Here’s more on that grotesque attack on LGBTQ people in Florida from Tim Miller:
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Part Deux: Scholastic Boogaloo.
Critics have termed the proposal “Don’t Say Gay” legislation and I have to be honest, when this first hit my radar I thought it was too ridiculous to be something that could actually become law.
Maybe this was one of those cases where a freakazoid state legislator proposes some hopeless nonsense for media attention? Or activists overstate the particulars of what’s being proposed for attention? Or maybe it’s one of those scenarios where a president attempts a multifaceted putsch to stay in power and New York Times columnists tell us we shouldn’t take it that seriously because he’s just a big joke and nothing will come of it?
But as it happened: No.
I talked with some people involved in Florida state politics and Don’t Say Gay is not at all DOA.
It has passed the education committees in both Florida’s House and Senate. It has the support of the governor. It is set to be debated in both chambers in the coming weeks. And while controversial bills that arise early in the session sometimes die on the vine, as things stand today there remains a political path in Florida to codify this effort to silence any gay talk in the state’s schools.
If they are successful in Florida they won’t let teachers or students to talk about Bruno* and the silence will be enforced by Florida Man.
The bill’s supporters aren’t even bothering to hide their intentions with Don’t Say Gay. The case these culture warriors are making for a DADT redux invokes all the wanton cruelty of the bipartisan O.G., but with the added innovation of bounty-style litigiousness that modern day Republicans find so appealing.
Here are the basics of what’s being proposed, where the relevant segment of the legislation is identical in both the House and Senate versions: “A school district may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
The enforcement section of the legislation takes a cue from the Texas abortion bounty legislation: “A parent of a student may bring an action against a school district to obtain a declaratory judgment that a school district procedure or practice violates this paragraph and seek injunctive relief. A court may award damages.”
So what exactly constitutes “encouragement” of classroom discussion?
Lets say a teacher asked their students to make a Valentine and the sample he gave was the card he made for his husband. Is that a violation? Or what if a student asked to draw a picture of their two moms? How about if she wanted to make her Valentine to Mirabel Madrigal. Or Spider-Ham? (Ye gods—encouraging bestiality!)
Or what about a project that asks students to complete a family tree? Could my daughter turn in an assignment featuring her two dads? On the anniversary of the Pulse Shooting in Orlando, could a kid whose uncle died there talk about him in class? Could the school assign the reading of My Tio’s Pulse?
The answer to these hypotheticals all hinge on whether a crazy-ass parent of another student sees the valentine or family tree or Pulse book and decides to target the school. In each case, the Don’t Say Gay bill would give our Panhandle Karen something to sue over.
Representative Carlos Smith, the first openly gay member of the state’s legislature, argues that the open-ended nature of the language is a feature, not a bug for those pushing the bill.
“Lawyers are going to be conservative in a way that censors conversations,” he told me. In at least some school districts that is going to “push LGBTQ families back in the closet.” His view is that by keeping the language vague, a better-safe-than-sorry ethos will encourage certain districts to shut down all of these types of conversations.
This is especially a concern in the most sensitive scenario: safety precautions when a student is struggling with questions about their own sexuality or identity. Conversations with mentors at school can be an important outlet for this type of at-risk student. But a Don’t Say Gay bill would make administrators especially reluctant to have staff engage for fear of legal reprisals.
In short they “want kids to be fearful,” Smith said.
Miller explains that the people who are pushing this, including Desantis swear up and down that they aren’t really trying to put gays back in the closet. But they are. They do not want it to be something that is considered just a normal part of American life as it currently is. They don’t want to see it or hear about it, just as they don’t want to see or hear about structural racism in America.
This is a national movement to make American kids bigoted again. Ron DeSantis is leading the charge.