“This will kill kids.”
That’s the staggering accusation Chasten Buttigieg, husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, lobbed against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently.
Now, the White House is joining in on the pile-on against the Florida governor over his likely support for a so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill supposedly restricting discussion of sexual orientation in Florida classrooms.
Similarly, hyperbolic outrage has rocketed around social media over this legislation.
As a gay conservative myself, I decided to read the actual bill to see what all the outrage was about. As is so often the case, the left-wing shrieking moral outrage and charges of bigotry are wildly overblown and not based in reality. Does the proposed Florida law really “prohibit the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity,” as Twitter’s trending topics put it?
No. It doesn’t.
Quoting from the actual bill text, it simply “prohibit[s] a school district from encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels.” (Emphasis added.)
The proposed law also specifies encouragement of discussions on these topics cannot be done “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.” Importantly, this bill does not prohibit students from having these discussions on their own initiative. Discussions of sexuality and gender identity simply can’t be forced by the schools.
For example, if an elementary school student has same-sex parents, there’s nothing in this legislation that would prevent that student from talking about their family at a show-and-tell like anyone else. There’s nothing stopping students from discussing these issues of their own volition or anything preventing a teacher from answering questions about sexual orientation if a student approaches them. There’s also nothing stopping the curriculum from mentioning these discussions as part of a history lesson, so long as that doesn’t directly entail pushing elementary school students into discussion of LGBT-related topics.
Crucially, this bill only applies to primary/elementary schools. In high schools or possibly middle schools, there will naturally be many more instances where topics such as sexual orientation need to be discussed in an age-appropriate manner. The only thing, then, that this bill actually seeks to do is stop woke indoctrination in the classroom.
It’s crazy I even have to say this, but there’s absolutely no need for elementary school teachers to preach to elementary-age children about preferred gender pronouns or what it means to be “demisexual.” This stuff is wildly inappropriate and can only confuse children. Those conversations are best left for parents to deal with as they see fit or to be engaged with carefully as part of a late middle or high school sex education curriculum.
Of course, some valid criticisms may be made of this Florida legislation, as its language is admittedly rather broad. The bill is still working through the Legislature, so level-headed critiques brought by those actually seeking its improvement could actually be productive. But that’s not what’s going on here. All those on the Left labeling it a “Don’t Say Gay” ban are being deeply dishonest. What’s more, hand-wringing and hysteria about how it will supposedly kill children have no basis in reality.
We shouldn’t stand for such exploitation of the gay community and childrens’ very lives in what’s obviously a politically motivated effort to hurt DeSantis and other Republicans.
Democrats are certainly welcome to make actual substantive criticisms of the Florida governor. But their unhinged screeching about this supposed “Don’t Say Gay” legislation is cynical propaganda with no basis in fact.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a co-founder of Based-Politics.com, a co-host of the BasedPolitics podcast, and a Washington Examiner contributor.
