Despite Democrats and the media’s attempts to drum up opposition to Florida H.B. 1557, which they’ve dishonestly named the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, support for the law is high.
Politico released a new poll this week showing 51% of registered voters agree that restricting discussions of gender identity, sexual orientation, and other sex-based topics below the fourth-grade level is necessary. An even bigger majority (52%) support limiting topics above fourth grade to ensure they are “age-appropriate” discussions. Only 35% of voters opposed the law, the poll found.
Unsurprisingly, the people who made up that 35% were largely Democrats. Nearly half of independents (46%) supported the bill, while 35% opposed it. And 70% of Republican voters said they believe the law’s restrictions are good, while 51% of Democrats disagreed.
Another poll conducted by the Daily Wire yielded similar results. Respondents were read a section of the state law, which says “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through third grade in a manner that is not age appropriate” and asked whether they agree with it. Two-thirds of respondents said they agreed, while 21% said they disagreed.
In fact, the only poll that has shown more opposition toward the bill than support is an ABC/Ipsos poll that was deliberately skewed. As Ed Morrissey pointed out over at Hot Air, ABC and Ipsos admitted they oversampled LGBT respondents. I imagine they didn’t actually tell these respondents what’s in the bill.
The takeaway from all of this should be that bills such as Florida’s, which target the Left’s attempts to hijack the education system and other cultural institutions, are popular. The media like to pretend otherwise and make it seem like conservatives are pushing outdated, dreary values on an unwilling, progressive public. But it turns out that much of the public is more concerned about aggressive leftism.
Parents want to know what’s being taught in their students’ classrooms. They believe that critical race theory is wrong and that radical gender ideology poses a legitimate threat to the well-being of their children. In other words, they’re just normal people who are discovering their students are being used as instruments for the Left’s cultural takeover, and they’ve had enough.
Conservatives must lean into this. We’ve watched for years as the Left has gradually chipped away at our cultural institutions. Now it’s time we go on the offensive. It’s what the public wants.
