+ speech in schools, according to the free speech organization PEN America. In Arizona, lawmakers are proposing legislation that would prohibit transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming health care and limit their ability to express their gender identity in school bathrooms, school classrooms and school sports.

And in Tennessee, legislators are pushing different bills seeking to ban materials that "promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender issues or lifestyles” and prevent public schools and public charter schools from stocking libraries with books containing “obscene materials or materials harmful to minors.”

Similarly, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — a week before Texas’ March 1 primary — ordered child abuse investigations into parents of transgender kids who receive gender-affirming medical care. A strategist for Abbott’s re-election campaign later told reporters that the Texas governor’s transgender child abuse order was “a winning issue.”

"This is why the Democrats across the country are out of touch,” he said, according to multiple reporters.

DeSantis, meanwhile, has said that there has been a focus on “transgenderism” in schools, or “telling kids that they may be able to pick genders.”

“We’re going to make sure that parents are able to send their kid to kindergarten without having some of this stuff injected into their school curriculum,” DeSantis told reporters at a press conference near Tampa this week.

The most contentious piece of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill states that classroom instruction surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity is banned outright for students in kindergarten through third grade while prohibiting lessons on those for other grades unless they are “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate.”

Republicans contend this language is necessary because some lessons are inappropriate for young students to learn from teachers instead of their parents. Yet Democrats say this piece is divisive, unwarranted and illustrates that Florida lawmakers are showing a lack of trust in teachers to follow state standards.

The bill also opens an avenue for parents to sue schools and receive damages, fees and court costs if officials are found to violate these new rules. There are at least two disputes working through the courts where Florida parents claim that local school staffers secretly met with their children over gender identity decisions without involving them, examples used by GOP lawmakers to defend the legislation.

“This is not about targeting, this is about rerouting the responsibility back to the parents and allowing the children to be children,” state Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Miami-based Republican, said on Tuesday.

The state Senate approved the measure 22-17, with two Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. The measure passed the Florida House on Feb. 24 by a 69-47 with at least seven Republicans voting with Democrats.

At one point during the months-long debate over the bill, Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes attempted to broaden the language of the bill to ban “human sexuality or sexual activity” so it wouldn’t specifically endanger transgender youth. That tweak was supported by Equality Florida, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, but was ultimately rejected by Republican lawmakers.

This issue became even more acrimonious as the bill was set to be taken up in the Senate when DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw suggested on Sunday that opponents of the parental rights bill were either “groomers” or at least don’t “denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.” Democratic lawmakers quickly called for her job as they sparred with her on social media. Yet her comments echo the stance of the Republican governor, who pushes back against the bill’s “Don’t Say Gay” moniker.

Democrat senators on Tuesday said that Pushaw’s statements were “gross and wrong” for using the trope that the LGBTQ+ community embraces sexual predators or pedophiles and renewed calls for her to be fired.

“We have to stop couching this as ‘parental rights,’” said Sen. Shevrin Jones (D-Miami Gardens), who is gay. “This is a guise for people who do not understand the process, so when you all walk out this door, you will have something in your hand to say ‘we have given you your rights back’ — rights that were never taken away from them.”

Opponents of the legislation also criticized companies like Disney for not publicly condemning the legislation while also contributing to statewide lawmakers who back it. The measure was even mocked on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend.

The Biden administration again weighed in on the legislation after it passed the Senate on Tuesday, pledging to stand for LGBTQ+ students and warning it could run afoul of federal civil rights laws like Title IX’s protections against discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Parents across the country are looking to national, state, and district leaders to support our nation’s students, help them recover from the pandemic, and provide them the academic and mental health supports they need,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. “Instead, leaders in Florida are prioritizing hateful bills that hurt some of the students most in need.”